El vampiro de la autopista

The original Spanish title for this film was THE VAMPIRE OF THE HIGHWAY but it isn't any more appropriate than the ludicrous one it is saddled with here; now if it had been called "The Horrible, Stupid Film"...

Ostensibly a vampire flick, our villain here is also capable of invisibility(!) and only bites his victims after strangling them to death; besides, he keeps busting his descendant's balls to get him to do the right thing and drive a stake through his heart!! Now is that stupid or what? The latter is an albino-ish, handsome young man who, unfortunately, is prone to drinking himself senseless practically every night. All the girls in the film (of which there are, for no reason at all, about five or six) are there literally to undress, take a shower, put on the most inconsequential of nighties, make love with their hunk of a boyfriend and expire at the hands of the marauding Count Winninger(!) who naturally sports a Dracula-like cape and keeps his coffin in the basement of his castle. There is also the usual roster of disbelieving police detectives and officers who only serve as fodder for the blood-thirsty vampire.

My unconditional love for Horror movies will get me to watch almost anything in that vein, especially something of this vintage; it's a pity that this one here proved to be so anemic...

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 .

Wal Davis and Ada Tauler have appeared in several Jesus Franco films, many of the same ones. It causes one to suspect that the director, José Luis Madrid, may just be another name that Franco uses.

This is not a Franco film. There is no blood as the vampire chokes his victims. Even though it is not Franco, there is no shortage of big naturals, as the vampire only attacks when the women are undressed. It is also unusual in the fact that he chokes, rather than the usual biting on the neck.

You don't have to be a vampire completeist to enjoy the film. Just enjoy the victims, some of whom do not appear in any other film.

"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!

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.