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Somewhere in rural Mexico: In the company of salesman Enrique (Abel
Salazar), Marta (Ariadna Welter) arrives at the Sycamores, the estate
where she spent her childhood, to look after her terminally ill aunt
María Teresa (Alicia Montoya), only to learn that she has just died and
was already buried earlier that day. ... but at least María Teresa's
brother Emilio (José Luis Jiménez) thinks there's something fishy about
her death, that's why he asked for Enrique's assistance, who is not a
salesman at all but a doctor in a salesman's disguise to investigate.
Of course there is really something wrong with María Teresa's death,
as the neighbour of the Sycamores is Count Duval (Germán Robles), and he
is a vampire. And his allie within the Sycamores is María Teresa's sister
Eloisa (Carmen Montejo), also a vampire. Count Duval desperately wants to
buy the Sycamores, because his brother (also a vampire) was buried there
but he has found a way to revive him. Eloisa was willing to sell, but both
Emilio and María Teresa refused ... but now María Teresa is dead, and
Eloisa thinks it would be easy to persuade Marta ... but no such luck,
Marta is not willijng to sell the place of her childhood. Plus Marta
begins to slowly suspect that her aunt Eloisa is a vampire (she has no
reflection in the mirror you see). So at night, Count Duval arrives at
Marta's bedside and sucks her blood.
The next day, Marta feels worse than ever, and it's not made any better
when she sees her dead aunt walking about. Now Enrique gets interested in
the case and starts a thorough investigation - but too late, that very
same evening, Count Duval and Eloisa poison Marta's drink, and she
collapses and dies. It's only thanks to servant Anselmo (José Chávez)
that she is not buried alive, because during the wake he sees her fingers
move ever so slightly ...
Now uncle Emilio gets curious, because Marta's death resembled that of
María Teresa to the t, so they open her tomb ... and find it empty.
Anselmo now confesses that María Teresa isn't really dead but was also
poisoned by Duval and Eloisa - which she had foreseen so she asked her
trusted servant to free her from her tomb and hide her. María Teresa is
found and welcomed back to the living, but for some reason everybody has
forgotten about Marta, who sleeps in a room upstairs - unguarded enough
for Duval to stop by and kidnap her ...
Enrique follows Duval to his place, and the two men fight it out next
to unconscious Marta. At first cockcrow though, the Count runs off, and
Enrique can't follow since the room in which Marta lies unconcsious has
since caught fire and he has to save her ... plus, the Count's servants
fight it out with him.
The Count gets into his coffin safely before sunrise, but María Teresa
has followed him, and eventually she opens his coffin and stakes him to
death. At the same time, Eloisa falls to dust, and the Count's servants
end their resistance.
Marta of course can be saved and in the end, she and Enrique (hardly
surprising) become a couple.
Admittedly, El Vampiro is not the most imaginative or
inventive vampire movie, it is rather vastly reminiscent of US-American
horror B's of the 1930's and 40's. That said however, El Vampiro is
also good entertainment, a charming old-fashioned horror pic full of pulp
mainstays like secret panels and passageways, rooms covered in cobweb,
premature burials and of course your typical old world-style vampire. Totally
likeable in fact !
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