Directors: Emilio Vieyra & Jerald Intrator
Release date: 1969
Contains spoilers
I had, of course, heard of this Argentinean exploitation film but I had never got around to watching it. But then Simon Bacon contacted me and let me know that it is, in fact, a vampire film. A sex vampire, but a vampire nonetheless. Normally I’d thank folks for putting me on the trail of a new-to-me old vampire film, but this time – with the greatest love and respect – we can blame Simon for this one.
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| Aldo Barbero as Dr Zoid |
Co-director Emilio Vieyra actually helmed the earlier, and more traditional, vampire film Blood of the Virgins - a sexploitation film. This film failed the sexploitation test when distributed to America as the US distributors felt the need to add 17-minutes of additional “sexy” footage – mostly around the lesbian couple and the orgiastic hippies.
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| Gloria Prat as the stripper |
The intro is odd in and of itself. We see feet, a couple kissing, chloroform in a monstrous hand and the couple grabbed by uniformed people (faces unseen) and put in a hearse-like ambulance. Then we have a montage of a lesbian couple, a drunk guy, an onanistic woman, orgiastic hippies and a club stripper (Gloria Prat, Blood of the Virgins). They are all got by a monster (or perhaps a man in a mask, as it looks just like a mask). The club stripper scene is the strangest as the creature enters the club, sits and watches at first, with apparently no shock from the rest of the clientele.
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| the monster |
There have been 10 kidnappings in ten days we discover, as reporter Horacio Funes (Ricardo Bauleo, also Blood of the Virgins) meets with Inspector Benedict (Héctor Biuchet). Benedict is not happy with the coverage the reporter has given his investigation (and yet works with him all the way through). Funes is associating the disappearances with a case 30 years before in Italy. Their first proper clue comes from a barman (Justin Martin, also Blood of the Virgins) who remembers the strange looking fellow in the club.
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| Susana Beltrán as nurse Enfermera |
Meanwhile we meet Dr Zoide (Aldo Barbero) or Humpp. He has created the monster (in fact he has a veritable army of them, and is experimenting with sexuality by giving the kidnap victims aphrodisiacs and having them have sex. This process leads to him extracting an essence and he needs that essence to survive. In fact, we see his hand having corrupted and then restored by the essence. This then is the vampiric element – the extracted essence created through extreme sexual activity literally keeps him alive he says. In fact nurse Enfermera (Susana Beltrán, also Blood of the Virgins), who has a thing for him, says “Oh, please...use my body to keep you alive!” Enquiring about one couple she suggests that she can be used again but he has no more essence and is spent – his body is disposed of in a furnace suggesting death is the final consequence of the extraction.
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| free-range kidnappees |
Beyond this we get a talking brain in a jar (the original Doctor, and Humpp was his first experiment meaning the essence is also keeping him young some 30 years on), a strange scene where the free-range kidnappees are in the garden whilst the main monster strums a transparent string instrument, with the same ‘emotionless’ monster falling for the stripper and Humpp’s undoing when he captures Funes and the reporter's sexual prowess not only attracts the stripper but makes nurse Enfermera fall for him and consequentially betray Humpp.
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| rapid decay |
Yes, it is a very strange film. It is also not very good and yet there is something morbidly fascinating about it. There is quite a bit of naked flesh and softcore sex – especially through the added bits. The monster (and his brethren) looks blooming awful. The story chops are bad (for instance, sending the monster to the pharmacy for aphrodisiac ingredients and then Humpp going himself after the brain said not to as he’d get caught) and we get a poorly executed rapid decay that reminds the viewer that this is a vampire film. And yet, and yet, there is something about this to the point that 2.5 out of 10 is more than it deserves but is the score it gets.
The imdb page is here.
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK
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