More than 100 years ago and back in Transylvania, Count Subotai
(Guillermo Murray) has been defeated by a vampire hunter ... but he has
since dedicated his life to have revenge on his family, killing all male
offspring - and now only Colman (José Baviera) is missing from his
collection to make his triumph a perfect one. But Colman has long left for
Mexico, so it took Subotai quite some time to track him down - but now he
has he figures he will not only kill him but make his two nieces Mirta
(Silvia Fournier) and Leonor (Erna Martha Bauman) his consorts. Colman
thinks Subotai nothing but an eccentric neighbour and doesn't suspect
anything until it's much too late and he's made Subotai's prisoner and has
to witness how Leonor is turned. But Mirta and her boyfriend Rudolfo
(Mauricio Garcés) rush to the rescue, but will Mirta herself walks right
into a trap, Rudolfo is bitten by Leonor and is slowly turning into a
bat-human hybrid. He still tries his best to help Colman flee, but
ultimately the two are cornered and supposed to watch Mirta being turned
... when Rudolfo, a scientist in the field of music, has an idea, storms
to an organ standing around, and plays a tune that kills all of Subotai's
henchman-bats, and ultimately Subotai is disposed of by conveniently
jumping into his own spiked mantrap. Happy end? Not quite, Leonor has been
turned too far by this point and jumps after Subotai to her death - the
others though return home safe and sound ... Well, one would be
hard-pressed to call El Mundo de los Vampiros the most original
vampire movie - or even a particularly vampire movie at that. Matter of
fact, the movie was in all probability made to cash in on Hammer's
trailblazing Dracula from 1958,
even if stylistically and storywise it has more in common with US B-horror
from the 1940s - and quite obviously the film's budget didn't always live
up to its ambitions, seen most blatantly in the rather ridiculous man-bat
costumes. One also feels tempted to say the script could have been better
and the acting is terribly uneven ... but then again, one mustn't forget
this is a genre quickie not made to win any awards for originality and the
like - and as that it's quite entertaining, in a way for all the reasons
cited above, which might be the wrong reasons - but it's entertaining
still.
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