Crypt of the living dead

Creepy as well as colorful terror movie with chills , thrills , scary events and being decently filmed . When Professor Bolton , an archaeologist doing research on Vampire Island , is murdered , his son Chris (Andrew Prine) comes to the island to bury his dad , something not easily done since the professor's body is pinned under several tons of tomb . There Chris is received by Peter (Mark Damon) a student doing research on the Crusades , and his sister Mary (Patty Sheppard) who is a teacher of the Island kiddies . As Chris , Peter and villagers dig come across a vampire burial ground and discover that a strange creature (Teresa Gimpera) are about to awaken and attack a nearby village with its inhabitants (Frank Braña , among others) . As the undead dies .. again .. again . .

This frightening movie deliberately told contains chills , suspense , colorful images and lots of blood , including obnoxious killings . Director Julio Salvador brings this ghastly and stylish story plagued with eerie intrigue , and depraved gore murders executed by a vampire who becomes a wolf . It is a straight horror film that features a supernatural intrigue , a Vampirism story plenty of mythology and historical events about Crusades . In fact , the tomb of the title belongs to Hannah, fiancé of King Louis VII , legend tells that , 700 years ago , Luis VII King of France goes out to conquest orient lands for Christendom but along the way happens a shipwrecked , they wash up at a weird island where his sweetheart Hannah became a vampire and that Louis sealed her alive in the tomb such that, should the tomb ever be opened before the return of Christ, Hannah would rise again . Evocative as well as colorful Cinematography by Juan Gelpí , being filmed on location in Turkey . Strange and atmospheric original musical score by Phillip Lambro .

This eerie picture was professional and stylistically directed by Julio Salvador though in the American version there are some new frames filmed by Ray Danton . Julio Salvador was a good professional who directed some nice films such as ¨Contraband in Spain¨ with Richard Greene and Anouk Aimee and in 1968 directed Ray Danton , co-filmmaker in this film , at the movie titled ¨Hello Glen Ward¨ . Julio Salvador made various pictures with his fetish actor Conrado San Martin such as ¨Sin Sonrisa De Dios¨, ¨Duda¨ , ¨Lo Que Nunca Muere¨ and his best film ¨Apartado Correos 1001¨. He also was writer , as he wrote "Love Brides of the Blood Mummy¨dealing with a Mummy rebirth and ¨The Mercenary¨ again with Ray Danton . Furthermore , he wrote this ¨Crypt of the Living Dead" also titled "Hannah, Queen of the Vampires" or "Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires . Rating : Acceptable and passable , 6,5/10 . An alright movie that will appeal to horror buffs .

DVD title: Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires.

An archaeologist (Andrew Prine) visits Vampire Island to bury his father, who has died under mysterious circumstances. He ignores the warnings of a schoolteacher (Patty Shepard) and, prodded by an historical novelist (Mark Damon), he opens the tomb of the 13th-Century vampire Queen Hannah (Teresa Gimpera).

This routine but decent little import benefits from a colorful Mediterranean location, good photography and an engagingly casual performance by the slumming Prine. Despite a tedious midsection and poor dubbing of minor roles, the film has a mildly distinctive flavor, like a failed Euro-Trash Count Yorga, Vampire (1970).

Of the cast, Gimpera played the Crying Mother opposite Christopher Lee in Jesus Franco's El Conde Dracula/Count Dracula (1970), and Shepard (Spanish cinema's answer to horror star Barbara Steele) was Paul Naschy's co-star in the cult classic La Noche de Walpurgis/The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman/Werewolf's Shadow (1971). Damon (House of Usher, 1960) had faced vampires before in Il Plenilunio delle Vergine/The Devil's Wedding Night (1973) and in Mario Bava's I Tre Volti delle Paura/Black Sabbath (1963). (Today a Hollywood producer, Damon faces a different kind of vampire.)

Originally titled La Tumba de la Isla Maldita, the completed film (directed by Julio Salvador) was reworked for American release with new scenes shot by former actor Ray Danton, whose horror films as director include Deathmaster (1972) and Psychic Killer (1975).

It is more interesting to learn about such films than to dismiss them out of hand.

Quite ridiculous yet somewhat engaging story about a young archaeologist, played with one dimension by Andrew Prine, coming to Vampire Island to see/investigate the death of his father. Somehow a huge crypt carrying the remains of a 700 year-old vampire woman has fallen on him and his son must convince the locals that vampires are absurd superstitions. Of course what might have been a mystery is destroyed in the opening sequence as we see who has killed the father, just leaving the not-too-hard-to-figure why out. The film doesn't have much of a budget but the bleak desolation of the island is convincing, the vampire queen is impressive(and beautiful), and some of the shots are very atmospheric. Prine is bland and Spanish horror queen Patty Shepard displays some histrionics. She looks subtle when compared to some of the so-called "quiet" locals who fear the return of the killing palindrome. Frank Brana, playing the crusty, old, sagacious blind sailor steals his scenes with no shame being not just a slice of ham but a whole butt roast! Listen to his dialog, it is so bad that it is so fun and easily for me at least the best part of this film. "She is smart...700 years smart" and other quotes about Hannah sticking her fangs into necks and the power of superstitions cascade from his lips in an almost monosyllabic manner which only accentuates his strange looks as he might be a cross between Bela Lugosi's Ygor in Son of Frankenstein and Carmen Ghia from The Producers(okay, I know it's an obscure reference). Nobody else in the film comes too close to being just plain eye-catching. Teresa Gimpera as Hannah comes close; however, for different reasons. She looks great after so long and can still turn into fog and a wolf with the best of them. Her death scene is something to behold unintentionally. While Crypt of the Living Dead is indeed a bad film, it is a very watchable one once things get going.

"The Crypt of the Living Dead" is an odd, but run of the mill horror movie that will hold your interest but not leave anything memorable in it's wake. The acting is OK but the dialogue is pretty bad. There is an interesting assortment of strange characters but they are not shown in depth. A lot of the script just isn't realistic. What the characters do, how the act and react to circumstances just don't have the right feel to it. They had a chance of having some mystery in this film but two of the villains are revealed right at the start of the movie. The third, the vampire herself, is a given. For those looking for the horror aspect, there are some scary scenes and the locations have a Gothic feel. This movie was shot in Turkey and whatever spot they found, I have to give them credit. They found a good location. When all is said and done though, it's an OK movie but nothing special.

Cinematographer Juan Gelpi gave this otherwise mediocre production a fittingly creepy "look". He also did two other productions where he worked as DP that I remember from my youth: "That Man in Istanbul" and "They Came to Rob Las Vegas". Interestingly, they were both directed by the same man: Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi.

I remember these European productions as totally entertaining to my young sensibilities. Those movies, as myself then, were of those times so such movies have to be taken in the context of the zeitgeist then. Audiences then had no problem with "slow going" narratives or sparsely placed action sequences which, now, have to be liberally strewn all over the screen to sustain viewers' attention.