THE VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY

Directed by Leon Klimovsky
Produced by Jose Frade
Written by Gabriel Burgos & Antonio Fos
Director of Photograpy Antonio L. Ballesteros
Cast: Jack Taylor, Dyanik Zurakowska & Helga Line

1973/80 mins/Color/Digital Mono
2.35:1/English/Spain/NTSC Region 0

Review from the Eclectic DVD

Any fan of international horror films knows that the vampiric myth is universal. And anyone who's seen a number of vampire films from around the world knows that filmmakers from other countries can make blood-sucker movies just as crappy as the ones that we get here in the U.S. Case in point, the Spanish-lensed snoozer, THE VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY (sic). (Notice: This is the way in which the title is spelled on the DVD box, and thus, this is how it will be referred to in this review.)

Set in the vast countryside of Spain, THE VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY focuses on a group of workers who are on their way to an estate to begin new jobs. When their bus-driver dies suddenly, they are forced to stop in a small village, which they soon find to be deserted, save for another traveler named Louis (Jack Taylor). The travelers finds rooms in a pub and decide to spend the night. When they awaken the next morning, they meet the inhabitants of the village, represented by The Major (Jose Guardiola). They are then introduced to the town's benefactor, The Countess (Helga Line). When the travelers attempt to leave, they find that the bus won't start, and soon, members of their party begin to disappear. The seemingly benevolent locals are actually vampires! As night approaches, Louis decides that he must rescue the beautiful Alma (Dyanik Zurakowska) and flee the village.

Let's get something straight right off the bat. There are vampires in this film, and some of the scenes take place at night, but there is no, repeat, no orgy to be had in THE VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY. Actually, there's not much of anything in this film. The idea of the group arriving in a town inhabited only by vampires isn't an original one, but it holds a great deal of promise. Unfortunately, the best that director Leon Klimovsky and writers Gabriel Burgos & Antonio Fos can muster are random shots of characters wandering the village and occasionally getting attacked. There are two scenes which are creepy (one on the bus and the other in a cemetery), but these scenes only make one wish that the rest of the film was better. The film, with its ancient village, could have had a great deal of atmosphere, but the awkward cinematography nullifies that. Another miscue is the jazzy, upbeat 70s music which destroys any tension which the film could have created. And while it may seem pointless to nitpick about plot in a film such as THE VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY, it must be said that the film is devoid of any great details. There's a town full of vampires and The Countess is in charge. That's really all we get. The pacing of the film is snail-like and there is no violence, gore, or sex to spice things up. These vampires may as well take the night off.

THE VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY comes to DVD from Eclectic DVD, as part of Glenn Danzig's "Sinema Diable" collection. And while this DVD is far from perfect, it's light-years ahead of the THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE DVD from this same company. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1, but the transfer is not enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is much clearer than one would expect, and while it does show some defects from the source print, these are mainly small scratches and black dots. There is very little grain, but zooming in on the picture reveals an abundance of noise reductions. The image is quite dark at times, making the action hard to discern in some scenes. The image is stable for the most part, but there is some flickering in the scene in which The Countess is introduced. The DVD sports a digital mono audio track. This track provides clear dialogue (despite the atrocious dubbing) and music, but a low-frequency hum can be heard throughout the film. This transfer may not live up to the standards of recent theatrical releases which appear on DVD, but it's certainly better than a VHS copy. The DVD packaging offers a very strange, and oddly cropped picture of Helga Line on the front cover. There are no extras on the DVD.

Image:

Audio:

Extras:

No point since there are no extras!

Packaging:

This Film Features:

Review by Mike Long. All Right Reserved. 2003. ©

You can purchase this DVD at our official sponser by clicking on the image above.