Thursday, June 6, 2013

Slaughter of the Vampires (1962)

Director: Roberto Mauri

Starring: Walter Brandi, Grazialla Granata, Luigi Batzella, Dieter Eppier, Edda Ferronao, Carla Foscari, Gena Gimmy, Maretta Procaccini, Alfredo Rizzo

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Slaughter of the Vampires begins where Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf-Man left off!

Plot: In this lush Gothic romp from the Golden Age of Italian horror, Wolfgang (Brandi) and Louise (Granata) are a young well-to-do couple terrorized by a love-hungry vampire (Eppler) who makes his nest in the lower rungs of their estate. Before the bloodsucker can lay unholy claim to the voluptuous lady of the land, the couple enlist the unusual services of Professor Nietzsche (Batzella), who is more than determined to rid the world of all vampires.


My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? Maybe if Italian dub turns up.


So-so retelling of the Stoker Dracula story but this time it's from the Italians.  Like so many foreign films of the day the dubbing isn't all that good.  There are times when it's pretty bad.  We never know the name of the vampire (so it could be Dracula - that's what I took from it), there's no blood and not even puncture marks on the neck.  There are, however, heaving boosoms and lots of them.  I think they should have gone with a different actor for the vampire but then I'm partial to the Christopher Lee kind of vamp instead of the average height, distinguished salt and pepper haired Italian variety. The score is repetitive (by Aldo Piga) but the piano tune Louise plays is lovely.  I might catch this again if an Italian language with English subtitles print surfaced.


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