So there I am, watching the opening moments of what obviously is going to be a clunky mish-mash of horror movie clichés (complete with John Carradine), when the Count finally makes an appearance, and Oh My God, it's "Bob Boxbody", (Alex D'Arcy) the actor from "Horrors Of Spider Island" (thanks to Mike Nelson and the robots from MST3K)!! And there's "Johnny", the poor guy from some crappy Frankenstein film, and of course, John Carridine himself.
Here's the kind of movie it is: for almost the entire duration of the movie, there are three women chained up on the wall in the "dungeon" and two of them (the extras) never get a single line, poor things. They're just there as window dressing. (Actually, I tell a lie - one of them gets to yell "LOOK OUT" to the hero at the climactic struggle near the end. She's terrible.)
And yet, in spite of the whole "women in chains" and "vampires feasting on the blood of young virgins" theme, and in spite of the fact that the movie wastes nearly 10 minutes watching Johnny kill various people as he evades a manhunt after his escape from prison,the movie is somehow bemused and kind of softened and gentle around the edges. I think this is mostly because the Count and his bride are depicted her as being quite genteel and decorous in their habits, and so there is less of the usual sense of relish and glee in the suffering of the young victims that most movies of this type rely on. Instead,it's all got a feeling of "Well, sorry about this, but we need our morning livener, after all. George, would you do the honors?"
It also helps that the heroic young couple who get caught up in the events in the castle are likable and attractive in a grainy 70 film stock kind of way.There are even some amusing war-of-the-sexes lines of dialog scattered here and there. And while the couple may be pretty dumb, they are portrayed as being happy and proud to be with each other.
Anyway, if you watch this one hoping to be frightened, or titillated, you'll probably be disappointed. But there are worse ways to warm up for Halloween.
Here's the kind of movie it is: for almost the entire duration of the movie, there are three women chained up on the wall in the "dungeon" and two of them (the extras) never get a single line, poor things. They're just there as window dressing. (Actually, I tell a lie - one of them gets to yell "LOOK OUT" to the hero at the climactic struggle near the end. She's terrible.)
And yet, in spite of the whole "women in chains" and "vampires feasting on the blood of young virgins" theme, and in spite of the fact that the movie wastes nearly 10 minutes watching Johnny kill various people as he evades a manhunt after his escape from prison,the movie is somehow bemused and kind of softened and gentle around the edges. I think this is mostly because the Count and his bride are depicted her as being quite genteel and decorous in their habits, and so there is less of the usual sense of relish and glee in the suffering of the young victims that most movies of this type rely on. Instead,it's all got a feeling of "Well, sorry about this, but we need our morning livener, after all. George, would you do the honors?"
It also helps that the heroic young couple who get caught up in the events in the castle are likable and attractive in a grainy 70 film stock kind of way.There are even some amusing war-of-the-sexes lines of dialog scattered here and there. And while the couple may be pretty dumb, they are portrayed as being happy and proud to be with each other.
Anyway, if you watch this one hoping to be frightened, or titillated, you'll probably be disappointed. But there are worse ways to warm up for Halloween.