Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
Raymond Sierra
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Bezenby
You know when everyone hates something that you like, is that what you'd call a guilty pleasure? That's what this film is for me. The fact that most people think it's crap might be an indication that my opinion is not to be trusted. The film takes place on the tranquil sounding Vampire Island, where Mark Damon and a crazy mountain man are worshipping someone called Hannah. A serious looking fellow with a gun and a lamp heads down into an underground crypt and is murdered by Damon, placed under a huge tomb, then trapped under it for the stupidest reason ever. That reason is so that the dead guy's son, Andrew Prine, will be lured from the US to wherever vampire island is on the Mediterranean, because he is an architect or an engineer or something and the only one with the know how to move the four ton tomb that contains Vampire Queen, Hannah! Of course, this crazy plan also needs to be optimistic enough to have to foresight to know Prine would have to remove the lid of the tomb to free Hannah, but let's not think about it too much.The locals hate Prine on sight but Damon, who is pretending to be just a normal guy and not a crazy vampire worshipping loony, tells him that the locals hate everybody and are a bit riled up because Prine's going to start messing with that tomb. Damon's sister Patty Shepherd is the local teacher so obviously that's the romance part sorted out (complete with incestuous sibling jealousy!). Best of all is Frank Bana's blind sailor, who is dubbed by a guy from the Bronx doing an impression of a guy from the Med.Of course they get the lid off the bloody thing and Hannah's looking like she's just stepped out of a hair salon. First chance she's gets she turning into a wolf and chowing down on Frank Bana's guide dog (he shouts 'Bonny' over and over and over again, which is quite funny). "Put. Away. Dem…college books," Frank says, even though no one has any college books. "Hannah is smart…700 years smart." He advises they get some dogbane and garlic because "she won't get by dem, neither." That holds her at bay, but then there's still Mark Damon, the mountain man, and several bitten islanders to contend with…No one is going to run down the street screaming about how great this film is, and even though it is bad in a way, I still like it. Mark Damon's hilarious over the top performance as the seemingly normal brother who is really an insane recovering drug addict is great, especially his speech about drugs: "I've taken uppers, downers, inners and outers. I've shot everything but aspirin and I blew my house down!" Andrew Prine's terrible clothes should have people choking on their seventies nostalgia, and then there's the weird patchiness of the film, which took two different directors to make, in two different aspect ratios.It looks like the film was incomplete and someone (probably Ray Danton) was brought in to fill up the gaps, which is mainly the sub plot regarding the islanders being turned into vampires. At one point, to tie the footage together, they have someone impersonate Frank Bana – surely a first, and last, in Euro-horror?
Woodyanders
Archaeologist Chris Bolton (a typically excellent and engaging performance by the always reliable Andrew Prine) comes across a vampire burial ground while working on a scientific dig in turkey and unleashes lethal vampire queen Hannah (the beauteous and bewitching Teresa Gimpera) from her tomb. Meanwhile, Bolton romances local school teacher Mary (an appealing portrayal by striking brunette Patty Shepard).Directors Julio Salvador and Ray Danton keep the enjoyable story moving along at a steady pace, make good use of the scenic Turkish locations, do a bang-up job of crafting a supremely spooky'n'dreamy ooga-booga atmosphere, deliver a few nice bits of gore, and pull out the stirring stops for the lively and exciting climax. The solid acting from the capable cast keeps this picture on track: Mark Damon makes a likable impression as the helpful Peter, Ihsan Gedik has a ball as a ferocious wild man, Frank Bana does well as a sage blind doomsayer, and Edward Walsh cuts a suitably imposing figure as the gruff Ali. Juan Gelpi's elegant cinematography provides a wealth of stunning visuals. Phillip Lambro's shivery score hits the spine-tingling spot. A fun fright flick.
ma-cortes
Creepy as well as colorful terror movie with chills , thrills , scary events and being decently filmed . When Professor Bolton , an archaeologist doing research on Vampire Island , is murdered , his son Chris (Andrew Prine) comes to the island to bury his dad , something not easily done since the professor's body is pinned under several tons of tomb . There Chris is received by Peter (Mark Damon) a student doing research on the Crusades , and his sister Mary (Patty Sheppard) who is a teacher of the Island kiddies . As Chris , Peter and villagers dig come across a vampire burial ground and discover that a strange creature (Teresa Gimpera) are about to awaken and attack a nearby village with its inhabitants (Frank Braña , among others) . As the undead dies .. again .. again . . This frightening movie deliberately told contains chills , suspense , colorful images and lots of blood , including obnoxious killings . Director Julio Salvador brings this ghastly and stylish story plagued with eerie intrigue , and depraved gore murders executed by a vampire who becomes a wolf . It is a straight horror film that features a supernatural intrigue , a Vampirism story plenty of mythology and historical events about Crusades . In fact , the tomb of the title belongs to Hannah, fiancé of King Louis VII , legend tells that , 700 years ago , Luis VII King of France goes out to conquest orient lands for Christendom but along the way happens a shipwrecked , they wash up at a weird island where his sweetheart Hannah became a vampire and that Louis sealed her alive in the tomb such that, should the tomb ever be opened before the return of Christ, Hannah would rise again . Evocative as well as colorful Cinematography by Juan Gelpí , being filmed on location in Turkey . Strange and atmospheric original musical score by Phillip Lambro . This eerie picture was professional and stylistically directed by Julio Salvador though in the American version there are some new frames filmed by Ray Danton . Julio Salvador was a good professional who directed some nice films such as ¨Contraband in Spain¨ with Richard Greene and Anouk Aimee and in 1968 directed Ray Danton , co-filmmaker in this film , at the movie titled ¨Hello Glen Ward¨ . Julio Salvador made various pictures with his fetish actor Conrado San Martin such as ¨Sin Sonrisa De Dios¨, ¨Duda¨ , ¨Lo Que Nunca Muere¨ and his best film ¨Apartado Correos 1001¨. He also was writer , as he wrote "Love Brides of the Blood Mummy¨dealing with a Mummy rebirth and ¨The Mercenary¨ again with Ray Danton . Furthermore , he wrote this ¨Crypt of the Living Dead" also titled "Hannah, Queen of the Vampires" or "Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires . Rating : Acceptable and passable , 6,5/10 . An alright movie that will appeal to horror buffs .
classicsoncall
With a title like "Crypt Of The Living Dead" I guess I was expecting a little more in the way of zombie spectacle. Not that I'm particularly a fan of that type of genre, but you have certain expectations. What the picture lacks in horror and gore is suitably replaced by creepy atmosphere, which is probably the highlight of the film. In my case, the print I viewed was quite poor in sound quality; it was part of a twenty film DVD pack from Mill Creek Entertainment, and as one other viewer mentioned, the black and white format was certainly preferred for the subject matter. I actually learned more about the story from some of the other reviewers on this board than from watching the flick, but then again, I was able to pick up all the information I needed from a handful of scenes that moved the story along.OK, so Hannah (Teresa Gimpera) 1269 is a vampire looking none the worse for wear and fresh as a daisy from a seven hundred year long dirt nap. A little weak in the knees, her transformation into a werewolf is designed to buy time by feasting on other animals while gaining strength to do in some eventual humans. Not a bad concept, and actually quite sensible when you get right down to it. What really distracted me from the story was every single appearance of Andrew Prine on screen as Chris Bolton investigating his father's death. He looked like he could be the spitting image of a guy I knew about twenty years ago who's since passed away. That just added a certain intangible creepiness to the whole story for me.Anyway, you won't miss a whole lot if you pass on this one, but at the same time it's not the worst flick to while away a quick seventy five minutes. I'm still puzzled by the idea of a guy in a caveman get-up, but there's not enough there to get hung up about.
