Kulay dugo ang gabi

Artful cinema where creativity triumphs handsomely over obviously limited means, presented as a morality play of Good vs Evil, with the mortal Children of God in constant peril from vampire Minions of Satan. Billed as Phillipines' first color vampire picture, it's not a typical color picture, but color film sequences interpolated between single color tinted black and white for economy's sake, yet manages to define a singular style of its own, the tints of the changing hues a visual complement to the rise and fall of the changing moods as the plot unfolds. This over exquisite images, beautifully composed, starkly lit, cleverly angled and expertly edited. Ronald Remy as Dr. Marco creates a distinctive hyper-real villain in the tradition of Karloff and Lugosi, before they became self-caricatures. As the object of his desire, Amalia Fuentes is the epitome of both spiritual innocence and physical sensuality at once. Mary Walter also stands out with the proper hauteur for the character of Dona Marissa. Good acting wins out over poor dubbing overall. Gore effects are restrained, and that much more effective for it. For fun there are the usual monster and dwarf among Marco's retinue, a classic red Oldsmobile convertible to ride around in, and, in stark contrast to the Doctor's scary menace, unintended comic relief from his glaringly phony attack bat. .The climax builds almost 15 minutes, to a frenzy that includes a religious procession of the faithful, an army of cops firing off flares, and a gang of villagers armed with the requisite torches to drive the Evil off the face of the earth and back to its netherworld. Sublime.

Dr. Marco (Ronald Remy) - a bald, acne-scarred vampire wearing Bono shades - tries to resurrect his dead girlfriend Katrina (Amalia Fuentes), but to do this he needs the heart of her twin sister Charito (also Fuentes). Charito's love interest Victor (Eddie Fernandez) tries to stop the bloodsucker from stealing his woman's heart - literally!

I can't totally hate on a horror film that features a rubber bat with glowing eyes, a hairy-faced hunchback AND an evil dwarf, but The Blood Drinkers is not a good film. Advertised as 'the first color horror picture produced in the Philippines', this is a cheap, shoddily assembled piece of schlock that doesn't even make good on its claim: SOME of the film was shot in colour, but much of it is merely black and white with a colour tint added in post.

The story plods, the acting is terrible (well, the dubbing at least), and Gerardo de Leon's direction is sloppy, the whole thing being somewhat confusing and incredibly cheesy at times (particularly the overuse of a smoke machine to try an add an eerie atmosphere). The worst scene, or the best depending on your point of view, is a fight between Victor and Marco's henchmen (the hunchback and the dwarf), with the little fellow delivering some particularly ineffective punches and being repeatedly thrown to the ground. Sadly, the bulk of the film isn't as funny and proved quite tedious.

3.5/10, generously rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

N. B. Aspiring suitors should never underestimate the aphrodisiacal effect of a water buffalo when serenading a young woman.

Polished performances, outstanding effects, pathos, delicious and powerful antagonist, nod to spirituality, eerie atmosphere, scary moments, moody, and superb. A feast for cerebral viewers. Inclusion of diversely enabled cast members is an ingenious touch.

Atmospheric vampire of story about a vampire who comes to a small town in order to secure a heart for the girl he loves. Its an eerie little film, a bit silly at times, but entirely watchable. It won't scare you but it will keep you watching (its more vampire drama than horror film).

Its a stand out little film that has the feel of a specific time and place that is uniquely its own. Set now, we see cars and trucks and guns the film has a decidedly Gothic feel and at times seems to be set in the 1860's rather than the 1960s. There is a religious nature in the film adds more weight to the proceedings. The film builds up a nice sense of good versus evil and of God vs the devil, even though we sympathize with our villain. Few films have a villain as well drawn as this one does, you hate him but you like and understand him.

The most memorable thing about the film, aside from the bald vampire, is that much of the film was shot in black and white and then tinted red or blue depending upon what was happening in the scene. Even though its odd to see at first, it does begin to add something to the film when you realize that the tints actually correspond to certain events in the film, and that people in the film react as if aware of the tinting. I didn't get it when I originally saw the film on TV (which apparently had the wrong scenes tinted) nor did I pick it up on the first go through of the recent Image DVD. It was only after listening to the commentary track that I really was made aware of how the right tints actually help the film seem creepier.

Not a classic, but a its a good little thriller.

Sorry to demystify the cinematography but it was a question of COST. Color film stock was prohibitively expensive then and the producers couldn't afford to shoot all the scenes in color. This practice was prevalent in the Philippine film industry in the late 60's/early 70's. I remember a billboard advertising a comedy as "filmed in partly color"(sic). If the visual inconsistencies tended to enhance the narrative and add to the creepy character of the movie, well and good. So, there it is--another mystery gone.

Incidentally, it is not widely known that Gerry De Leon was an MD but never practiced this profession. His family was in the movie business and he promptly went into it after graduating from med school.