Director: Roberto Mauri
Year: 1962
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: La strage dei vampiri; Curse of the Blood Ghouls
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
After finally getting married, a man and his wife arrive to take care of an abandoned castle they're going to inherit shortly, which brings them into contact with a vampire who sees her as the reincarnated version of his old lover and tries to break his hold over her before he can fully turn her.
Review:
This was an admittedly fun and enjoyable Italian Gothic horror romp. Among the best aspects here is that it’s filled with all the usual trimmings and trappings of the genre, which allows for a generally atmospheric time. The main idea here is of the couple arriving at the castle and starting to see the different interactions that take place, while highlighting the idea of her possession and influence on the Count’s contact gives this the perfect opportunity to indulge in the traditional Gothic imagery due to this setup. This has the large, mostly vacant castle going off in every direction, filled with hidden passageways, vaults, and crypts riddled with cobwebs and dust accumulated for years, talk of curses and the dead coming back to life. It's all here, as well as the ever-approved women running around in low-cut blouses and lingerie, which makes for some really enjoyable moments to come as the seduction at the welcoming dance or her being drawn into the underground crypt that brings about some fantastic imagery along the way.
That becomes far more prominent in the second half as the gradual idea of what’s going on becomes clearer as the transformation starts to occur. From the usual range of behavioral changes and attitude changes to the comments on how the place she looks and the aversion to sunlight, it becomes rather obvious what’s going on, even if we get the full picture through the nighttime visitors that feature the actual bloodsucking, which shows how he’s becoming more of an influence over her. This brings in the hunter who knows what’s going on and tries to make sure she stays safe with the transformation incomplete, and that helps to add on to the atmosphere even more, with the tracking scenes allowing this to take place in various high-quality Gothic locales. As well, with such a frenetic and thrilling finale, it certainly ends on a high note as well, since this features so many great moments during the final chase through the castle and onto the grounds outside, leading to a wild climax, so this has those areas going for it as well. All in all, these manage to generate a highly effective time with this one.
There's only one real flaw here. The main issue with this one is that it tends to be a bit too short, mostly in the second half, which has the majority of the pacing factors. With the film eating up plenty of this section on her being charmed by the vampire, undergoing the series of night-time feeding sessions with him, and starting to turn her back on her friends and family, it becomes fairly obvious that it’s running through the storyline beats of a classic vampire novel in perfect order at a fevered pace to keep the film going along. This causes a lot of this section to not only be incredibly familiar since it's repeating the steps from a more prominent source material, but also feels quite underwhelming in how it slows down the pace of things. It also causes a bizarre structure to emerge for the finale, where it feels like it ends only to keep going for several minutes longer when it doesn’t need to, but the Gothic atmosphere and action make this one a real blast to watch.
Overview: ****/5
An overall fantastic Italian Gothic vampire effort, there’s quite a lot to like here to hold it up over some drawbacks that appear and will be somewhat detrimental to some out there. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre effort or who are curious about it will have the most to like, while most others out there should heed caution with it.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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