Just two weeks from her marriage, charming model Sylvia Morelle (Anita Ekberg) receives a letter from her uncle, Count Waldrick (Julián Ugarte), informing her that her mummy has passed away and that she has inherited a castle and the title of Countess . Consequently, Sylvia leaves her fiancé, Dr Piero Lufuani (John Hamilton), in Rome while she goes to Castle Waldrick to sign papers and check out her good fortune . There lives mysterious people she suspects may be vampires and her uncle (Julian Ugarte) who happens to be the main bloodsucker and he attempts to persude her to remain among them . As vampires craving for human blood and beginning her criminal rampage .
This low-budget Spanish-Italian co-production from the classy cult filmmaker Amando De Ossorio results to be an atmospheric horror movie containing terrifying scenes when appears the sinister vampire , as well as a bevy of beautiful women and taking place the bloody killings by neck biting . Based on the legendary story of a fired witch and a creepy vampire , in which rise from beyond to wreak havoc upon some beautiful Euro-babes and unfortunate victims . Plenty of lots of blood and gore , including some repellent images . The fable is sometimes silly and laughable ,though the effects and action are well made . It's a slight fun with acceptable make-up , special effects , passable set decoration and functional art direction . Some illogical parts in the plot are more than compensated for the excitement provided by the wonderful busty vampire women running in slow-moving , though sometimes are a little bit cheesy . While not a hit during its original run, the film became successful when reissued several years later. Acceptable main cast as Anita Ekberg , John Hamilton and Julian Ugarte as a strange nobleman , whose role was previously offered Boris Karloff who was initially approached to play him , but he eventually turned down . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Carlos Casaravilla as a drunkyard doctor , the hunk Fernando Bilbao , Paul Muller : Jesus Franco's regular and attractive Eurotrash girls as Rosanna Yanni , Diana Lorys and Adriana Ambesi .
It contains a thrilling and frightening musical score by Carlos Savina . And colorful cinematography , in Hammer style , by Fulvio Testi , though being really necessary a perfect remastering . The motion picture was professionally directed by Amando De Ossorio . Amando began in films as a writer and assistant director and continued his career by making short films and industrial documentaries . He was one of the main directors of the Spanish horror boom in the 70s , in fact this ¨Malenka¨was his handiwork , best known for his series of Knights Templar zombie films , which began with La Noche del Terror Ciego (1971).specially for his quartet of films about the living dead templars which started with his first great success and immensely popular ¨Tombs of the Blind dead¨ which to be continued by a trilogy : ¨Return of evil dead¨ , ¨Ship of Zombies or Blind dead 2¨ and ¨Blind dead 3 or The night of the sea gulls¨ . Amando owns his own studio and created and/or designed many of the simple special effects sequences you see in any of his many imaginative undertakings . He displayed a varied career and specialized on all kind of genres as Western in "Rebels in Canada" and "Grave of the Gunfighter" , Historical as ¨Los Cantabros¨ , Monster movie as ¨Serpent of sea¨ and , of course, Terror as ¨Malenka¨ , The possessed¨ and ¨night of witches¨ . Ossorio also studied painting and photography , moreover, he also made his living as a painter of creepy images of the Knights Templar in his later years. Rating : 5.5/10 . Acceptable and passable .
