Damn, this film is crap. The DVD cover for La saga de los Drácula shouts “Remastered from the high definition original negative” but that just means you get to see the crap more clearly. However, the “alternative clothed scenes,” also spruiked on the cover of this “Special Edition,” are a real blessing, ‘cause Hans (Tony Isbert) is not a pretty sight with his cloths off.
[Handsome Hans (not)]
This DVD was bought on spec because the director, Leon Klimovsky, was involved in numerous Spanish horror films from the seventies and we had watched a Paul Nashi werewolf film from the same year and were hoping for something similar (we won't say as good, perhaps "as interesting"). Well, it wasn't.
But rather than catalogue all of the failings of this film—poor acting, ugly actors, bat-faced and one eyed freaks—or the high points—axe-wielding post-natal psycho-mum, gorgeous red-head vamp—we will just mention a few points of interest that relate to the vampire mythos.
[bat-faced freak]
[one eyed freak]
[axe-wielding post-natal psycho-mum]
[gorgeous red-head vamp]
Firstly tolling bells repel vampires (like they should, but which we have never seen in a vampire movie), there is a strong kin-group structure to the coven (Dad and the kids, are excited to have a new family member on the way), vampirism as a genetic disorder (a baby is born undead, though neither parent was vamped before conceiving), Twilight-esque horror pregnancy (the fetus drains the mother of blood, almost killing her before its birth). In the closing moments of the film the still-born babe (or is it just undead?) is suddenly ruddy-cheeked with the setting of the sun and is seen lapping up gobbets of blood dripping onto its lips.
[Vamp-family at dinner]
[undead baby]
[nom, nom, nom]
The happy vamp-infant nomming away on impossibly red gore is both genuinely creepy and genuinely amusing, reminiscent of both the smiling girl vamp at the end of I Like Bats (1986) who has just killed the gardener (see here), and the red-eyed vamp-puppy at the end of Zoltan, Hound of Dracula (1972) who is supposed to be terribly frightening, but who is so cute that it left us both rolling around on the floor, laughing uncontrollably for at least a quarter of an hour. Grrr.
[puppy of Dracula]
Enough said?
No comments:
Post a Comment