A dance troupe decide to rehearse in an old theatre - it turns out a vampire lives there who in turn discovers that the lead dancer of the troupe looks exactly like his lover who died centuries ago. This early Italian vampire movie was directed by Renato Polselli, who is known to me for a couple of truly demented pictures he helmed in the early 70's, namely the mad giallo Delirium and the insane supernatural shocker Black Magic Rites. With this earlier film, Polselli's deranged directing style is dialled down a notch or two. But while the excessive sex and violence approach of those later efforts is missing, there is still an unmistakeable off-the-wall element to the direction here.
It was at least partially written by prolific Italian screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, but it has to be said that the story is very run-of-the-mill stuff. Having said all that, gothic horror films rarely exactly have original and surprising stories, as their appeal generally comes from atmosphere and feel. This one's no different really, with the attractive black and white photography and gothic location being pretty obvious plus points. There are some nicely typical moments to appreciate such as a woman in a nightgown being chased down old corridors by an aristocratic looking vampire. But this film has a tendency to throw in some unexpected lunacy in amongst the gothic clichés, such as the fact that the aforementioned vampire is armed with a pitchfork! And then there is a completely unexplained scene where a manic dance routine is used to ward off the vampire (somehow) - it has to be said, it's a bit more original than crucifixes and wolfsbane! Its all pretty bloodless and is more goofy than anything else, yet Polselli still has the good grace to throw in nice details such as a gaggle of feral vampire brides chained up to the walls in the cellar. So, you could overall describe this as a combination of the typical gothic horror with less expected eccentricities. Like other Polselli films its definitely worth a watch.