Maybe it's just that I watched this film right after my first dumbstruck viewing of Andy Milligan's "Bloodthirsty Butchers." I guess it can only be up from there huh? As a fan of the entire spectrum of horror cinema, I quite enjoyed this dated no-budget obscurity from Florida. It operates on 2 levels: as unabashedly cheesy bad cinema, and as unassuming little rough diamond.
Things I sincerely liked about this film include the general storyline, which blends a family curse with vampirism and ritual magic. The sets and cinematography were OK. The Delorca family house is a typical cozy Gothic mansion, with a gargoyle around every corner, and a Temple dedicated to the Black Arts in the basement. The acting, save for the blatantly bad performance of Bob Letizia as Perro, a Torgo-like troglodyte complete with silly walk, was acceptable and even unusually restrained for this level of cinema.
Things I enjoyed for their abominable badness: the wardrobe, hair and make-up. The female lead is a frosted confection of frosted bleached hair, frosted blue eyeshadow and frosted pink lipstick. We can only hope that look never comes back into style, ACK! Wait, if you think she looks bad, check out the vampire makeup. I thought at first that one of the vampires had a pair of toothpicks protruding from her lip, till I subsequently observed that they were in fact a pair of those cheap plastic kiddie vampire fangs you buy for a buck at the drugstore around Halloween. Laughably lame and unscary. The heroine's makeup was a lot more frightening than any of the vampires. Finally, to draw attention again to Bob Letizia's portrayal of the idiot servant Perro, he was so bad that he made the guy who played Torgo in "Manos, The Hands Of Fate" look like an accomplished thespian.
No name cast and a director with about 2 other happily unknown credits.
Rewarding if you're searching for offbeat, seldom viewed horror, and equally effective as an amusing excursion into the warped, fascinating world of archaic bad cinema.
