Eduardo
(Eddie Garcia) and his sister Leonore (Amalia Fuentes) return to their
ancestral home to visit their father on his deathbed. The old man gives strict instructions to burn
the house to the ground upon his death, which understandably upsets his
children. As it turns out, he’s got his
reasons. You see, his wife is a vampire
and he’s getting tired of chaining her up in the basement at night and whipping
her, so she’ll behave. The way he sees
it, it’s better to just burn it down and be done with her. Naturally, when Eduardo learns his mother is
still alive (sort of), he runs downstairs to see his mommy dearest, and she
winds up putting the bite on him. Before
long, he’s going around biting everyone in the jugular.
Blood
of the Vampires kind of feels like a Pilipino version of Dark Shadows. Unfortunately, Gerardo (Terror is a Man) de
Leon’s lethargic direction makes it feels more like a dreary soap opera than a
horror flick for much of its running time.
Some unintended laughs can be had by the sloppy dubbing, but for the
most part, this is a long, dull slog. The
gratuitous use of actors in blackface for the servant roles makes it feel even
more dated than it already is.
The
opening scenes hold promise. The reveal
of the mother resting in her coffin is rather effective. Once Garcia gets his fangs though, the movie
becomes a repetitive bore. It also has
way too many false endings for any rational mind to handle. Just when you think it’s about to wrap up,
Garcia finds another person’s neck to chomp.
Still, Blood of the Vampires features what I think is the screen’s only
swordfight between a vampire and a ghost, so I guess it has that going for it.
AKA: Curse of the Vampires. AKA:
Whisper to the Wind. AKA: Creatures of Evil.
No comments:
Post a Comment