The Terrifying Appetite of Spanish Vampires

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In Spain, in the 70s, there were a hell of a lot of vampires. At least if the cinema of the time is to be believed and I see no reason to ever disbelieve what films tell me is real. There were so many vampires that some were relieved to see a werewolf just to have some kind of bloodthirsty ally against those sepulchral creatures of the night.
Here we have examples from three great Spanish vampire films. We kick off with a moment from Javier Aguirre's 1973 classic 'Count Dracula's Great Love' (El gran amor del conde Drácula). Aguirre was plagued with difficulties making this film but managed to create some wonderful effects that make the film shine. I especially love the two vampire girls leaping on to a rooftop.
Then we have, also from 1973, Julio Salvador's 'Crypt of the Living Dead' (La tumba de la isla maldita), more popularly known in the English speaking world as 'Hannah, Queen of the Vampires'. At some point extra footage was shot by Ray Danton. Here we see Teresa Gimpera stalking Mark Damon which quite restores her vitality.
Lastly, we have León Klimovsky's 1971 work of beauty, 'La Noche de Walpurgis' which I first saw under the title of 'Shadow of the Werewolf' but which seems best known as 'The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman' which always struck me as a sad kind of title for a film with so many moments of dreamlike beauty. Accurate enough. There is a fight between a werewolf and a vampire woman. The great Patty Shepard plays Countess Wandesa Dárvula de Nadasdy, clearly a stand in for Erzsébet Báthory aka Countess Dracula, The Bloody Countess of legend adored by surrealists and film-makers alike for her, possibly fictional, atrocities.
I have no idea why Spain suddenly became such a fertile ground for horror films and horror film-makers (which include Jorge Grau and José Larraz) at this time. I think a lot of it may be due to the powerhouse that was Paul Naschy. Maybe it is just that the horror genre is a moveable feast.
Contents
0:00 - Count Dracula's Great Love Vampire Attack
0:21 - Crypt of the Living Dead Hannah's Visions in the Tomb
1:21 - Count Dracula's Great Love Dracula's Brides on the Prowl
1:38 - La Noche De Walpurgis Visions of Countess Wandesa Dárvula de Nadasdy
2:11 - Crypt of the Living Dead Hannah hunts Peter
2:31 - La Noche De Walpurgis The Countess Wandesa Dárvula de Nadasdy Feeding
3:37 - La Noche De Walpurgis A Brand New Vampire
3:44 - Crypt of the Living Dead Hannah Sated
4:03 - La Noche De Walpurgis Smoky Corridor
4:13 - Count Dracula's Great Love Vampires Can Jump
4:22 - La Noche De Walpurgis The Countess Wandesa Dárvula de Nadasdy Sad
4:42 - Count Dracula's Great Love Vampires Without Invitations
4:54 - La Noche De Walpurgis Patty Shepard
5:09 - Count Dracula's Great Love The Problem with Sunlight
Music: AETHER by Density and Time
#vampires #spanishvampires #bathory #spanishcinema #70shorror #spanishhorror #leonklimovsky #pattyshepard #70scinema #horrorfilms

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Опубликовано:

28 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 17

@pierremercier4724 19 дней назад

Thank you so much for these most than desirable discoveries. I didn't know these movies. As you put it so aptly, Spain was a real fertile ground for vampires movies in the 1970's. But, sadly, probably for distribution and budget issues, a lot of these movies are unknown for a large audience of vampire movies goers. What I like in Spanish vampire movies of this era is the liberty movie directors took with classic themes in this kind of content. In many vampire movies made before, it was almost a man's world. Female characters being most often reduced to mere assistants to their master. In the excerpts you offer us in your video, the female characters occupy a full place. They act with much more freedom and define their own attack strategies when the time comes to feed. I also really like the dreamlike and surreal sequences of these films. They allow the viewer to enter a completely different world, fertile ground for all fantasies. And, in my opinion, this «extra-human» dimension is one of the sources of «the disturbing strangeness» (dixit Freud) and the seduction-repulsion relationship that invades us deliciously at the sight of these delirious scenes. So many journeys to the unreal that make us forget, at least temporarily, the heavy monotony of our daily life that sometimes assails us. These movies could be seen as «a dream within a dream», as Edgar Allan Poe would say.

@dreamsofprojectedlight 19 дней назад

Thank you. That is very eloquently put and sums up many of the things I also feel about this genre. I must confess that, in general, the most powerful figure in many of the Spanish horror films of this period is the male figure (usually played by Paul Naschy) and I might have hidden this by choosing clips that don't show that male figure at all. The sequences with the female vampires always seem more dreamlike and beautiful because they exist in a world where physical strength seems secondary to seductive and magical feminine forces. I also like the reference you make to Freud's essay on the 'unheimlich' (the only work of Freud's I ever read in full as I'm not much of an intellectual but I do love horror stories), that uncanny sense of something just a little off from our sense of what reality should be. As you say, it provides a counterpoint, a release from the concerns of our waking lives. It also connects us to a mythic world that modernity has detached us from. Something terrible and wonderful that our logical mind resists but which some deeper part of our psyche yearns for.

@pierremercier4724 19 дней назад

@@dreamsofprojectedlight In turn, let me thank you for answering me with such insight and depth. It is rather rare for video creators to bother. I see that you are a fine connoisseur of horror films in addition to having a solid general culture. It’s as much a pleasure to read you as it is to watch your videos. I look forward to watching your next content. Excellent day.

@hoibsh21 27 дней назад

My favorite movies, excellent choices, great music !

@dreamsofprojectedlight 27 дней назад

They are wonderful movies to sit back and find yourself a little lost in.

@hoibsh21 27 дней назад

@@dreamsofprojectedlight Also thx for cleaning up the prints !

@putmynameontheinternet8133 7 дней назад

Am I the only one whose initial reaction was “ok we get it. Close your mouths and stop weezing so much.”

@dreamsofprojectedlight 7 дней назад

I thought the wheezing was part of the charm of the whole thing.

@rogercroft3218 Месяц назад

A lovely dreamlike sequence.

@dreamsofprojectedlight Месяц назад

Thanks. These films all have these amazing sequences that make you feel you might have dreamt them.

@robstanton4630 20 дней назад

Thanks for this, very creepy! Some of these are on Tubi.

@dreamsofprojectedlight 20 дней назад

Interesting to know. I had no idea what Tubi is until your comment. Thanks.

@STR123able Месяц назад

Well done. Bravo!

@dreamsofprojectedlight Месяц назад

Thank you.

@michaelnewton5873 23 дня назад

Actually have bottom fangs 🎉 So many don't think cat or dog teeth.

@JoseRoberto-bf6to 17 дней назад

Name Of the movie ?

@dreamsofprojectedlight 17 дней назад

@@JoseRoberto-bf6to Three movies. Full titles in the description but the English titles are... Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman, Hannah Queen of Vampires and Count Dracula's Great Love