Skip to main content

The Slaughter of the Vampires (1962) / The Living Head (1963)





 The Slaughter of the Vampires is an early 60’s Italian horror film dubbed in English, about an undead blood sucker who stalks a count and his estate.














During a party thrown by Wolfgang and his wife Louise, a mysterious stranger suddenly appears. He dances and enchants Louise before suddenly leaving the party. It turns out he’s a vampire whose coffin is in their wine cellar. He eventually seduces and bites Louise, slowly turning her into one of his undead brides. Wolfgang seeks the help of Dr. Nietzche from Vienna to diagnose his wife’s sudden, mysterious ailment. The Dr. is sure that it’s the work of a vampire, and together, he and Wolfgang set about to find and destroy the creature.








The movie is fast paced and fun. The dubbed dialogue is unintentionally hilarious, and paired with the overdramatic music, the result is a silly, sometimes ridiculous but entertaining affair. During the party at the beginning, no one seems too perturbed about a stranger just walking in, uninvited, and dancing with the hostess. Louise’s friends are a bunch of gossiping bitches who are too busy getting into everyone else’s business to pay much attention to the strange man. The fact that his coffin is in the wine cellar is laughable. None of the staff bothered to notice a coffin just laying around that wasn’t there before? The actor who plays the vampire stomps around with white makeup on his face and a wide eyed expression. The actresses who get bitten also ham it up. If you enjoy cheesy old vampire flicks, you’re sure to enjoy this one. I watched it on YouTube.









The other one I watched was a Mexican horror film dubbed in English from the 60's, about a trio of archeologists who find a tomb with ancient artifacts and a Mummy.







The Professor and his colleagues find the decapitated, mummified head of an ancient warrior Acatl and the mummies of his high priest Xiu and priestess Xochiquetzal. The body of Xochiquetzal disintegrates, leaving only the ring she wore. The Professor takes the head, the Mummy and the ring back to his home to conduct further studies. He gives the ring to his daughter Martha. The head and the Mummy end up coming to life, and the Ring of Death worn by Martha causes her to become possessed. Xiu makes it his mission to kill the three who dared desecrate their sacred tomb, and sets about to stalk and murder them, while the Professor and his colleagues and police try to solve the murders. 


















This movie is silly and fun, with the English dubbing making it even more humorous. The Mummy Xiu just looks like a regular Aztec priest, with a perfectly preserved body with no degradation. The living head is just a guy in a mask who mostly opens and closes his eyes. The Professor is the typical stoic, skeptical man who doesn't believe anything weird is happening despite glaring evidence that something is amiss, such as the freshly cut heart of one of the victims found in the room next to the head, and fresh dripping blood from Xiu's dagger. If you enjoy those cheesy Mexican flicks like the Aztec Mummy ones then you might enjoy this one. I watched it on YouTube. 













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help Me… I’m Possessed (1974) / #Missingcouple (2024)

I've watched some weird, obscure horror movies throughout my life. I can now add this lurid 1974 schlockfest to that growing list. In a castle in the desert, Dr. Arthur Blackwood runs a sanitarium filled with mentally disturbed patients (as well as staff). He claims to be working on finding a way to cure people of any violent tendencies they have, and brags about his younger sister, innocent, child-like Melanie, as evidence that his treatment works. When she was a child, their parents had to keep her locked up and chained in the basement, to control her violent fits. Now that he's cured her, Arthur has his wife Diane come to the castle to meet Melanie, so that they can be one big, happy family. Diane begins to grow suspicious that something is amiss after a Sheriff shows up investigating the murder of 2 local teens, and sets about on her own investigation, hoping to uncover the sinister secrets that she feels her husband is hiding. Help Me... I'm Possessed is an outrageous,...
Post a Comment
Read more

S.H. MonsterArts Anguirus 1972

One of my most anticipated figure releases of 2025 was finally delivered this last week. Godzilla's trusty sidekick, S. H. MonsterArts Anguirus (based on the 1972 suit). From the early video and photo reviews I had seen, he looked to have turned out a great figure. Now that I have him in hand, he absolutely is! This Ankylosaurus is based on the suit that was introduced in 1968's Destroy All Monsters, and made subsequent appearances in Godzilla vs. Gigan (72), Godzilla vs. Megalon (73), and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (74). Anguirus was the 2nd Toho monster to ever appear on screen, dueling with the big G in 1955's Godzilla Raids Again. For the later films, he became Godzilla's buddy, helping him out in his various battles. I'm a bit surprised that it took Bandai this long to release Anguirus in the MonsterArts line, as he's one of the more popular kaiju, but better late than never. He's painted in a chocolate brown, with pale yellow on his various spikes, hor...
Post a Comment
Read more

RicSan Custom Toys Kyōrū Kaiju (Titanosaurus)

My latest kaiju figure purchase is the Titanosaurus made by Ricsan Custom Toys. I own and love the Varan & Gabara, so of course I had to preorder this one when it was available. He was delivered earlier this week. This kaiju hails from the last Godzilla film of the Showa era, 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla. The Black Hole aliens are back, rebuilding their robot in another effort to take over the planet. They enlist the help of an ostracized Earth scientist named Mafune and his daughter Katsura, who are able to control an aquatic dinosaur named Titanosaurus. They plan to use both kaiju and mecha to attack Japan. Titano was a cool monster, with his tail that opened into a fish fin, and he would use it to create whirlpools in the sea, and high winds on land. I'm hoping that S.H. Monsterarts makes one for the 50th anniversary of the film, but when I saw this Ricsan Custom version, I couldn't pass it up. Titanosaurus (called the Kyōrū Kaiju), comes in a white box, with its n...
Post a Comment
Read more