The Blood Drinkers (1966)

What makes it different from others?

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

To begin with, let me set this straight: none of the Filipino-made horror films I've seen from the '60s and '70s have been very good. They were local produce through and through, designed to emulate classic pictures coming across from the west on a fraction of the budget. Crudely acted and slowly paced, films such as THE MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND are often laughable by today's standards, employing cheesy scares and an almost total disregard for the likes of pace, plot and characterisation. Yet somehow, in some way, these films have a 'feel' all of their own, something that distinguishes them from western fare or indeed other Asian horror films of the era. Maybe it's the sweaty jungle backdrops or the crude way in which attempts are made to jolt the viewer through marauding beast-men and jarring music on the soundtrack. Once seen, never forgotten is a good way to describe their cumulative effect.THE BLOOD DRINKERS is no different. I rate films according to how much entertainment they offer me, and this one doesn't offer a great deal. The acting is okay at best, and the pace is almost non-existent, with great long stretches of nothing much happening. The vampire plot is a predictable spin on Dracula, with an anything-goes mentality that incorporates a beautiful vampire henchwoman, a crazed hunchback and a sadistic little dwarf. Apart from the old-meets-new climax, in which the vampires are attacked by a horde of torch-wielding villagers and the gun-toting local police at the same time, there's hardly any action here, other than a protracted fight sequence with the kind of exaggerated posturing you'd find in an early STAR TREK episode.Even though this is a bad film, there's stuff going for it, mainly in the film's look. Thanks to a low budget, only a handful of sequences are in colour. Director Gerardo De Leon decided to use this to his advantage by tinting the black and white shots with various red or blue filters, each corresponding with the on-screen action. Red signifies the approach of evil, while blue charts the progress of the good characters. It's a clever touch, and one I found greatly enhanced the film no end. Elsewhere, the influences vary from THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN-style paraphernalia in the vampire's lair to the use of spotlights shining on the eyes just like in Lugosi's Dracula, Ronald Remy, who reminded me of Billy Zane, is an nonthreatening vampire, who reminded me a lot of Peter Lorre in MAD LOVE; perhaps that was the intention.For fans of so-bad-it's-good cinema, there's a scene of a man beating up a dwarf which is fairly amusing, as well as some truly pathetic rubber bats which make the ones in THE SCARS OF Dracula look like the latest animatronic models. Otherwise, THE BLOOD DRINKERS is a film just too dated and too unappealing to be enjoyed by the modern viewer.

"Dr. Marco" (Ronald Remy) is a vampire who wants to revive a woman he loves named "Katrina" (Amalia Fuentes) back from the dead. In order to do that he needs to perform a heart transplant and the only acceptable donor is her twin sister "Charito" (also played by Amalia Fuentes). In the meantime, Dr. Marco must keep Katrina alive and so he has people killed so that their blood can be given to her. Naturally, these deaths cause concern among the local populace which makes it quite a bit more difficult for Dr. Marco to complete his operation. Anyway, what I found remarkable about this film was the unique technique of using red-tinted film to signify the presence of vampires. Rather interesting indeed. Likewise, the heavy use of smoke to imitate fog wasn't too bad either. On the other hand, being originally produced in Tagalog and dubbed into English caused the dialogue to seem a bit flat. Additionally, the heavy influence of Roman Catholicism was probably a bit too strong in my opinion. But this was a movie made in the Philippines so perhaps this was customary during this specific time period. In any case, this wasn't a bad movie but the overall production values seemed to be somewhat lacking. That said I rate the movie as slightly below average.

"Kulay Dugo Ang Gabi", also known as "The Blood Drinkers" and "Blood is the Color of Night", is a Filipino horror film. And considering how incredibly cheap and awful all the other horror films have been that I've seen from this country, my hopes were not very high!! "Blood is the Color of Night" turned out to be an incompetent film--though significantly better than any of the previous Filipino horror films I saw-such as "Beast of the Yellow Night", "Brides of Blood", "Mad Doctor of Blood Island" and "Beast of Blood". They were so horrible that "Blood is the Color of Night" appears like Shakespeare in comparison!!The film sometimes actually manages to set an appropriately frightening mood with the fog and the vampire wearing cool wrap-around sunglasses. However, most of the time it just looks like it was made by Ed Wood's brother--with screaming bats on strings, narration to explain WHAT is happening, weird and inexplicably tinted scenes (the pink ones were especially hard on the eyes though they also came in many other colors as well as full color), the bald vampire with a whip, Maura's bad hairdo and some really bad acting and writing.The plot involves the head vampire (the bald guy) saying that he needs to do a heart transplant on his bride. Now, if she is a vampire or going to become one, I can't see any reason that he should be doing surgery (after all, isn't she supposed to be dead?)! I also wasn't sure why he had to get her sister's heart. And, I have no idea why he repeatedly did NOT take this heart when he had many good opportunities. Of course, the same could be said about the handsome hero. When baldy beat him in a kung fu fight, he could have and should have killed the hero...but he just let him go!! Any vampire this stupid deserves to lose by the end of the film! But, weirdly, the movie has a very, very, very strange and inexplicable ending--one you just have to see to believe (such as the vampire using a gun and the hero using a flare gun)! Overall, a silly but watchable film. Not at all good but considering the source, it could have been a lot worse!!By the way, can anyone tell me why Mr. Vampire called his henchman 'Gordo' (Spanish for 'Fatso')? The guy was a skinny hunchback! And what's with the name calling? Is this any way to treat your devoted followers? He should remember that it IS hard to get good help.

Sorry to demystify the cinematography but it was a question of COST. Color film stock was prohibitively expensive then and the producers couldn't afford to shoot all the scenes in color. This practice was prevalent in the Philippine film industry in the late 60's/early 70's. I remember a billboard advertising a comedy as "filmed in partly color"(sic). If the visual inconsistencies tended to enhance the narrative and add to the creepy character of the movie, well and good. So, there it is--another mystery gone.Incidentally, it is not widely known that Gerry De Leon was an MD but never practiced this profession. His family was in the movie business and he promptly went into it after graduating from med school.