Blood Of The Vampires DVD

Blood of the Vampires is the result of a bizarre alliance between the Filipino movie company Hemisphere and the American outfit Independent International, which yielded a series of weirdly-interconnected horror movies in the late 1960s and early 70s, most of which incorporated the word "Blood" in the title. In Blood of the Vampires a vampire mother infects her son and he runs riot on a remote estate. The hero gets killed and his ghost has to save the day. Memorable if only for the fanged old lady chained in the basement. The Filipino items are strangely fascinating... vampire and mad scientist pictures with oddball colour effects and a mix of naive serial-style thrills and extreme-for-the-era sex and gore; the American efforts, from director Al Adamson, are shoddier, thrown together from off cuts of previous pictures, and are lead-paced but nevertheless curiously appealing. Gaze in awe at mutant killer trees, slobbering hunchbacked servants, faded matinee idols, stripper-turned-actress heroines with concrete blonde hairdos, evil dwarves, John Carradine or Lon Chaney, footage cut in from completely different films, Dracula and Frankenstein meeting hippies and bikers, red filters when the vampires attack, chanting natives, lurid trailers and lots of exclamation marks! --Kim Newman [show more]

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