El vampiro sangriento

This film begins on a dark, foggy night with two men and a woman in search of a body that has been hung on a tree and left to die alongside a rural road. Although the sight is horrifying to them, what they are most interested in is the mandrake plant that has grown underneath the body hovering above it. However, just before they can dig it up, they see a carriage coming through the fog and they immediately take cover behind a tree. To their astonishment, neither the carriage or the horse pulling it makes any noise and the driver looks like Death himself. And then, just as quickly as it came, it disappears in the fog further on down the road. Obviously shaken by this experience, they hurriedly dig up the mandrake and head back to a large house where "Count Valsamo de Cagliostro" (Antonio Raxel) has been patiently waiting for them. We then learn that Count Cagliostro has dedicated his life to hunting vampires and assisting him is his daughter "Ines Cagliostro" (Begoña Palacios), her fiancé "Dr. Riccardo Peisser" (Raul Farell) and the Count's loyal butler "Justus" (Pancho Cordova). Likewise, it is also revealed that their quest for the mandrake root was necessary for his research on identifying vampires-living or dead. What Count Cagliostro doesn't realize, however, is that the one vampire he has been diligently trying to locate by the name of "Count Siegfried von Frankenhausen" (Carlos Agosti) has recently purchased a house not far away and just happened to be the passenger in the deathly quiet carriage that very night. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I had previously seen several Mexican horror films and after reading a generally positive review on those pertaining to vampires, I decided to satisfy my curiosity and see for myself. To that effect, I was generally pleased for the most part as the plot flowed rather smoothly and the acting was quite solid as well. There was, however, one particular flaw in that the object used to simulate a flying bat looked more like a flying bunny rabbit instead-and this completely ruined the overall effect. I was also somewhat surprised by the ending but after a bit of research I discovered that there is a sequel titled "Invasion of the Vampires" which apparently takes up where this film ends. Be that as it may, in spite of the particular flaw just mentioned, I don't consider this to be a bad film by any means and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

According to Mexican lore, a vampire can survive the usual wooden stake. Who knew? You must use Clammic acid, which can only be distilled from the black Mandragora flower. This flower grows only on spots over which a man was hanged. Killing vampires is tough work!

A watchable Gothic horror film with some really spooky music. Perfect accompaniment to the aspirations of Count Siegfried von Frankenhausen (Carlos Agostí)., who plan to turn the whole world into vampires with himself as the head vamp in charge.

Where he plans to get blood after that is anyone's guess.

The Count's wife Eugenia (Erna Martha Bauman, a former Miss Mexico) is not a vampire. An interesting proposition, with some funny scenes between them.

The o0verly melodramatic acting and the presence of Frau Hildegarde (Bertha Moss) make this a must see. You won't be disappointed.

The best part is that they will be back in La invasión de los vampiros.

Of interest to absolutely no one this is my 100th posted review and I thought I would choose a movie that is one of my wife's favourites. We both love Mexican movies but Count Frankenhausen is her absolute favourite villain. This movie, directed by Miguel Morayta, opens promisingly enough. A black coach rumbles silently through the night, its driver is a skeleton; its passenger is Count Seigfried von Frankenhausen and he musty reach his home, the forebodingly named Haunted Hacienda, before daylight. Bellowing "Whip the horses, for Satan's sake!" they proceed through the night. This movie creates its own lore about vampires and it all works very well. A Dr. Ulysses Albaran, student of Count Cagliostro, learns that a vampire can survive having a stake driven through its heart. the only way to really kill them is by injecting Clammic Acid into their veins. What is Clammic Acid, you ask? It can be distilled only from the black Mandragora flower that grows only on spots over which a man was hanged. Sounds like killing vampires is a tougher job then we thought! Count Frankenhausen is nothing if not an over-achiever. He wants to turn everyone in the world into vampires with himself as their supreme leader! But if everyone in the world is a vampire where will they get the blood they need to survive? I don't think the Count has thought this plan through very well. He might not get to try it out anyway, Dr. Albaran and the daughter of Count Cagliostro have determined to get into the Haunted Hacienda and put an end to the Count. They have a surprise ally in the Count's still human wife who hates her blood drinking husband and keeps a wooden stake by her bed at all times. Out of this surprisingly eclectic assortment of characters watch especially for Bertha Moss as Frau Hildegard. This is a cold hearted a witch as ever graced a terror film. She protects the Count jealously against everyone. She stomps about the castle barking orders and dolling out hideous punishments to servants who transgress, like cutting the tongue out of the footman because he talked too much, and letting the Count appease his thirst on badness knows how many chambermaids. So can this vampire be stopped? Not in this movie! A sequel, INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES, came soon after. The effects are cheap but good editing makes them look more effective than they should. The impressive castle set was also used in THE BRAINIAC. The studio, Churubusco-Azteca, guards the copyrights to its movies very well so expect to search hard for this one on VHS or DVD. This film and its sequel though are well worth the hunt. They are entertaining and scary too.

Miguel Morayta wrote and directed this two part storyline shot back to back in Dec. '61-Jan. '62, concluded by direct sequel "The Invasion of the Vampires." Truth be told there wasn't enough incident for two pictures, and one may safely assume that at 99 often excruciating minutes "The Bloody Vampire" would have benefited had it been pared down to a more reasonable running time. The narrative focuses on Count Siegfried von Frankenhausen (Carlos Agosti), the feared vampire who has taken for his Countess Eugenia (Erna Martha Bauman), the daughter of Marques de la Serna, owner of the Haunted Hacienda near Dead Man's Lake. His mortal enemy is Count Cagliostro (Antonio Raxel), who possesses all the knowledge gathered by his ancestors on the destruction of the undead, using the black roots of a flower that only grows near a vampire's residence and beneath a hanged corpse, from which an elixir can be injected into the body to render it human rather than a victim of the cursed bite. None of this actually plays into this first chapter, which kicks off in fine atmospheric fashion with Count Frankenhausen traveling on a coach driven by the grinning skull of Death, after which it bogs down with expository chatter that really doesn't matter. Cagliostro's daughter Ines (Begona Palacios) is hired to be the new attendant for the Countess, aided by her fiancée Dr. Riccardo Peisser (Raul Farell), reluctantly welcomed by the Count as a way to keep his enemies closer. A protective servant gets his tongue cut out, and housekeeper Frau Hildegarde (Bertha Moss) throws a few tantrums when the Count shows an interest in replacing his wife with Ines as the new Countess. The Count's ultimate goal is to raise an army of the living dead but here there's no conclusion, escaping after putting the bite on the Countess, his comeuppance inevitably waiting for the sequel (Erna Martha Bauman returns not as Countess Eugenia but as her own daughter, who knows nothing of the undead state of her missing padre). The two features ambitiously combine for more than three hours, beginning in shuddery fashion and ending with two reels of spooky doings with an army of vampires emerging from their coffins, but in between it drags interminably with unceasing exposition that simply leads nowhere. Let's not even mention the bat on a wire with ears so large that one wonders how it can stay in the air!

For my 100th commentary I picked this little film.Another south of the border flick snapped up for a few pesos by K Gordon Murray.According to some film books this film was hacked down from its original running time but not the dvd I watched.It could have used 15 minutes trimmed.I'll get to that in a moment.

This film starts out great.A coach driven by a skeleton races noiselessly through the woods. Rather spooky.In it is the dreaded vampire Count Frankenhausen.When the Count gets to his home we're treated to more fog and spookiness.

Then the yakking begins.One of the Count's idiot neighbors is his sworn enemy Count Cagliostro.They've lived nearby for some time and didn't even know it!Anyway Count Cagliostro babbles endlessly about a new method to kill vampires.It isn't even used in this film but is in the sequel, Invasion Of The Vampires.Then the Count Cagliostro goes to the capitol probably to filibuster and we don't thankfully see him until the end of the film.

His daughter and doctor fiance discover that the evil Count lives nearby.So Anna goes undercover as a servant to the Countess there.For some reason the Count hasn't fanged his wife but fangs servant girls brought to him by the sadistic Frau Hildegard.Well Anna turns on Frankenhausen and off we go.

But in the middle of the film the vampire and the doctor have a seemingly endless conversation about COFFEE!!ARRGGH!Cut this right out of the movie please!

There is some real brutality here with the whipping of servants and one has his tongue cut out of his mouth.The last twenty minutes pick up the pace and we're treated to a nice chase and some spooky shots of the vampire.When the vampire changes into a bat however he looks like a vampiric Bugs Bunny.Rabbit ears are on that bad boy!

In the end there is a climactic showdown in the cave of the vampires.

All in all some of the spooky scenes save this movie.The soundtrack switches from choral music to jarring electronic weirdness which is creepy.Stay tuned for info on the sequel, Invasion Of The Vampires.