Il mostro dell'opera

A dance troupe decide to rehearse in an old theatre - it turns out a vampire lives there who in turn discovers that the lead dancer of the troupe looks exactly like his lover who died centuries ago. This early Italian vampire movie was directed by Renato Polselli, who is known to me for a couple of truly demented pictures he helmed in the early 70's, namely the mad giallo Delirium and the insane supernatural shocker Black Magic Rites. With this earlier film, Polselli's deranged directing style is dialled down a notch or two. But while the excessive sex and violence approach of those later efforts is missing, there is still an unmistakeable off-the-wall element to the direction here.

It was at least partially written by prolific Italian screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, but it has to be said that the story is very run-of-the-mill stuff. Having said all that, gothic horror films rarely exactly have original and surprising stories, as their appeal generally comes from atmosphere and feel. This one's no different really, with the attractive black and white photography and gothic location being pretty obvious plus points. There are some nicely typical moments to appreciate such as a woman in a nightgown being chased down old corridors by an aristocratic looking vampire. But this film has a tendency to throw in some unexpected lunacy in amongst the gothic clichés, such as the fact that the aforementioned vampire is armed with a pitchfork! And then there is a completely unexplained scene where a manic dance routine is used to ward off the vampire (somehow) - it has to be said, it's a bit more original than crucifixes and wolfsbane! Its all pretty bloodless and is more goofy than anything else, yet Polselli still has the good grace to throw in nice details such as a gaggle of feral vampire brides chained up to the walls in the cellar. So, you could overall describe this as a combination of the typical gothic horror with less expected eccentricities. Like other Polselli films its definitely worth a watch.

From the earliest Melies films, The Phantom of the Opera , to The Black Swan, the ballet girls facing monsters and demons (either inner or external) are always a nice formula. Il mostro dell' opera doesn't have much to add to the pile, but yet there are some intriguing moments which set it apart from the rest of the bunch.

Most importantly, we really do have a cast full of proper dancers. Of these, Milena Vukotic really was an accomplished ballerina. The leading lady in the double role of modern-day Giulia and mediaeval Laura, Barbara Haward, is a very pretty, sensitive actress and evidently another classically trained ballerina - and yet she seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth after that movie. Anyone knows ANYTHING about her?

The musical numbers are not merely showstoppers, but actually supposed to be stemming from the narrative, i.e. like in a 1930s musical, where random people begin to sing and dance and just happen to know the intricate choreography and the choral arrangements. To make the stage cleaning process more fun, they burst into a Charleston; to keep the (utterly bloodless and sexless) vampire at bay, they decide to 'dance the devil away', even though it's never explained why frenzied rolling around to big band bebop should help one in this department.

A massive lesbian group menage and a black pussycat scaring the living daylights out of some thirty grown-up men and women. Definitely not a wasted 1,5 hours, so have your reefers rolled up.

Troubled by strange dreams, a woman joins her traveling ballerina tripe as they make a stop at a Count's castle in the area for a show, but as they carry on with rehearsing for their big show find their charge to be a vampire looking to turn the group into similar creatures and must race to stop him.

Overall, this was a massively enjoyable Gothic horror effort. One of the biggest factors found here is the generally strong setup that generates the kind of old-school Gothic horror stylings that are part of the genre's history. Starting with the initial scenes of the troupe coming together to help their friend who is going through a series of bizarre dreams about a caped figure going around killing people, their whole backstage interactions that et to show off their friend dynamics, and the various personalities within the rest of the troupe that set up the kind of fine starting point that works quite nicely here. Not only odes that provide a great grounding for the multitude of storylines and subplots going on within the rest of the film once they arrive at the castle for the exhibition including the overt lesbianism for some fun moments but also how their professional jealousy overcomes their personal friendship as they spend the time goofing around while investigating the backstage parts of the castle. Once this moves into the series of interactions within the castle involving the group being whittled down while waiting for their final performance, this one starts getting really fun. As the main group continues rehearsing their performance on the stage inside the castle, the ability to continually splinter off and disappear allows for some fun moments with the group trusting the count's assistant while exploring that brings them into his capture or the inability to realize the count is watching them provide some great times before getting to the wild finale in the castle's basement. With this offering up plenty of solid Gothic-based action in the standout performance by the troupe featuring all sorts of great interactions and setpieces, the different confrontations with the vampire down in the chamber where the female vampires are chained up waiting for him, and the big action set piece to finally rid themselves of the threat bring this one to a thrilling, exciting finish. Utilizing the castle setting for its best aspects and having plenty of fun with the women running around in their nightgowns, this has a lot to like about it. There are some issues here that hold this one down. The main issue with the film is the outright slack pacing that slows this to a crawl at a point when it should be picking up speed. The series of background interactions that take place with the girls, bouncing around in flirtatious pranks, exploring the secret passageways of the castle, or going through the rehearsal part of their play serves this one nicely as a way to get to know the girls but also extends way too long for what it's trying to do. It leaves the vampire revelation until much later than it really should offering up the kind of sluggish start that saps a lot of the intrigue and thrills of this one more than it really should, especially with a lot of the action here being quite repetitive and involving the couples getting together or the inquisitive nature taking them out on tours. It doesn't hold this back much, especially compared to the flimsy pretext for the performance in the first place, but it's the main factor with this one.

Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

Having seen the other three titles in what is considered the early Italian Vampire Quartet (Slaughter Of The Vampires, Playgirls and the Vampire, Vampire and The Ballerina) - I went out of my way to track this one down. "Slaughter" is a masterpiece of the genre, while "Ballerina" and "Playgirls" feature some silly shenanigans involving girls dancing, prancing, and fleeing in see-through nightgowns but also some stylish shots and creepy atmosphere - but this one offers very little in the entertainment department and is an overall goofy and frivolous effort. It is a very amateurishly made film involving a group of dancers who decide to perform at an old run down theater inhabited by a vampire and his servant. The "count" in this is hardly ominous, and there are many scenes of the troupe dancing, either at their own will or under force by the Count. It is notable for being one of the first (if not THE first) horror film to feature lesbianism but other than that this bloodless vampire effort will put you to sleep.

I was kind of glad when the vampire looked as confused as I did when the dance troupe started an impromptu dance routine in order to keep him away. It didn't look so much like a dance routine than a bunch of people being attacked by invisible bees. I suppose the vampire couldn't really comment on the randomness of this situation as what he was up to didn't make much sense either.

This crap vampire is resident in a creepy theatre due to some sort of curse, and despite repeated warnings from his equally cursed caretaker, a hyperactive dance troupe lead by an idiotic jerk all move in. You know these types, there's the sarcastic cute one, the guy trying to get into his girlfriends tights, the openly gay guy, the really ambitious lesbian who tries it on with everyone, and the leading lady, who of course is the reincarnation of the woman who ended up getting the vampire guy cursed in the first place.

What starts out like a semi-coherent version of vampire film quickly turns mental when the vampire keeps threatening people with a huge pitchfork - but never actually sticking anyone with it. He also does a lot of threatening with his teeth, but I'm pretty sure no one even ended up being bitten! Daftest of all was his coffin that he used to drag people through to another dimension, where he kept a load of vampire women chained up. They never bit anyone either.

No, daftest of all is that the vampire left printed instruction on a painting on how to kill him, and then when they tried to kill him, it looked like he just keeled over of a heart attack. This is the kind of daft crap I signed up for in the first place.

Of course, our dance troupe also through in an improvised 'cleaning' dance sequence at the start too, and the whole thing is rather sensual for such an old film. So if you like to watch a lot of young women dance around in their underwear, this is the film for you. Oh, and this film must win some award for the greatest amount of people startled by a cat!