Customer Reviews

Fangs of the Living Dead

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Released in 1968 as part of a triple-horror-feature for the drive-in crowd, "Fangs" came and went without notice in this country. Supposedly, this is the "American" version. Retromedia--whom I admit I have no respect for due to their poor quality offerings--has done an OK job with this Italian-Spanish vampire mish-mash and I rather enjoyed it. 50's sex bomb Anita Ekberg is miscast as Sylvia--a Rome "bathing suit model"--who is notified she has inherited a castle. On her arrival, it turns out she has inherited it's alleged vampiric/witchcraft legacy as well. The strangely effete and thin "Uncle" who has sent for her has other cards up his sleeve. What follows is a campy Euro effort at atmospheric horror replete with beautiful girls, a dungeon tomb, sinister caretaker, Euro-style barmaids at a local inn and , of course, "vampires" that may or not be real. It's all very "PG" with no gore or nudity but LOTS of cleavage on the girls. There's a typical stiff-as-a-board hero and his comic-relief friend who dash about saying "We've got to save her!" and one line I truly loved from a barmaid to the hero/scientist, "Would you mind having a look at a girl who's not well?" The dubbing is so-so, the acting the pits (but so bad it's a riot) and the photography is typically European style atmospheric but rather endearingly low-budget. Miss Ekberg is a LITTLE too long-in-the-tooth to be a damsel in distress with an obviously younger leading man, but she is still beautiful and displays, in one outfit, some astounding "assets" that are truly eye-bogglers. All in all, not bad if you're in the mood for something like this and especially if you like low-budget "Euro-shockers". The color is good with one shady spot in one scene and the soundtrack has what sounds to be the original continental jazz flavored pop score along with the appropriately creepy stuff. I liked it---maybe you will too.

Sylvia Morell (Anita Ekberg) inherits a castle in the outskirts of the Italian countryside. Upon arrival, she is greeted by a strange, ultra-thin uncle, who tells her of her grandmother named "Malenka" -(this was also the movie's original title)-, sealed in the castle's underground crypt. Thankfully, the castle is also the home of a vampire babe in an eye-popping outfit! She's the sort of gal that could bite my neck any time! There are also two local barmaids, one of whom is afraid she's being turned into a nosferatu. Anyway, the rest of the movie is a confusing trainwreck. However, Ms. Ekberg, the vampire babe, and the two village barmaids made it all rather painless and somehow enjoyable! There's even a vampiric catfight!! Worth a look...

In this 1969 film by Amando de Ossorio (Tombs of the Blind Dead) Ekberg plays an Italian fashion model who inherits a creepy Spanish castle, only to learn that her ancestors were vampires. The sets and costumes are beautiful, but can't compensate for the stiff performances, poor dubbing and slow pacing.

Avoid Retromedia's DVD version. Even though it purports to be the 88-minute "Americanized" version of the film, it's only 74 minutes and appears to be an edited-for-television version.

One and a half stars out of five.

Super-model Anita Ekberg inherits a castle, breaks off her engagement, and falls under the spell of her cold and strange uncle as she learns more of her inheritance and her heritage.
Or something like that. FANGS OF THE LIVING DEAD (aka Bloody Girl, Malenka the Vampire, The Niece of the Vampire and The Vampire's Niece) is hard to follow and probably not worth the trouble. I think Ekberg's grandmother Malenka (also played by Ekberg) was a dabbler in the black arts, outed and burned at the stake by irate villagers just after she'd brought Uncle Max to life, or undeath. Anyway, she's burning while he's fluttering his eyelids and wiggling his fingers. You figure it out.
In any event, there's a spooky castle, a creepy vampire uncle, busty barmaids, a gallant fiancé and trusty sidekick, and bunches of garlic hanging in every innocent window and doorway. This may well have been a satire that will appeal to fans of the genre. I just found it unpleasantly confusing.

A young woman on the verge of marriage discovers that she has inherited a castle and is now a Countess. She decides to visit her new land before her wedding. But once there she finds the castle inhabited by relatives who are vampires. Under a hypnotic thrall she sends word back to her fiancé cancelling the wedding. Fiancé is not put off and journeys to find out what is going on.

Suddenly everyone is being attacked by vampires. The fiancé and a friend set out on a daring rescue with the local doctor.

In the end the whole thing comes off a just silly. The final scene has one of the vampires chasing someone through the bright daylight with no ill effects. One gets the feeling that the film's creators were trying to reproduce the feeling of the Hammer vampire films but failed. The characters' motivations and emotions jump all over the place with little or no consistency. When done one can only wonder who would enjoy this film.

Ok, if this is a "Collector's Edition", I'd hate to see the standard edition- this is a sloppy release at best, with a very grainy image throughout. Also, the Amazon description says "letterboxed" - it's not. It's fullscreen. The title sequence is sort of letterboxed (though the credits are still cut off), but that's it.

The Retrovision release is actually better image quality, though both releases seem to be edited for television. Retro's image is much less grainy and seems to have slightly better (more complete) full-screen image information.

Anita Ekberg plays an engaged woman who finds out she has inherited a castle. When she goes to visit her new home she encounters her trying-to-be-scary but actually boring-you-to-death uncle. She is eventually told the truth, something about her family being vampires and she has to break her engagement and stay with them at the castle.

My God was this movie boring. It adds nothing new or original or even interesting to the vampire genre and NOTHING happens. Everyone speaks slowly so they can elongate the movie whose plot is worthy of about 25 minutes of movie. For a supposed horror film, it is not scary, frightening, bloody, gory, exciting, or psychologically twisted. It is absolutely nothing except a job for non-actress Anita Ekberg and her expansive breasts. That's the one part I'm not complaining about.

This movie started out with lots of potential but went downhill fast. These were the weakest vampires I have ever seen, the movie broke most of the "vampire rules", but on a good note plenty of eye candy.