Der Vampir von Schloss Frankenstein

THE HORRIBLE SEXY VAMPIRE (1971, original title El vampiro de la autopista, aka VAMPIRE OF THE HIGHWAY) is one of the rarer vampire films out there, a Spanish movie shot in Stuttgart, Germany. The story is of a young guy moving into his great-grandfather's castle only to find a series of murders plaguing the locality and something stirring in the castle's cellars. Is his grandfather really dead?

It's fair to say that this isn't one of the best of its type, lacking the deliciously spooky atmosphere of the Italian gothics. It's slow and plodding in places and the dialogue can really drag. The Henry Cavill-lookalike lead is okay but the women are served abominably by the script, which just calls on them to strip before being killed. And this vampire isn't a neck-biter, strangely enough, preferring to stab or strangle his victims. While it has a nice setting and some interesting moments, but this isn't a great film.

Low budget Spanish terror packing suspense , tense, horrifying happenings , plot twists , nudism and lots of blood carried out by a mysterious vampire undertaking a criminal spree . A ruthless murderer is spreading terror in the German city of Stuttgart by carrring out a criminal spree seemingly unconnected string of people. As mysterious killings are happening , some kind of sadist, but not human, is murdering people. A forensic is convinced that the murders are the evil workings of a reclusive odd baron who died many years ago. Then a descendant (Wal Davis ) of the baron appears and he becomes the prime suspect . Meanwhile , a stubborn police inspector (Barta Barri) is investigating the bloody crimes . It is diabolical! It is daring! It is stalking, it cuts, it rips!

A suspenseful and so-so horror movie, though rewarding at times with disgusting killings , brief nudism and terrifying events . B-entertainment with a fairly suspenseful and frightening story in which a serial murderer on the loose undertaking a criminal spree by means of slitting, deguello ,slashing and other grisly executions. Intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking at a creepy castle , in every room , and eerie interior and exteriors. The tale about an ominous killer begins well and grows more and more until the twisted final including the ordinary confrontation in which we figure out the guilty . Stars a peculiar actor , Waldemar Wohlfahrt nicknamed Wal Davis , he plays a blonde playboy and main suspect in a series of mysteripus murders who a ruthless killer is spreading here and there . Wal was a former German private detective and actor who in the 1970s was accused of committing the crimes of the serial killer The Vampire of the Highway, whose innocence was proven, and ended up starring in a low-budget Spanish horror film of the same name. , The Vampire of the Freeway, with the stage name of Wal Davis. The also known as Autobahnmörder had started his adventures on August 16, 1964, when his first victim appeared. In 1966, on June 13, he appeared in Germany, on the Upper Rhine, the third victim of a serial killer that the German press had dubbed The Highway Vampire. Waldemar Wohlfahrt resided in Benidorm, where he was well known among the Teutonic colony. Waldemar called himself Tex, he was a wealthy young man of 1'95 in height, blond almost albino, with blue eyes, and led a playboy life. Waldemar started a legal campaign against the German and Spanish newspapers that had defamed him , as the German Der Spiegel and Spanish ABC . They had accused him of being a murderer, an arms dealer, a bad investor , and a white woman dealer . He's detained due to possession a gun , but Wohlfahrt turned out to be a private detective, so he had one. Therefore, Tex, as he called himself in the German Levant colony in Benidorm where he lived , was released on August 3, after paying a fine for the possession of firearms of 25,000 pesetas . If that was not enough, to get rid of the staff Waldemar painted a black bat on his Mercedes sports car, and began using the nickname El Vampiro. In addition, with great swagger, he recorded an album with Waldermar's stage name "El Vampiro", with the songs "Benidorm" on the "A" side and "Tú parts mi corazón". His stage name was Wal Davis, and he was introduced to the world of cinema by the hand of director José Luis Madrid, starring in the 1970 film El Vampiro de la Autopista, aka The Horrible Sexy Vampire, in which he paradoxically played the hero who he was facing a vampire. From there his career soared, although we do not know if it was up or down, with a succession of titles straddling the B series as El pez de los ojos de oro (1974) by Pedro luis Ramirez and erotic cinema and even two films for Jesus Franco : Maciste contre la reine des Amazones y Les gloutones (las glotonas), as well as a Spag western Los locos del oro negro, and others as Las protegidas, El socarrón, Vacaciones sangrientas y La hiena. Wal Davis is accompanied by a cast who was usual in the Seventies acting in thrillers , horror , Euro-spy and other sub-genres as Barta Barri , Ada Tauler , Luis Induni ,Antonio Jiménez Escribano , Patricia Loran and José Marco .

The motion picture was regularly directed by José Luis Madrid. He was a craftsman who directed all kinds of genres. As he made Españoladas such as : ¨Lucecita¨ or ¨Strip-tease a la Inglesa¨ ; Spaghetti/Paella Westerns such as ¨The Ballad of Johnny Ringo¨ , ¨Seven Jackals¨, ¨The revenge of Clark Harrison¨ , ¨A Tomb for an outlaw¨; Eurospy movies such as : ¨Chineses and minishorts¨, ¨Ok Yetvtushenko¨ ; Crime movie such as ¨The Hyena¨ , and for the famous Spanish Werewolf , Paul Naschy , directed 2 movies : ¨Jack Ripper of London¨ and ¨Crimes of Petiot¨ and political/historical films such as : ¨Memorias del General Escobar¨ and ¨Command Txiquia¨ concerning the assassination of President Carrero Blanco .

As cheesy as it can get. Really, this is terrible but is a must have for so many horror buffs. The only way to see this Spanish horror is on VHS. It never had a proper release and is only available by DVD-R sellers or on 'Excellent' VHS, a Dutch label. And even then it goes sometimes over 100 dollars. I have found it in excellent (no pun intended) state on a flea market for almost nothing.

The acting is terrible and even the script sucks (again no pun intended). The vampire catches his victims not by his fangs but he strangle them. But it's a must see for the effects. The vampire do attack invisible. So you can guess how the victims move without seeing the vampire, really cheesy. There's also no blood to see just only when the stake is put into the hart of the vampire and even that is done by editing.

But why it's watchable is the fact that all girls strip nude before they are killed. A boring flick with gratuitous nudity.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 0/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5

I won't rehash the plot. The above reviews got it right enough.

But I will say that this is one of those weirdly graphic Spanish horror(?) flicks. It repeats itself mercilessly, but gives you a new bit of nudity at the end of each screensaver of a plot development.

It just so happens I was in the perfect mood for for some groovy moderns and their struggle with ah...er, a sexy vampire? This is one of those movies that make so little sense that you wonder if the voice-over guys who did the English version didn't just say anything that popped into their heads.

But the weirdest thing of all, was when our phosphorescent protagonist orders a Mercedes Convertible at a rental agency.

What is strange is that there's about 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground. Not exactly weather where you'd need the top-down option.

So, anyway, someone must have gotten into a tizzie because the producer made them use his car to make some extra change, and they felt compelled to explain the use of a convertible in the movie.

I don't know. But considering how nonsensical the rest of the movie is, this bit of overcompensation stands out like a nervous tick.

NIPPLES! Had to put a word in for the nipples.

They were quite good.

"El vampiro de la autopista" (called "The Horrible Sexy Vampire" in English) is mostly what we would expect from any Euro-horror flick from the early '70s, namely the women who exist only to strip, shower and get killed. What I can't understand is why the vampire strangles people instead of directly drinking their blood (or why he tells his descendant to stop him). As long as we just accept that this movie has basically no purpose accept to teach hot women not to remove their clothes - which itself presupposes that horny men are watching so as to see their big breasts - then it's a pretty fun flick. But not much else (maybe it would have been a little neater had it starred Paul Naschy). I actually got to watch a version dubbed in English with Dutch subtitles. Go figure!