Sangre de vírgenes

This is the second horror film I’ve watched from Argentine director Vieyra – the other being the better-known but overrated THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP (1967/71); I had long considered purchasing Mondo Macabro’s SE DVD but was doubtful about its quality – besides, I recall being bored by HUMPP (even if that one had extraneous footage added to it for export versions). Now that I’ve caught up with this one (acquired from ulterior sources), it’s hardly any more engaging (in fact, the film doesn’t even have a plot to speak of!) – but, at least, the dream-like/lethargic atmosphere throughout is reasonably effective.

That said, the striking pre-credits sequence (including the animation accompanying the titles themselves, curiously presented here in Italian!) is immediately stymied by a lengthy modern-day sequence which, amid numerous psychedelic trappings (such as gaudy fashions and go-go dancing), allows one no chance to get to know the characters – resorting to some rather embarrassing stream-of-consciousness editing instead! Incidentally, the suave head vampire is given little of substance to do here: though he gets to bite a couple of girls, his conflicted lover (who actually regrets her undead existence) – a beautiful blonde whose natural attributes are frequently and gratuitously exploited by the director – is at least as much to the fore and does some enslaving (albeit of a sexual kind) of her own! For what it’s worth, the couple have a manservant roaming about the apparently uninhabited castle looking sinister and generally mysterious and who’s involved in the film’s concluding twist.

Though clearly no more than a footnote in vampire movie lore, as I said, this is a watchable enough effort (and, thankfully, a compact 75 minutes) marked by flashes of eroticism, gore (the film was even banned on its home-turf when originally released!) and weirdness (a particularly nice effect is created by the recurring red-tinted shot of flying seagulls).

A group of obnoxious swingers are touring the vamp's area when their hippie van collapses,leaving them to spend an unforgettable and seemingly unlivable evening at the Count's lodge.The Count has kept an unwilling yet equally undead bride in his clutches and the blood begins to flow...I kind of enjoyed this trashy little flick,however there are some incredibly dull and boring spots.The acting is very bad,the atmosphere is non-existent,but if you are a fan of exploitation flicks,who enjoys watching bare breasts of some fine looking Argentinian ladies you may want to give this blood-sucker a try.Cinematically we're treated to numerous topless Go-Go dancers who wiggle wildly to cool-school jazz while inserts of sea gulls double for vampire bats.Vieyra's genre credits include:"The Deadly Organ",the mind-blowing "Curious Dr. Humpp" and of course "Blood of the Virgins".My generous rating:6 out of 10.

Obviously, this is not a great movie but it has its charms (several pairs of them actually). It has lots of Argentinean mujeres sin ropas, it has a male vampire who seems to be sucking his blood out of something else on his female victims besides their necks, it has a female vampire in a see-through teddy who becomes so engrossed in softcore sex sessions with her male victims that she often forgets to bite them at all, it has long, strange interludes of topless go-go dancing, it has a recurring red-tinted shots of birds flying for some reason, and it has the old familiar stranded-travelers-in a-haunted-castle plot except that the travelers are all Argentinean hippies and the whole thing is in Spanish! As you might have guessed this is from the same director as the "Curious Dr. Humpp" (aka "The Vengeance of Sex"). It features the same two top-heavy actresses, Gloria Pratt and Susan Beltram, except that they're in color here and naked frequently enough to give their infamous countrywoman Isabela Sarli a run for the money in the sexploitation sweepstakes. It was probably not as good of film as "The Curious Dr. Humpp" originally, but it's in better shape because unlike the earlier film it seems to be in it's original south-of-the-border form and is not heavily padded with American-shot inserts of some truly unattractive Times Square "actresses". Not a great movie, but if you see only one 1960's Argentinean vampire movie this year, make it this one.

It was clear to me that this film could not be a masterpiece in any way. Directed by the same person who directed "The Curious Dr. Humpp" and starred by an actor like Rolo Puente, this film could not be taken seriously. I knew it was going to be unintentionally humorous and I wasn't mistaken. Of course it was cheesy, the acting wasn't Academy Award material and the film encloses several unintentionally side-splitting situations, but whoever said a horror film cannot be enjoyed when it reunites these qualities, is wrong.

In "Blood of the Virgins", a group of obnoxious friends go on a vacation trip to Bariloche in order to party all the time and be naughty all night long. As they're driving, the van breaks down and they have no choice but taking refuge in a dark cottage that seems to be forsaken (oh, this is new!). The place looks eerie, but it is not actually abandoned. The owners of the place are Ofelia and Eduardo, a couple of centenary vampires that have been living in the shadows for a very long time, waiting for young blood to feed themselves and get stronger. The first ones to disappear are the girls, which is not surprising, given that they're extremyly idiotic. After that, the guys start looking for them and even face the ones who started all that chaos.

The film is stupid and cheesy and I doubt anyone would think otherwise (including the director and all the people involved in this). Of course, there are some good moments of gore and utterly red, fake blood and this is always enjoyable in these kinds of horror flicks. The landscapes are also very beautiful (but do we really care about that in a horror film?) and the shots make them look dark and dangerous. I can only recommend "Blood of the Virgins" for anyone who can enjoy the bad side of horror films, with a lot of far-fetched situations, poor acting, fine looking topless girls for the guys and unintentionally hilarious special effects here and there. Rolo Puente without his famous mustache, looking young and fighting against an old couple of vampires with a bunch of unknown actors, is something that really made my day when I saw it.

South America isn't best known for producing films; but there were a handful of decent horror films coming out of places like Mexico and Brazil in the fifties, sixties and seventies. Argentina is one of the less well known for producing horror; although they did deliver The Curious Dr. Humpp in 1971, and also this film in 1967. Blood of the Virgins (not to be confused with the probably superior Harald Reinl film from the same year) is not a great film by any means and I can certainly understand why it doesn't exactly have a strong fan base as it could have been a lot better, but it is at least a decent way to waste seventy five minutes. The film starts by focusing on two lovers; Ofelia and an eerie stranger named Gustavo. Ofelia is due to be married to a suitor and naturally her lover doesn't take too kindly to that so, being a vampire, he decides to kill the husband and turn Ofelia into a vampire so the pair can spend all eternity together. We then cut to 1960 where a bunch of dumb kids take shelter in an abandoned lodge after breaking down.

The start of the film actually seemed like the opening to a really interesting vampire movie; so it's a real shame that writer and director Emilio Vieyra got lazy and decided to go with the old 'bunch of kids' routine rather than focusing on the far more interesting story of Ofelia and her vampire lover. I guess he figured that the kids would sell better and that's a shame as the film becomes completely routine after the first fifteen minutes. The atmosphere is good at the start of the film too as the director keeps things nicely shrouded in mystery, but this too evaporates after the film moves into its second stage. Naturally, the acting is nothing to write home about and nobody particularly impresses for doing anything over than delivering a camp performance. There's a fair bit of gore, which is nice except for the fact that it all looks very cheap and fake. Overall, I probably would have better things to say about this film if the opening fifteen minutes were stretched out over the seventy five minute running time; but nevertheless, Blood of the Virgins is just about worth a look for horror fans.