The Film:
Back in the sixties, low budget horror films were all the craze with many of them focusing on blood sucking vampires. In the UK a lot of the films were 'hammer horror' films and became quite well known, but there were also plenty of vampire films to come from the rest of Europe such as Black Sunday by legendary director Mario Bava and Vampyros Lesbos by another legendary director, Jess Franco. 1962 saw the release of a much lesser known film from a lesser regarded director (Roberto Mauri), which had the original title of La Strage Dei Vampiri. Also known as Curse Of The Blood Ghouls, Dark Sky Films have gone with the title Slaughter Of The Vampires for this release.
Slaughter Of The Vampires places itself in a castle in which a vampire has taken residence in the cellar, unknown to the new owners, Louise (Graziella Granata) and Wolfgang (Walter Brandi). At a housewarming party, Louise falls ill and whilst Wolfgang continues to meet the guests, she is asked to dance by a mystery man. Straight after she goes to bed and the mystery man walks off without anyone knowing who he actually is. Eventually we learn he is a vampire who then manages to get Louise under his spell so it is up to Wolfgang and a couple of accomplices to save her and kill the vampire.
Unfortunately, whilst the film isn't bad, it isn't very good either. The plot is everything you expect from a second rate low budget vampire film and follows a very formulaic route from the storyline, to the types of characters (a busty damsel in distress, a vampire hunting doctor etc). The acting is average in every sense of the word with the main cast members doing little to push themselves, giving the film a very wooden feel. The score by Aldo Piga is also average suffering from he fact it sounds like every other score for a vampire film out there. Altogether, the film pushes itself through the motions of the genre, failing to grasp any of the aspects in full swing and barely maintaining interest. There's nothing new here so I can only rceommend it to genre fans.
The DVD:
Video:
Dark Sky Films have given the film a 1.78:1 transfer which has been anamorphically enhanced. Whilst certainly not a 'poor' transfer, it does have several problems throughout, including plenty of grain and some very noticeable scratches. On the other hand, I doubt there will be a pristine print available for the film due to it's age and the fact the studio who made it went bankrupt pretty quickly after the film was made.
Audio:
Dark Sky Films have given us just one option for the soundtrack and that is English Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono. To be frank, it is perfectly adequate and despite the occasional snap, crackle and pop, dialogue is clear and volume levels are consistent. Whilst an upmixed track to maybe even just stereo would have been a welcome addition, I highly doubt that it would've done much for the experience.
Optional subtitles are included in English.
Extras:
We start the extras off with an interview with Dieter Epper who plays the vampire in the film. Through brutal honesty he tells us how the production of the film was ripe with problems and that a lot of the cast and crew went unpaid, with the studio going bankrupt. I would've liked the interview to be more of a retrospective on the film and involved other people aswell, but I have no complaints here.
We also get an image gallery and trailer.
