La orgía nocturna de los vampiros

I haver to say that I quite liked this film. The story is a mix of Brigadoon, And then there were none and a vampire film. A busload of people off to work in a remote castle have to stop in a small village because their bus driver died. The town is deserted on the first night and the group take rooms in the local Inn which on the next day is normally populated. You may guess it: the inhabitants are vampires. In order to feed their guests they chop off their own limbs which leads to a scene that almost made me throw up although no gore was involved. It is simply showing the "giant" wielding the axe to chop off a leg and then a succulent joint of roast meat in the next scene. we all know what they are eating of course and they keep talking about that delicious special flavour. Amidst nudity the members of the group are then chased one by one. The story in itself is not original but the film is very atmospheric with an isolated mountain village in Spain being a fresh and interesting location. The version I watched was the one that was cut down to about 80 minutes. Unfortunatzely they cut the nudity but 80 minutes is actuall quite a good running time for that fairly thin story. So all in all, this is quite an entertaining film. I just find it amazing how many horror films were produced in Spain duriung the last years of the Franco dictatorship.

Like so many movies that are dubbed, there is a disjointedness to the dialog that gets in the way sometimes. I'm sure Europeans feel the same way about English language films. When things transpire, it's almost like one character waits for another to say something. It really louses up the suspense. This film begins on a mini-bus and its characters are stunned when a man dies and is put in the back, under a blanket. It gets late and they decide to put off going to their final destination and stop over in a little town. What they don't know is that there is a Vampire subculture living there, who not only feast off the innocent, but give up their own body parts for food if it will lead to more blood for them. There is a mistress of the dark who runs things and makes decisions for them. I won't go through the plot, but there is some humor, some terror, some bad decisions, and a host of pretty scary figures, closing in on innocent victims. It even breaks the movie rule about the killing of a little child. There is some gratuitous imagery, sexual content 70's style, but it's very tame. The movie does make an impression, and is better than many others of its era.

A typical Spanish terror of the seventies in which a busload of tourists stops in to visit a small European town. Seven very tired passengers : Ernesto (Indio González), Godo (Luis Ciges), Cesar (David Aller), Marcos (Manuel de Blas), Alma (Dianik Zurakowska), Raquel (Charo Soriano), and Raquel's eight year old daughter Violet are traveling by bus to Bojoni (filmed in Spain). Suddenly, the bus driver (L. Villena) suffers a strong stroke. When they arrive in Tolnia, however, there is not a soul to be seen, except for Luis (Jack Taylor), an American traveler who arrived in Tolnia about an hour ago and has been walking around the village looking for someone...anyone. Later on , they mett the village Major Boris (José Guardiola) who apologizes and explains that the villagers were at the cemetery yesterday, paying their respects to a recently-deceased villager. They also meet a beautiful but suspect woman (Helga Liné) who claims to be the countess of the place. What they don't know is that the town is completely inhabited by vampires. When the moon is up the fun begins !.

Eerie film containing suspense, tension , vampirism and lots of blood and guts with abundant sensationalistic scenes and a Naif style. This is a Spanish Horror dealing with a motley group of passengers who decide to drive to the near village of Tolnio instead, to spend the night and follow to Bojoni on the next morning where a host of spooky surprises await them , being really filmed in Madrid surroundings, such as: Patones, Talamanca del Jarama, Torrelaguna and in Uceda, Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha. Director Klimowsky adequately demonstrates his skill and craftsmanship in the field of terror, acquired through mutual work with horror expert and Fantaterror icon Jacinto Molina or Paul Naschy (Marshall of hell, Rebellion of dead one or La rebelión de las muertas , Werewolf shadow ,Dr Jekill vs. The werewolf). The movie has a bit of ridiculous gore with loads of blood similar to tomato. B-entertainment with a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story in which bloodthirsty vampires wreak havoc and undergoing a criminal spree by means of dismemberments, slitting, decapitation and other brutal executions. The script is quite frightening and ghastly, including some disgusting, loathing images at a meal, scenes that would be copied in another successful horror film ¨It happened at Nightmare Inn (una vela para el diablo) ¨ (1973) directed by Eugenio Martín , that's why it was also written by the same screenwriter, the notorious Antonio Fos. As usual, two versions were filmed, one with no nudity for the Spanish public that was heavily censored due to the strict repression from the Francoist regime and one with nudity for the international market.

The photography by Antonio L Ballesteros is very mediocre and too dark, therefore a perfect remastering is necessary to clarify the colors. This strange motion picture was middlingly but professionally directed by Leon Klimovsky and plenty of flaws and gaps . Klimovsky was born on October 16, 1906 in Buenos Aires, Argentina as León Klimovsky Dulfano . Founded Argentina's first film club in 1929 . Began his film career making short movies . Settled in Spain in the 1950s and became a Spanish citizen . Klimovsky was a slick craftsman who directed all kind of genres, usually working for Paul Naschy. He made his directorial debut with El Jugador (1947) based on the Dostoyewsky story of the same name. Of his 80 films as director, he shot almost 70 in Spain, but most are B-grade products, characterized by their diversity. These include the adaptation of Pedro Antonio Alarcón's La Picara Molinera (1955), the comedy Viaje de Novios (1956) and Ramón y Cajal's biography entitled Salto a la Gloria (1959), and even wild melodramas like Ama Rosa (1960) and he was one of the four directors who made the oriental fantasy Los Amantes del Desierto (1957). He also worked as an actor, highlighting his intervention in the film Maravillas (1980) by Manuel Gutierrez Aragón. Klimovsky was a prolific director and writer , especially known for his terror films as La Noche De Walpurgis (1971), La Orgía Nocturna De Los Vampiros (1973) , La Saga De los Drácula , La Rebelión De Las Muertas , Doctor Jekyll Y Hombre Lobo , but he also directed other genres as Wartime : Operación Rommel , June 44 attack force Normandy, Bridge over Elba, En Ghentar Si Muore Facile , The Legion of No Return ; thriller : Mean Mother ; Western : Reverendo Colt , 2000 dollars for Coyote , Few Dollars for Django, Death Knows No Time , Rattler Kid , A dollar for Sartana ; and Drama : La Casa De Las Chivas , Salto a La Gloria. Rating : 5.5/10, acceptable and passable . Well worth watching .The picture will appeal to Spanish Fantaterror fans.

Atmospheric and creepy tale of a group of travellers whose coach is diverted to the uncharted Spanish village of Tonia, where the locals disappear at night and emerge later as something other than human. Prolific US-Spanish leading man Jack Taylor is central to the defence, taking the lovely Alma (Zurakowska) under his wing until they can conjure an escape. A mysterious Countess (Line) and her off-sider, the town's unofficial mayor (Guardiola) try to convince the travellers to stay in town and enjoy their hospitality, boasting the best "roast" in the region - as another reviewer remarked, 'finger-lickin' good - the origins of which are somewhat dubious to say the least.

Impressive sets and locations really depict a sense of isolation, and the quaint town and its characters are all effectively drawn in spite of some bizarre sub-plots. There's an axe-wielding giant ("I'm here on behalf of the Countess") who pays visits to unwitting blacksmiths for 'meat' collections, a psychopathic child with a murderous streak, and of course the aforementioned sultry Countess, the alluring and strikingly attractive German beauty Helga Line. The scene in which she passively seduces one of the weary travellers is great erotic-horror.

Plenty of little oddities to capture the imagination, despite the ungainly title, Klimovsky's film is well-paced, intelligently scripted and very entertaining. Only the conclusion is somewhat disappointing. I didn't expect much, and was pleasantly surprised.

Ok so there are no orgies, but who cares?

Hey this one isn't bad at all. Bus load of tourists takes a wrong turn and winds up in a town that at first seems un-inhabited but it turns out is filled with cannibalistic creatures who only come out at night. They're not really vampires but attack their victims en-mass and tear them to pieces. They also disable the bus so the stranded tourists can't escape. After all, we wouldn't want 'din-din' to run away, now would we?

Surprisingly, there's not a lot of gore in this considering the theme, but there's enough creepy atmosphere in this setting that it makes it mildly entertaining. The townspeople chasing the car with Jack Taylor and Dyanik Zurakowska reminds me of the chase scene in the recently released DAGON while the "they aren't to be believed" ending is straight out of TWO THOUSAND MANIACS.

You'll have to see all three of them to know what I'm talking about. Still, I recommend this one if you're into 70s Euro horror and want to see some sexy babes in it. Like Helga Line as the local, blood Countess. She was hot.

DVD is ok although the picture quality isn't anything to rave about, plus there are no extras except a trailer.

It's a few steps above anything Jess Franco was putting out at the time. I liked it. Check it out.

6 out of 10