HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2019: The Blood Drinkers (1964)

Another day without a sponsor, and another international film chosen by the Randomizer.  It turns out it’s a pretty significant one, as it is supposedly the first horror film to be shot in color in the Philippines. 

...and of course it’s about fucking vampires.


Now let's get this out of the way...while there are full color sequences, the bulk of this film is tinted black and white.  There are some weird attempts to justify the tinting (at one point the Van Helsing character insists they return to a morgue because of a sudden red glow!), but mainly the film just suddenly switches from full color to tint and back without explanation.  Apparently, it was because color stock was scarce in the Phillipines in 1964, but if that was the case, why not just not attempt a color film?

This nonsensical nugget concerns Dr. Marco (Ronald Remy), who is a diabolical vampire who bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Pitbull* cosplaying as Dracula.  We know he's a diabolical vampire because he employs a hunchback named Gordo, a little person and a Vampira-a-like (Eva Montes, who we know is evil because she wears, eye shadow and stuff).  They're all trying to use some sort of medical apparatus--part of which looks like the head of a Dalek--to revive Dr. Marco's Great Love, Katrina.  To do so, Katrina needs a new heart, preferably that of her twin sister Charito (both played by Amalia Fuentes).  Luckily, Charito can depend on Victor (Eddie Fernandez), who professes to love her, and the local priest, who bears an uncanny resemblance to John Carridine, to protect her from Dr. Marco's evil attentions.

There’s no way around it; this is a silly-ass movie.  The shabby quality of the production and its choppy script kept reminding me of Mexican films of the same era that have an out-of-date quality to them like The Brainiac or one of the endless films featuring wrestlers fighting monsters.  Characterization is non-existent and riddled with stiff, unnatural dialogue.  There’s this sense that director Gerardo DeLeon is trying to evoke the same gothic atmosphere as Hammer (much like The Whip And The Body) in the hopes of fooling moviegoers but is incapable of doing so.  There are some elements--the outdated Chevrolet running about, the use of road flares in the climax to vanquish the vampires--that forces us into the modern age in spite of its ambitions.  And the attempts to create their own aspects of the vampire legend, like the news that instead of blood, a substance like glue runs through the undead's veins that prevents guns from wounding them, is just...befuddling.

And then there’s the least special of special effects, which is embodied by Bastra, an utterly adorable bat puppet that I thought was a transformed Marco when it is actually was a pet of the villain.   Supposedly this was a single shot the American producer insisted on throwing in more often because he liked it too much, and it’s hard to take it as a threat when it’s so cute.  The make-up effects are of such a corner joke shop variety--Gordo’s hillbilly teeth are particularly hilarious--that just make it hard for me to believe that this was a film that actually played in drive-in theaters here in America.

The Blood Drinkers is just a terrible, terrible, sad little movie that never quite achieves that wacky feel you get from similar low budget productions.  It’s not recommended, not even for laughs.

We have no sponsor tomorrow again, so I’ve used the Randomizer...and it’s led me to Warning Shadows, a 1923 German silent film that involves jealousy, witchcraft and shadow puppetry.  You gotta admit you’ve never heard anything quite like that before....

If you’d like to get me to watch a movie of your own choice during the Halloween Horrorfest, please consider joining the Domicile of Dread Patreon at the $3 Tier or greater.  Each new patron gets a free slot in this Gauntlet of Ghoulishness!

*--You remember Pitbull, don’t you?  He’s still a thing.