Crypt of the living dead

Cinematographer Juan Gelpi gave this otherwise mediocre production a fittingly creepy "look". He also did two other productions where he worked as DP that I remember from my youth: "That Man in Istanbul" and "They Came to Rob Las Vegas". Interestingly, they were both directed by the same man: Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi.

I remember these European productions as totally entertaining to my young sensibilities. Those movies, as myself then, were of those times so such movies have to be taken in the context of the zeitgeist then. Audiences then had no problem with "slow going" narratives or sparsely placed action sequences which, now, have to be liberally strewn all over the screen to sustain viewers' attention.

"The Crypt of the Living Dead" is an odd, but run of the mill horror movie that will hold your interest but not leave anything memorable in it's wake. The acting is OK but the dialogue is pretty bad. There is an interesting assortment of strange characters but they are not shown in depth. A lot of the script just isn't realistic. What the characters do, how the act and react to circumstances just don't have the right feel to it. They had a chance of having some mystery in this film but two of the villains are revealed right at the start of the movie. The third, the vampire herself, is a given. For those looking for the horror aspect, there are some scary scenes and the locations have a Gothic feel. This movie was shot in Turkey and whatever spot they found, I have to give them credit. They found a good location. When all is said and done though, it's an OK movie but nothing special.

"Crypt of the Living Dead" is an extremely low-budgeted Spanish production that centers on the resurrection of a malicious vampire queen after being asleep on an island for nearly 7 whole centuries. Directors Julio Salvador and Ray Danton sure as hell did their best to make Hannah (quite a modern name for an ancient vampire) look like a 700-year-old! This supposedly "evil" lady walks around her territory even slower than my grandmother would walk down a flight of stairs, and she suffers from a severe hernia! On the other hand, Hannah sure has a prettier face than my grandma and I wouldn't mind her sinking her teeth into my neck... Hannah's resurrection is the fault of a young archaeologist who opened the tomb after his own father (accidentally?) got crushed in the tomb. Initially she's still too weak to kill by herself and so she sends out her pet werewolf to do the nasty and bring back the blood of superstitious villagers. Once she has a little more strength, she endangers the island-population herself, and the sexy school teacher in particular. Hannah's walking pace sort of illustrates the entire film: slow, boring and truly annoying. "Crypt of the Living Dead" isn't at all scary or atmospheric, and this despite all the potentially great decors and locations. The events take place on an island, yet you never experience that inescapable feeling. There's no sleaze or gore (or what did you think?), the acting performances are weak and the ending is lame. Most definitely one to skip.

Crypt of the living Dead seemed like a pretty decent vampire film to me. As I was reading the other commentaries which were fairly negative, I suddenly realized that my version of this film (which came from a Mill Creek entertainment box set-Chilling Classics) is in black and white whereas the film was actually made in color (at least according to IMDb). I have often thought that certain types of films (gothic horror, film noirs etc) are better in BW anyway. Settings can seem more ephemeral and eerie. Gore and blood looks more other-worldly. I do realize that watching a color film in BW is suboptimal in the sense that you are not viewing all aspects that the director intended (similar to watching colorized films, I suppose).

Nevertheless, I would suggest to viewers of this film that they at least try viewing it the way I have. It was a rather interesting experience. Perhaps Mill Creek also thought this film was better viewed this way.

There are not two archaeologists. They do not discover a burial ground of vampires. They do not believe vampires are about to break free and wreck havoc. The story is the death of an archaeologist brings the man's son to an island to free his body trapped under a crypt so he can bury it but in order to free the body, they have to open the crypt containing the body of Hannah, Queen of the Vampires.