| Blood Castle/ Vampyres |
| In the mid to late 70's I did what a lot of American Males did: went to the drive in movies
religiously. Why? Well to see cool movies of course. But most off all to see naked women parading about on a huge screen! Who needed a parent to go see an "R" rated flick? Just hop in the car which was loaded down with refreshments and friends and go to the Drive In. In honor of those fun filled days here is the first installment of Drive In movies. These flicks may or may not have been seen at The DI by old skip. But they all played there at one time or another. BLOOD CASTLE is an interesting little Spanish/Italian production.This baby played at the Drive Ins a lot back in the 70's. But I never managed to catch it until it hit dvd. And trust ol' Skip, this is a drive in movie. A sexy biochemist named Ivanna is hired by Baron Janos Dalmar. The Baron is dabbling in science trying to restore dead matter back to life. The dead matter being his burned to a crisp dead brother Igor. The Baron and his castle are looked upon with suspicion as his lovers have all been murdered shortly after trysts with him. Six girls have been torn apart and the townfolk are pretty angry. Naturally we have the former lover now the Baron's housekeeper still carrying a torch for Janos, a willing young maid ready to shed her clothes the minute the Baron looks at her and now Ivanna. Ivanna takes her clothes off a lot and is also tied to a torture rack (nude of course) and lovingly fondled by a mystery man. Who is this man? Is it Janos? The killer? Of course there are places in the castle where Ivanna is forbidden to go and naturally she heads right to them and puts her neck and nubile young body in danger. Ivanna notices that Janos seems to be affected by the full moon. Could he actually be a werewolf killer? Is Igor really dead? Does someone else in the castle have a motive to frame Janos? More importantly will Ivanna take off her clothes again? Almost an hour flies by before anything really "substantial" happens. I found myself rather swept along with the jousting game between Janos and Ivanna and didn't mind getting embroiled in the gothic atmosphere. Others may find this slow going but those with patience or time on their hands may find it worthwhile. VAMPYRES is definitely a drive in flick. This British made indy features what makes drive in movies great: Boobs and blood. In fact I wasn't sure if I was watching a sex flick posing as a horror film or vice versa. Vampyres stars Marianne Morris and Anulka as two vamps who shed their clothes as often as they shed blood. The film opens with the two women having sex in bed when someone enters the room and guns them down in cold blood. Later we meet Ted who looks very familiar to the hotel staff but he denies he's ever been there. We also meet a couple on holiday who are camping near the house where the murders happened. We also see the two women again posing as hitchikers. They are picked up by unwary males and taken to their estate where the fun and games begin. The men are sexed and violently killed.Their bodies are left in cars looking like roadside accidents.(My only gripe is that they must have a lot of guys who drive in the nude in England because that's how they were found). Ted is picked up by the women but he is not killed. He is kept around as a love toy/food source. The noose tightens around all of our principal players and a blood bath ensues. The images of sex and violence are staggering. Don't let the kiddies near this one.The women while not traditional vampires (no fangs) have a great fear of the daylight and become extremely turgid as a result. They are also sort of catatonic after feeding.The women are extremely vicious in their kills and carry off their vampiric roles quite well. SPOILERS: The film ends with Ted waking up on the grounds of the estate after a night of heavy drinking. It seems that Ted is the one who actually killed the women and he was just reliving events that led up to his killing the vampires. I disagree with the theory that the women became vampires after Ted killed them. He killed them because they were vampires and what we saw were the events leading up to their shooting. END OF SPOILERS. All in all a neat little double feature that never was. |
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