The first few minutes of this flick give you an idea of where you're headed. Some great mist-enshrouded tombs, a great gang of villains (a bald vampire and his slinky bride, both wearing dark glasses, a dwarf, a hunchback and an old lady) and some startling monochrome cinematography are on the plus side. On the minus is some really dopey dialogue, lots of wasted shots of people staring at each other, and clumsy editing that leaves you totally confused as to who is who and what the heck is going on. There's a bizarre music interlude as a gang of guys serenade a woman who we think is the main actress, only she gets bumped off in an unexpolained attack a couple of minutes later. After all of this confusion, we move into the story proper, that has the feeling that they made stuff up as they went along, as nothing seems to flow narratively. OK. I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane here. But I think the big flaw in this film is that it takes itself too seriously. It needed to have the same crazy drive that was shown in the Movie Trailers in the DVD's extras section (these are great). But instead, it kind of plods along from one killing to the next. To make matters worse, the scenes of violence seem to be cut - just as someone's about the get their throat ruptured or a vampire is about to get staked with a giant wooden cross, the camera cuts away to an onlooker gasping in horror. This film could have done with more doses of blood as a way of diverting your attention from the heaps of illogical goings-on. It's an okay piece - but more of a curiosity than a camp classic.
