The Vampire's Night Orgy (1973)

Before movies like "Twilight" turned vampires into emo, teen angsty, sparkling pretty boys, the movies showed them as vicious, evil creatures that preyed upon humanity in the dark shadows of the night. They were fearsome creatures deserving of fear.

Unfortunately, "Twilight" can't be completely blamed for making vampires boring and dull.

A group of unemployed people have been hired to work in a European household. When their driver dies, they are forced to spend the night in a small town whose mysterious residents turn out to be more than they seem...

The Spanish film, "The Vampire's Night Orgy" has some good qualities, but several flaws as well. Since it's dubbed into English, the words, actions and pacing are skewed, causing a lack of real tension and suspense during the exposition scenes. I'm sure that to a Spanish audience in the 1970's, the acting and dialogue would probably be considered good.

The music is also a detriment to the movie. Rather than being moody and sombre, it's rather jazzy and misplaced. I found myself getting jarred out of any sort of developing interest because of it. The only scenes where the music fit were the scenes where the vampires are actually attacking the main characters.

As with many vampire films, there's some titillation in the form of a sex scene, and some voyeurism on the part of one of the main characters. While these might be considered risque back in the 1970's, it's rather tame today.

I did like the humour though. The scene where "The Giant" goes to the axe sharpener to get his axe sharpened... then inform the axe sharpener that the Countess says he can do his job with one arm made me smile at the irony.

I also like the premise of the movie: travelers are stranded in a village of vampires and must find a way to escape. The only problem is that the rest of the film elements didn't fulfill the potential I saw in the basic story idea.

Fans of bad vampire films may enjoy this, but I'm going to have to slide "The Vampire's Night Orgy" into 'The Ugly"...

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