|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Terminally ill & incredibly rich Old Man Escodero tells his kids they are never to marry, and with
his death his mansion is to be burned down. Why ? For he keeps his dead
wife (Mary Walter) in the mansion's cellar, only she isn't all that dead
but rather a vampire, & the old man wants to end the family-curse.
But son Edoardo (Eddie Garcia), always the Mama's boy, goes to visit her
in secret - never a good idea in a vampire movie - & is bitten by
her as thanks for his efforts.
Soon, he becomes a vampire too, prowling
the countryside & raping & biting a girl. Then, he marries the
girl (!) & makes her his slave by hypnotism. Meanwhile, old man
Escodero & his mute servant finally kill Mama Escodero by a stake
through the heart (one great scene has the servant drag the dead woman's
body through the woods, a giant stake still sticking out of her chest.),
but the old man himself is soon killed by Edoardo.
At the reading of his
will, Edoardo falls out with his sister Leonore (Amalia Fuentes) &
her fiance Daniel (Romeo Vasquez), for he doesn't want to burn down the
mansion. Also, when Leonore & Daniel try to escape, Edoardo makes
their hearse crash, killing Daniel in the process & having Leonore
brought back to the mansion. But Daniel does come back as a ghost,
haunting Edoardo, even fencing with him. Still, all that won't
help, Leonore is still bitten by her brother & his vampire minions,
before that perfect medicine against vampirism (priests & villagers
with torches) can put an end to the evill proceedings.
A - even by 1970's standard - very old-fashioned piece of
vampire-cinema - but old fashioned in a good way. Its rather stupid
story - which is very firmly rooted in catholizism, even for a vampire
movie - relies more on creepy atmosphere than cheap sensationalism,
& director de Leon achieves that by using strong primary colours - that
would even put the golden age Hammer gothics to shame -, simple but
weird lighting effects & authentic dungeon sets (& he knows how
to use them), so not even the bad actors & the occasional lack of
logic can ruin the overall effect of the movie. It might not be as good
as de Leon's vastly underrated Blood Drinkers, but it's still
worth a (good) look.
|