Kulay dugo ang gabi

"Dr. Marco" (Ronald Remy) is a vampire who wants to revive a woman he loves named "Katrina" (Amalia Fuentes) back from the dead. In order to do that he needs to perform a heart transplant and the only acceptable donor is her twin sister "Charito" (also played by Amalia Fuentes). In the meantime, Dr. Marco must keep Katrina alive and so he has people killed so that their blood can be given to her. Naturally, these deaths cause concern among the local populace which makes it quite a bit more difficult for Dr. Marco to complete his operation. Anyway, what I found remarkable about this film was the unique technique of using red-tinted film to signify the presence of vampires. Rather interesting indeed. Likewise, the heavy use of smoke to imitate fog wasn't too bad either. On the other hand, being originally produced in Tagalog and dubbed into English caused the dialogue to seem a bit flat. Additionally, the heavy influence of Roman Catholicism was probably a bit too strong in my opinion. But this was a movie made in the Philippines so perhaps this was customary during this specific time period. In any case, this wasn't a bad movie but the overall production values seemed to be somewhat lacking. That said I rate the movie as slightly below average.

Dr. Marco (Ronald Remy) - a bald, acne-scarred vampire wearing Bono shades - tries to resurrect his dead girlfriend Katrina (Amalia Fuentes), but to do this he needs the heart of her twin sister Charito (also Fuentes). Charito's love interest Victor (Eddie Fernandez) tries to stop the bloodsucker from stealing his woman's heart - literally!

I can't totally hate on a horror film that features a rubber bat with glowing eyes, a hairy-faced hunchback AND an evil dwarf, but The Blood Drinkers is not a good film. Advertised as 'the first color horror picture produced in the Philippines', this is a cheap, shoddily assembled piece of schlock that doesn't even make good on its claim: SOME of the film was shot in colour, but much of it is merely black and white with a colour tint added in post.

The story plods, the acting is terrible (well, the dubbing at least), and Gerardo de Leon's direction is sloppy, the whole thing being somewhat confusing and incredibly cheesy at times (particularly the overuse of a smoke machine to try an add an eerie atmosphere). The worst scene, or the best depending on your point of view, is a fight between Victor and Marco's henchmen (the hunchback and the dwarf), with the little fellow delivering some particularly ineffective punches and being repeatedly thrown to the ground. Sadly, the bulk of the film isn't as funny and proved quite tedious.

3.5/10, generously rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

N. B. Aspiring suitors should never underestimate the aphrodisiacal effect of a water buffalo when serenading a young woman.

Artful cinema where creativity triumphs handsomely over obviously limited means, presented as a morality play of Good vs Evil, with the mortal Children of God in constant peril from vampire Minions of Satan. Billed as Phillipines' first color vampire picture, it's not a typical color picture, but color film sequences interpolated between single color tinted black and white for economy's sake, yet manages to define a singular style of its own, the tints of the changing hues a visual complement to the rise and fall of the changing moods as the plot unfolds. This over exquisite images, beautifully composed, starkly lit, cleverly angled and expertly edited. Ronald Remy as Dr. Marco creates a distinctive hyper-real villain in the tradition of Karloff and Lugosi, before they became self-caricatures. As the object of his desire, Amalia Fuentes is the epitome of both spiritual innocence and physical sensuality at once. Mary Walter also stands out with the proper hauteur for the character of Dona Marissa. Good acting wins out over poor dubbing overall. Gore effects are restrained, and that much more effective for it. For fun there are the usual monster and dwarf among Marco's retinue, a classic red Oldsmobile convertible to ride around in, and, in stark contrast to the Doctor's scary menace, unintended comic relief from his glaringly phony attack bat. .The climax builds almost 15 minutes, to a frenzy that includes a religious procession of the faithful, an army of cops firing off flares, and a gang of villagers armed with the requisite torches to drive the Evil off the face of the earth and back to its netherworld. Sublime.

An evil genius vampire whose minions include a hunchback, a midget, a hot chick with sunglasses, and a rubber bat tries to save the life of his vampire lover by transplanting her with the heart of her long, lost sister. The sister, inconveniently, is still alive. Plays at times like an Ed Wood movie, at others like a classic, albeit low-budget, horror film. Made in the Philippines, which lends jungle atmosphere, interesting architecture, and enough catholic iconography to satisfy the Pope. Badly dubbed in English, including the fact that three completely different characters are, evidently, supposed to be mute and make the exact same, "Uhn, uhn, uhn," noises in the exact same voice, which is blissfully confusing. Features one singing cowboy scene, Captain Kirk-style martial arts, and a musical score that sounds like it could be library tracks but nonetheless is very effective. The film is sometimes black and white, sometimes color, and sometimes tinted a garish magenta, which actually works to heighten the atmosphere at least part of the time. Anyone who has read this far and is still interested will not be disappointed.

Polished performances, outstanding effects, pathos, delicious and powerful antagonist, nod to spirituality, eerie atmosphere, scary moments, moody, and superb. A feast for cerebral viewers. Inclusion of diversely enabled cast members is an ingenious touch.