The Vampires Night Orgy

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.

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")

Vampire's Night Orgy is one of a number of erotic vampire movies released in Europe in the early 70's. In fairness, this one isn't especially erotic with little nudity on display, which given the title you could be forgiven for expecting quite a bit. The chief strength of this one is in its atmosphere. In it a group of people wind up at a remote village where they are openly welcomed. It becomes clear quite soon though that there is something sinister about these villagers.

Like I say, it's the creepy atmosphere that works best in this one. The gloomy countryside locations are well used. The remote village and its strange inhabitants is a typical horror staple but it's well done here nevertheless. While this one is promoted as being a vampire flick, it more accurately could be described as a film about nocturnal cannibals with a vampire queen. The latter is a Countess perhaps unsurprisingly. The mix works though and I suppose adds to the cult value of the film. It's a movie that should certainly appeal to Eurotrash devotees and is generally a very solid entry in the cycle of continental vampire films from the period.

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.

Ok so there are no orgies, but who cares?

Hey this one isn't bad at all. Bus load of tourists takes a wrong turn and winds up in a town that at first seems un-inhabited but it turns out is filled with cannibalistic creatures who only come out at night. They're not really vampires but attack their victims en-mass and tear them to pieces. They also disable the bus so the stranded tourists can't escape. After all, we wouldn't want 'din-din' to run away, now would we?

Surprisingly, there's not a lot of gore in this considering the theme, but there's enough creepy atmosphere in this setting that it makes it mildly entertaining. The townspeople chasing the car with Jack Taylor and Dyanik Zurakowska reminds me of the chase scene in the recently released DAGON while the "they aren't to be believed" ending is straight out of TWO THOUSAND MANIACS.

You'll have to see all three of them to know what I'm talking about. Still, I recommend this one if you're into 70s Euro horror and want to see some sexy babes in it. Like Helga Line as the local, blood Countess. She was hot.

DVD is ok although the picture quality isn't anything to rave about, plus there are no extras except a trailer.

It's a few steps above anything Jess Franco was putting out at the time. I liked it. Check it out.

6 out of 10