Crypt of the Vampire dvd movie.|
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List Price: $14.95 Our Price: $12.99 You Save: $1.96 Features • Black & White • Dolby • DVD-Video • Widescreen • NTSC In Theaters : 1963 DVD Release : 12 September, 2006 |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | Crypt of the Vampire |
| Crypt of the Vampire
Being a film i'm not familiar with, i decided to check it out. This is a Region Free NTSC dvd, which hasn't had UK release, & i think the reason is that it's not really that good! No wonder i'd never heard of it, They can't even get the title right! When the credits start rolling, it's actually called 'Terror in the Crypt'. I knew i was taking a chance, as it's really an Italian film with an Italian cast, & aside from Christopher Lee & Ursula Davis, there's one other English actor, & even he's not very good! Even though it was made inn 1964, it's a black & white film, & the Italian technology of the day obviously wasn't very advanced, because it looks & sounds as though it was made 30yrs earlier, from a technical point of view, & there's obviously no restoration on the disc. Anyway, the film is loosely based Sheridan Le Fanu's Countess 'Carmilla Karnstein' work. It's like an earlier version of Hammer's: 'The Vampire Lovers', but much tamer! Unlike Ingrid Pitt getting it on with Maddy Smith & others in 1970, this version's lesbianism is only suggestively hinted at. Lee plays Count Karnstein, who sends for a doctor to help his sick daughter Laura. Her nurse believes she is possessed by the spirit of her dead ancestor Carmilla. Meanwhile, the beautiful Ursula Davis turns up playing Lyuba, who becomes intrigued by the mysterious deaths surrounding Laura after a carriage accident outside the castle forces her to stay. She becomes closer & closer to Laura, & of course it's the re-incarnated Carmilla, who back for her revenge on the Karnstein family after she was executed by the rest of the famliy for her 'evil ways'. The film is really played all out for atmosphere, & to be fair, they do succeed in making a very atmospheric film, which has some nice incidental music to back it up. But unfortunately, aside from Carmillla's gradual seduction of Laura, there's not really that much to it. We re-live Carmilla's execution via a dream sequence, & there's the young doctor who starts digging into the mysterious Karnstein past, but there's no actual evidence of vampirism in the film at all. In fact Carmilla is presented more as though she were a witch, rather than a vampire. After a bit of investigation, it turns out that this film has been known under several different names, the original being: 'La Cripta e l'incubo', released as 'Crypt of Horror' in the UK, & 'Terror in the Crypt', which is the American title we see on the screen. Although calling it 'Crypt of the Vampire' is slightly misleading, as any vampirism is not specifically brought to light, as it were. Christopher Lee's presence is a bonus, & he's suitably aristocratic as Count Karnstein, but even so, it's more of a background role than anything. Nothing to get his teeth into. So all in all, a bit of a disappointing film really. I was struggling to stay interested after the first half hour. So only a 4/10 score. It's basically a couple of points for the atmosphere it creates, a point for Lee, & a point for everything else. Unfortunately, all the 'atmosphere' in the world, isn't enough on it's own, to make a good film. |
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