The Hand of Night

William Sylvester plays an architect Paul Carver,whose wife and children died in a tragic car accident.He goes on a business trip to Morocco and meets a stunning dark-haired female vampire named Marisa.The opening scene of "The Hand of Night" is wonderfully atmospheric and weird with the use of skulls and bloodied mechanical bats.The film was shot in Morocco,so the location sets are magnificent.Alizia Gur is particularly memorable as a beautiful vampire,who feeds on hope.Paul is also an interesting character.He is grief driven,defeated and obsessed with death.The score by Joan Shakespeare is quite eerie,but the direction is pretty weak and some scenes are very dull.6 Morrocan vampires out of 10.

I could only get hold of this film on a very dodgy video, and I'd have liked to have seen it in better quality. As other reviewers in old film magazines say, the dream sequence is intriguing and a little spacey. However, would I call it horror? Probably not, it's more of a psychological exploration of a man and his grief, and how that goes into a hyper-real state. The Moroccan landscape was good though - I guess that gave it the element of - is this real? or just his confused mind? Willaim Sylvester is a bit of a disaster as the lead. He was reliable stock actor in B movies of the time, and he doesn't have the power to lift his ability - which is really required - to play this character.

BEAST OF MOROCCO is about Paul Carver (William Sylvester) and his battle to recover after losing his wife and child. Upon arrival in Morocco, Carver discovers that the man he's there to see has died, adding to his grief.

Drunk and adrift, Carver wanders into a party where he meets a mysterious woman named Marissa (Aliza Gur). He also meets Chantal (Diane Clare), who appears to be the polar opposite of Marissa. Carver finds himself torn between the two, even after some dark experiences with Marissa that point to her being not quite human.

All of this is played out in a metaphorical way, using symbolism -based on traditional folklore- to represent Carver's struggle between darkness / death and light / life. Much of the film is dreamlike, like something that Jean Rollin might have made in his prime, minus Rollin's penchant for rampant nudity.

Certainly not your typical horror movie. Highly recommended for those who seek a different sort of cinematic experience...

An architect, Paul Carver, loses his family to a car accident in which he was the driver. Questioning his survival, he wanders aimlessly a while trying to deal with the guilt of their death, until the search for distraction has him flying to Morocco. Here he meets an Archaeologist (Otto) and his young assistant (Chantal). Before long strange events begin to conspire against him, forcing him to make a life changing decision, to choose between the "light" and "dark" forever.

This is an entertaining and quite different light horror flick, unusual in that the vampire is a beautiful female without the typical "vampire" feature of sucking blood, although she still is the living dead. In my mind Marissa is more of a succubus, attempting to seduce her victims into a life of darkness, culminating in a death that would probably have them being her slave forever. Nonetheless while different, her demise is pure vampire tradition.

The movie leaves little time for subtle development as Carver experiences some unusual situations and deep conversations pretty early on. After leaving his hotel to find a party being held by archaeologist Otto Gunther, Carver meets the mysterious Omar, who poses some deep considerations to him before disappearing. Then at a party the beautiful Marissa makes an appearance, but is gone all too soon. Carver is distracted by her to the point of having some very strange experiences, until finally their encounter is all to real.

The first half of the movie works well, holding all the mystery as Carver's friends (and perhaps even the audience) wonder how much of his odd experiences are actually real.

The lucky Carver gets to have his way with the beautiful Vampire and lives to tell the tale, although the pretty Chantal is keen to convince him that she is the safer choice for love. After a romp at the beach with her he feels better, but seeing the mysterious Omar again, he is distracted back into thinking about the deadly Marissa.

Before feeling too conflicted though, Marissa puts Chantal in danger, and not having any of that Carver finally decides to put an end to their impossible relationship once and for all. Omar also gets his comeuppance in quite and entertaining scene.

I thought the ending scene was a little odd, although the final line was a good one.

All in all this was an entertaining and different light horror film that I enjoyed watching. This is hardly a masterpiece, but if you catch "The Hand of Night" late one night and you can afford to stay up to watch it, grab some snacks and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Flatly directed would-be horror movie, consisting of long scenes of frequently stilted dialogue interspersed with garish dream sequences. Frederic Goode is one of the most obscure of all British film directors, and on this showing that's no surprise. He fails to bring any conviction to the film at all, and of the actors only veteran Edward Underdown emerges with any dignity. Even the usually dependable William Sylvester, who seems to have been sprayed with orange dye, is defeated by a script that persists in drivelling on about light and darkness to little effect. Filmed in 1966, this sat on the shelf for a couple of years, and makes for terminally tedious viewing.