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.
