Customer Reviews

Crypt of the Vampire

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"La Cripta e l'incubo" (which does not really translate as "Crypt of the Vampire," the DVD title) is a 1964 Italian horror film that stars Christopher Lee and has a nice sense of atmosphere, but not much else to recommend it for horror fans. Things are not looking good when you find out that the film was released under the titles "La Maledizione dei Karnstein" in Italy and "La Maldicion de los Karnstein" in Spain (it was a joint Italian-Spanish production), and originally known as "Crypt of Horror" in the U.K. and "Terror in the Crypt" in the U.S. It was also shown under the names "Carmilla," "Catharsis," "Karnstein," "The Crypt and the Nightmare," "The Curse of the Karnsteins," "The Karnstein Curse," and "The Vampire's Crypt." But this atmospheric horror film does have its moments.

The whole deal starts way back when Carmilla, a vampire witch, is being executed and with her dying breath lays a curse on her family, the Karnsteins. Several generations later Count Ludwig Karnstein (Lee) has sent for a historian, Klaus (Jose Campos), to discover what Carmilla looked like. That is because Rowena, the old, nurse is convinced that the Count's daughter Laura (Audrey Amber, a.k.a. Adriana Ambesi) has been possessed by the spirit of her ancestor and the curse is supposed to go into affect the next time there is a Karnstein who looks like Carmilla. The other major character in the story is Lyuba (Ursula Davis), who becomes Laura's friend and companion after being injured in a carriage accident near the castle. But when Laura has a nightmare about killing Lyuba by biting her neck, she wakes up to find Lyuba is alive, but has two bite marks on her neck. The next thing we know there are a whole bunch of vampire murders, and even Laura is starting to believe that it is Carmilla who is forcing her to kill from beyond the crypt. What else could be the explanation?

The script is based on the 1872 vampire novella "Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan La Fanu, a 19th century Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. "Carmilla" actually predates Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and is considered by some to have been an influence on the most famous vampire novel of them all. However, there are so many people who had a hand in the story and the script that it is not surprising things get a bit muddled here. Director Camillo Mastrocinque, known as "Thomas Miller" for this production, does achieve a nice sense of atmosphere, aided by the black & white cinematography of Julio Ortas, and there are attempts to make the gothic elements a bit more up to date for the thrills and chills. I think "La Cripta e l'incubo" would have been stronger if they had spent the money getting a better female lead instead of spending it to have Lee's face and name on the poster, because he is not really a central character here. But there are enough nice little moments to justify rounding up on this one.

Though only superficially faithful to Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's famous novella, "Carmilla," this picture merits praise for its consistent visual distinction, and a unity of mood, (elsewhere, and accurately described as "stately") that lift it far above the overpraised (and dramatically disjointed) "Castle of the Living Dead" which Mr. Lee completed about the same time.

Allegedly set in Styria, but filmed in Italy, this film boasts deep focus black and white cinematography that clearly takes its visual cues from Bava's "Black Sunday." Indeed, this film even features a witch condemnation sequence rather similar to the one depicted in the earlier film.

The castle interiors are alive with looming shadows, the rooms dressed with the appropriate paraphernalia of the genre, (flaming braziers, suits of armor, baroque prickets and saint statues; while the exteriors contain some of the most enchanting landscapes one could wish for--not to mention unforgettable nightscapes--as of two women fleeing across a hillside in billowing peignoirs and lit by the moon, (rather like the cover of a Phyllis Whitney novel).

Also in its favor are some scenes quite faithful to Mr. Le Fanu's original, as in the barouche accident which occasions the arrival of the vampiress, (here re-named "Luba" for inexplicable reasons).

There are some demerits: a heroine that looks like a cross between Barbara Streisand and Maria Callas, and an Elke Sommerish Lady in Waiting whose adulterous relationship with Mr. Lee seems entirely gratuitous.

Nonetheless, admirers of 1960s Italian gothics need to re-examine this piece which is often unfairly dismissed, as it warrants far more attention and respect than such slush as "Terror Creatures From the Grave."

Great reviews of this movie folks....but where's the technical information about the dvd quality?
The print is the best available, much more detail and less dirt than the bootleg releases. BUT-Retromedia has spent ZERO money on cleaning up this film and some flaws are pretty visible. The title "Terror in the Crypt" is shown at the beginning, but sources claim this is the uncut Euro version-it is different that the AIP bootleg dvd I own. There are NO extras and NO chapters on this disc...VERY NAUGHTY...but that seems to be an alarming new trend. The 1.85:1 ratio with anamorphic enhancement looks very nice and not forced as with other Retromedia dvds, where the films were made widescreen by simply adding the black bars. Compared to newcomer Dark Sky Films recently released films, this dvd could use some better production. There is no doubt that the upcoming Dark Sky version of "Slaughter of the Vampires" will be much cleaner than Retromedia's dvd that was released last year. Let's hope that Retromedia either improves the condition of their dvds or Dark Sky continues to re-release former Retromedia films. The competition is out there and the price is cheaper than these " no frills" Retromedia discs. BTW, I did like the dvd cover.

Mostly this movie was pretty much what I expected.The great Criss Lee and the print wasn't too bad.My biggest gripe about this movie was that it definately wasn't widescreen as advertised.I can't stand this.Is this done on purpose or just laziness.Unless they're talking about the 1/16th inch black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.Whoopee!I say enough of this false advertising.Let's get our guns and move out.Just kidding.I got enough trouble without the eefa-bee-eye coming here.

the dvd was full frame that i got. the very same one that is pictured. i'm just wondering did i get the wrong aspect ratio because the case said WIDESCREEN? have other people had this problem or am i wrong about something? over all an excellent movie.

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.

OK, I'm not out to create any spoilers for anybody, but I think that due to the deliberately misleading and dishonest retitling of this film by the DVD makers (--I was highly dismayed when I went to play it to find that the actual title on the film itself is "Terror in the Crypt") it needs to be made crystal clear to any potential buyers out there that there are NO actual vampires in this film.

Black magic? Yes. Some (mildly) spooky atmosphere? Yes. -- But no vampires.

This is one of those typical early-60s horror films that promised the audiences lots of thrills and chills in the trailers, but never really delivers. Instead it is an extremely tame and slow-moving B & W film featuring horror movie great Christopher Lee bringing his audience-drawing name to the Italian film studio and putting in an extremely subdued turn in the role of the morose Count Karnstein.

It seems that one of the Count's ancestors had been put to death by the family as a witch, and had cursed all of their descendants, vowing to someday return and wreak revenge. The Count hires a young man (--the typical handsome "hero" type that all these early-60s movies had to have--) to come to the isolated castle to research the curse and see if it has anything to do with the his beautiful daughter's terrible nightmares and strange behavior.

The film does have some nicely atmospheric sets, which combined with an effective use of the darkness of the B & W photography, set a decently Gothic tone -- which is why the film still gets a passing 3 stars from me. But unfortunately I feel that overall the script is just plain not that interesting enough to warrant any higher rating than that.

The print itself seems to be quite on the contrasty side. And whenever footage of the exterior of the castle is shown, the film seems quite scratchy. But most of the time the picture appears to be fairly well cleaned up.

But as if lying about the film's title was not enough, the DVD cover also says "Widescreen". But I could find no sign of it being so, except perhaps that there seemed to be about 1 inch cut off from the picture all around the edge of the screen when I watched it on my regular TV. Is this what they meant by "widescreen"? -- I'm no expert so I'll let you be the judge. Just be warned that it definitely does NOT have the characteristic black bars across the top and bottom of the screen as most widescreen format films do.

So overall, I found this quite a disappointing purchase. Christopher Lee seems wasted in a dull supporting role, and the film just does not have much of a bang to it. To the curious, I'd recommend renting first rather than buying. Otherwise you may find yourself left with regrets like I now am.

In a word: boring. I love Christopher Lee, and would watch him in nearly anything, but this was just a boring film. Slow. Tedious. And the image quality isn't very good either. If this was the best available print of the film to transfer to DVD, I'm not sure I would have bothered. Washed out, poor contrast, and just not pleasant to look at. Pass this one up - I wish I had.