Director - Amando de Ossorio (The Blind Dead series)
Starring - Anita Ekberg (Deadly Trackers), Gianni Medici (Red Sun), and Diana Lorys (The Awful Dr. Orlof)
Release Date - 1969
Genre - Horror
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (15 Horror Movies Volume 1)
Rating (out of 5):
Growing up I loved the Hammer vampire films. The stories were not that in depth but they did deliver one hell of a good time. It is because of Hammer that I have high standards when it comes to vampire films from the 60s and 70s. I have seen my fair share of good and bad vampire flicks but I am always open for a new one. After the disappointment of Blood Tide I decided to throw in the next disc in the same horror box set. This is another flick I have yet to see and decided it was time to throw it in and give it a write up.
The film follows a young bride-to-be as she prepares to marry a doctor. She receives word that she just inherited a castle. She promises to be back in time before the wedding and heads off to see what she has inherited. She arrives at the castle to discover she has an uncle and he is a member of the living dead. He convinces her to break off the wedding and live with him in the castle. She writes her man a letter doing just that, however, he refuses to listen to the letter and travels to the castle with his friend. The locals try to stop him but his love is stronger than their superstition and he goes there anyway. Once inside the castle, the doctor and his friend discover that her uncle is a vampire and he has undead brides to keep him company. As the doctor is busy slaying the uncle and saving his soon to be bride, his dim-witted friend falls prey to one of the busty undead maidens.
I wanted to like this film, however, it would not give me the chance. The film has that look and feel popular in the Hammer films I referenced earlier. However, this film fails to deliver anything except a good waste if time. The acting is rather over-dramatic and once added with the English dubbing of the audio track almost makes this film feel like a parody of itself. The characters are poorly developed and at time I found it rather difficult to follow who was portraying who. The story is nothing special and I am almost certain I seen an American vampire film released around the same time as this one with a very similar plot. The title of that film eludes be but I am almost certain that I had. Finally, the special effects are your typical vampire effects. Some trickle of fake blood and some fake fangs round out this mediocre vampire flick. However, during the end of the film there is a nice stop motion bit of a vampire decaying that was a good change of pace from this below par film. Overall, this one is nothing special and I could recommend a lot better vampire flicks from around the same time period. This one offers nothing original nor entertaining.
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