Les Proies du vampire

Mexico made some great horror films in the fifties and sixties, and thanks to Casa Negra, we're now getting to enjoy some of them. Casa Negra set the bar high when they released the likes of The Black Pit of Dr M, The Curse of the Crying Woman and The Witch's Mirror, and while El Vampiro doesn't quite live up to the brilliance of those releases; it's still a more than decent little vampire flick and the atmosphere alone is likely to keep many horror fans entertained. The back of the box professes this film to be an influential classic; though to me it seemed like more of a Dracula rip-off. Anyway, as the title suggests; the film focuses on vampires, and in particular, Count Karol de Lavud. The Count has been surviving on the blood of young woman, and plans to get inside his brother's crypt to resurrect him too. The story picks up when a young girl named Martha returns to her once beautiful hometown to find it a graveyard. The vampire plans to drink her blood and add her to his list of immortal brides, and her only hope lies with the doctor who travelled with her and her butler...

The plot will be largely familiar to anyone who has seen the classic Dracula films, and that is likely to be everyone who goes to the trouble of seeing this film. However, it's easy to forgive the film for taking ideas from Bram Stoker's tale as the film does manage to stay interesting despite the familiarity of it all, and while it largely lacks substance; the film does continually look very nice, the shots of the smoke filled streets being the best that the film has to offer. The role of the vampire is taken by Germán Robles, who does well with it. He's no Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee, but he's easy to believe in the role and looks sinister enough, which is the most important thing. A problematic element of his performance, however, is the fact that he doesn't ever pose much of a threat - which is a pretty big problem. Director Fernando Méndez would go on to direct one of the best films that Casa Negra released in The Black Pit of Dr M, as well as the disappointing The Living Coffin. Overall, I can't say that this is the best Mexican horror film you're ever likely to see; but it is worth seeing and I can recommend it.

This is probably the best Mexican vampire movie. The sets are great(Azteca Studio).The atmosphere is dank with swirling fog and mist. A young girl returns to her childhood home with a doctor she met on a train. The doctor holds a secret. The girl's family has an aunt under the spell of the vampire. The Count sets his sights on Marta and plans to resurrect his long dead brother. The mood and the music are fantastic. Only thing keeping this from a 10 is the cheesy dubbed dialogue. Hard to find but well worth it.

My first time seeing this solid Mexican horror film properly in its original language, as intended. It's certainly one of the finest of its genre, with German Robles in good form as Count Lavud, the Vampire. A pretty young woman travels to the eerie mansion of her ancestors, accompanied by a doctor (Abel Salazar). Something is not quite right when she learns that one of her aunts has just mysteriously died, and another aunt seems rather strange and exceptionally young. It turns out that the blood-sucking Lavud is behind it all, and Salazar has to take on the role of hero. I was very impressed with the consistency in set design, production values, and all-around creepiness and foggy atmosphere that helps make this winner a classic of its kind. Abel Salazar produced this himself, reportedly very keen on following in the step of the old Universals, and it pays off handsomely. *** out of ****

Someone at Hammer studios likely saw El Vampiro before beginning the Christopher Lee vampire movies. German Robles plays the quintessential vampire, the aristocratic, natty, sensual Count Lavud (Mr. Duval). Robles would further refine his vampire in the subsequent role as the vampire Nostradamus. In many ways this movie is like a black and white precursor to the Christopher Lee vampire films. (In fact, it predates by a year those of Lee at Hammer.) The dark threatening broody atmosphere, with its swirling fog, eerie woods, stark decaying dreary structures is similar to that of the Hammer films, some of Roger Corman's, and (of course)the earlier Universal pictures. A foreboding tension keeps the viewer on edge. Abel Salazar, the producer, does a decent job in the role of the doctor who helps the heroine, Marta, played by the beautiful Ariadna Welter, attempt to stay away from Lavud's fangs and control. Marta has returned to her ancestral home in the Sierra Negra (Black Sierra) Mountains. Her beautiful aunt, Eloisa, played by Cuban born Carmen Montejo, has not aged since Marta last saw her, having succumbed to the charm of Lavud--a fate Lavud wishes for Marta. As an earlier commentator noted, this apparently is the first screen vampire with fangs. These are put to good use in one scene with his transformation to and from a bat and then attack on a small boy, which scene is riveting. The music matches the atmosphere--foreboding. The film has rather good production values for the Mexican vampire genre (really for all vampire movies). The DVD (PAL only format) from Mundo Macabro is in Spanish (with and without English subtitles) and in dubbed English and is superior to the VHS version from I.S. Filmworks (available only in dubbed English). This film is not chatty; subtitles are easy to follow and not intrusive. Neither version is in widescreen. The DVD has somewhat better technical quality than the VHS. Shock Therapy Cinema also has released a very good copy in Spanish with English subtitles in Dolby 2.0 DVD. Technical quality is superb. Other, noncommercial DVDs, in Spanish, with and without English subtitles, and dubbed can be found. Horror Theatre Video has both the Spanish with English subtitles and the dubbed English in quite good technical quality in DVD-R. Thomas_McKeon Thomas J McKeon Indianapolis USA

I had heard a lot about this Mexican horror classic and cult film by Fernando Méndez: that it was a remarkable B&W production, that it established the vampire genre in México, that it was the first movie in which the vampire had fangs and –most of all- that it was intentionally funny in parts. I had seen its sequel, "El ataúd del vampiro" (The Vampire's Coffin) when I was 8 years old, of which I have a vague memory. Now, after 47 years of its release, I've finally seen "El vampiro" and to my surprise it is better than what I expected. Producer Abel Salazar knew what he was getting into –as probably did Luis Buñuel when he made "Abismos de pasión", adapting Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights"- and decided not only to approach the tale of an Hungarian vampire in México with humor, but to play the leading part of the doctor with comic touches, as a cynic and fearful hero. Beautiful Ariadne Welter (Tyrone Power's once sister-in-law, sometimes credited as Ariadna) is the young heroine who returns to her family hacienda in Sierra Negra (Black Sierra) and meets Salazar on her way, while they are followed by her aunt (Cuban soap opera superstar Carmen Montejo), a spinster under the spell of Count Duval (Germán Robles), the local vampire. The initial situation reminded me of the Hammer Films production "Kiss of the Vampire", which was made a few years later: a young woman being observed and chosen to be part of the undead, though in this case the open setting is darker and in obvious decay. What was surprising to me was the plot's twists, which seem quite original for its time and probably not yet equaled, mainly the introduction of a woman buried alive (Alicia Montoya) –whose appearance predates Myrna Fahey in Roger Corman's "The Fall of the House of Usher"- who protects the heroine and has a decidedly active part in the conclusion. Although screenwriter Ramón Obón takes many elements from Bram Stoker's classic novel, he introduces clever touches, immensely helped by Rosalío Solano's cinematography, Gustavo César Carrión's eerie score and Méndez' firm direction. As a research, it's also interesting to see another movie by Méndez, "Ladrón de cadáveres", which paved the way for a unique Mexican cross of genres: the wrestler and horror films.