The Vampires Night Orgy

Atmospheric and creepy tale of a group of travellers whose coach is diverted to the uncharted Spanish village of Tonia, where the locals disappear at night and emerge later as something other than human. Prolific US-Spanish leading man Jack Taylor is central to the defence, taking the lovely Alma (Zurakowska) under his wing until they can conjure an escape. A mysterious Countess (Line) and her off-sider, the town's unofficial mayor (Guardiola) try to convince the travellers to stay in town and enjoy their hospitality, boasting the best "roast" in the region - as another reviewer remarked, 'finger-lickin' good - the origins of which are somewhat dubious to say the least.

Impressive sets and locations really depict a sense of isolation, and the quaint town and its characters are all effectively drawn in spite of some bizarre sub-plots. There's an axe-wielding giant ("I'm here on behalf of the Countess") who pays visits to unwitting blacksmiths for 'meat' collections, a psychopathic child with a murderous streak, and of course the aforementioned sultry Countess, the alluring and strikingly attractive German beauty Helga Line. The scene in which she passively seduces one of the weary travellers is great erotic-horror.

Plenty of little oddities to capture the imagination, despite the ungainly title, Klimovsky's film is well-paced, intelligently scripted and very entertaining. Only the conclusion is somewhat disappointing. I didn't expect much, and was pleasantly surprised.

A group of workers is traveling by bus to the town of Bojoni to work for an aristocratic family. The driver has a fulminating heart attack, and the group decides to drive to the near village of Tolnio instead, to spend the night and follow to Bojoni on the next morning. They find nobody in the apparently ghost city, but in the next morning, they meet the hospitable dwellers. Their bus has a problem in the engine, and they have to stay in Tolnio. Sooner they find that they are trapped in a vampire village.

"La Orgía Nocturna de los Vampiros" is a reasonable vampire movie, having also many funny moments. I particularly liked the scenes where meat is served to the hosts; the death of the little girl; the finger in the food of Alma; the vampires chasing the car with Louis and Alma; and the beautiful breasts of Dyanik Zurakowska, with marks of bikini. The conclusion is ridiculous, with Alma and Louis returning to Tolnio immediately after their scary runaway. Unfortunately, the music score of this film is simply awful, dated and not suitable for a horror film. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Orgia Noturna dos Vampiros" ("The Vampire's Night Orgy")

Cheeky little number involving a bus load of folks hired for some far off job travelling the Spanish countryside when their bus driver has a heart attack and dies. While stashing his body safely in the overhead compartment, they debate whether to head on to their planned destination or stop for the night at the sinister village that's just mysteriously appeared nearby. Being characters in a horror film, they of course choose the village.

Also, being characters in a horror film, they show no surprise whatsoever when they find the village deserted, but the local hotel's bar stuffed with booze, a roaring fire going, and loads of rooms ready to sleep in. They meet another traveller played by Jack Taylor, from every Spanish film ever made including Ghost Galleon, the hilarious Pieces, and ever Jess Franco film that's escaped to torment the public. He's also non-plussed about the deserted village, but he's tickled pink to find a hole in his hotel bedroom wall that allows him to spy on the pretty girl of the bus party.

After one of the bus party is secretly eaten out in public, screaming in agony while no one notices, everyone else gets up in the morning to find the villagers have returned. Turns out they were holding some sort of rave down at the local cemetery. They also serve the travellers a cooked human leg (donated by a reluctant villager) as they don't have any normal meat. As you have figured out the village is full of vampires and the travellers are all on the menu. Problem is, the travellers haven't figured it out yet.

While not overflowing with gore or nudity (although it has a bit of both), this one is quite well paced for a Spanish horror film and has a nice creepy atmosphere throughout. There's a ghostly kid who hangs out with a travelling kid, the countess who seduces one of the bus party, and the whole thing reminded me a bit of Messiah of Evil, what with the entire town turning up and silently descending on the victims. There's also a bit of humour, what with the vampire with axe having to villagers to 'donate' body parts.

As with most Spanish films, I have no idea if this is cut or not…but it's a good 'un

Like so many movies that are dubbed, there is a disjointedness to the dialog that gets in the way sometimes. I'm sure Europeans feel the same way about English language films. When things transpire, it's almost like one character waits for another to say something. It really louses up the suspense. This film begins on a mini-bus and its characters are stunned when a man dies and is put in the back, under a blanket. It gets late and they decide to put off going to their final destination and stop over in a little town. What they don't know is that there is a Vampire subculture living there, who not only feast off the innocent, but give up their own body parts for food if it will lead to more blood for them. There is a mistress of the dark who runs things and makes decisions for them. I won't go through the plot, but there is some humor, some terror, some bad decisions, and a host of pretty scary figures, closing in on innocent victims. It even breaks the movie rule about the killing of a little child. There is some gratuitous imagery, sexual content 70's style, but it's very tame. The movie does make an impression, and is better than many others of its era.

The best thing in "Orgy" is the opening montage of widescreen images showing the eerily empty village it will be set in--the colors, framing and frozen-in-time architecture are all impressive, suggesting a medieval town depopulated by plague. Then the story starts, which is immediately a bit of a comedown because the English-dubbed dialogue is particularly stilted and awkward. A bus load of people gets waylaid by an accident, forced to accept the hospitality of a countess who's a little too delighted to have some actual "humans" as company for a night or three. Of course we assume these travelers will never leave again. One by one they are attacked by those the Countess has presumably already made into vampires like herself, and then they become vampires too.

The cast is okay, their badly dubbed (presumably by unrelated actors) dialogue notwithstanding. There is a bit of female nudity, and at least one limb-severing. But there isn't much gore, or even blood; mostly we just get grinning groups of people in pancake makeup swarming screaming victims who'll next be seen sporting pancake makeup (and fangs) too. There are no memorable setpieces--Klimovsky is, as usual, a director whose style can best be called workmanlike.

Still, it does look look nice in its widescreen format, with good use of locations. While the soundtrack may be wildly dated--and it sure doesn't help generate suspense--it's also a joy in terms of serving up various types of vintage psychedelic rock, muzak and general pseudo-hip schlock. I didn't recognize any tracks in particular, but if you've heard CD compilations of prime sonic Eurotrash scoring, this is a whole movie of the most primo such stuff.