Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (1973)

Very disappointed :(

Excellent, a Must See

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

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Archaeologist Chris Bolton (a typically excellent and engaging performance by the always reliable Andrew Prine) comes across a vampire burial ground while working on a scientific dig in turkey and unleashes lethal vampire queen Hannah (the beauteous and bewitching Teresa Gimpera) from her tomb. Meanwhile, Bolton romances local school teacher Mary (an appealing portrayal by striking brunette Patty Shepard).Directors Julio Salvador and Ray Danton keep the enjoyable story moving along at a steady pace, make good use of the scenic Turkish locations, do a bang-up job of crafting a supremely spooky'n'dreamy ooga-booga atmosphere, deliver a few nice bits of gore, and pull out the stirring stops for the lively and exciting climax. The solid acting from the capable cast keeps this picture on track: Mark Damon makes a likable impression as the helpful Peter, Ihsan Gedik has a ball as a ferocious wild man, Frank Bana does well as a sage blind doomsayer, and Edward Walsh cuts a suitably imposing figure as the gruff Ali. Juan Gelpi's elegant cinematography provides a wealth of stunning visuals. Phillip Lambro's shivery score hits the spine-tingling spot. A fun fright flick.

With a title like "Crypt Of The Living Dead" I guess I was expecting a little more in the way of zombie spectacle. Not that I'm particularly a fan of that type of genre, but you have certain expectations. What the picture lacks in horror and gore is suitably replaced by creepy atmosphere, which is probably the highlight of the film. In my case, the print I viewed was quite poor in sound quality; it was part of a twenty film DVD pack from Mill Creek Entertainment, and as one other viewer mentioned, the black and white format was certainly preferred for the subject matter. I actually learned more about the story from some of the other reviewers on this board than from watching the flick, but then again, I was able to pick up all the information I needed from a handful of scenes that moved the story along.OK, so Hannah (Teresa Gimpera) 1269 is a vampire looking none the worse for wear and fresh as a daisy from a seven hundred year long dirt nap. A little weak in the knees, her transformation into a werewolf is designed to buy time by feasting on other animals while gaining strength to do in some eventual humans. Not a bad concept, and actually quite sensible when you get right down to it. What really distracted me from the story was every single appearance of Andrew Prine on screen as Chris Bolton investigating his father's death. He looked like he could be the spitting image of a guy I knew about twenty years ago who's since passed away. That just added a certain intangible creepiness to the whole story for me.Anyway, you won't miss a whole lot if you pass on this one, but at the same time it's not the worst flick to while away a quick seventy five minutes. I'm still puzzled by the idea of a guy in a caveman get-up, but there's not enough there to get hung up about.

"Crypt of the Living Dead" is an extremely low-budgeted Spanish production that centers on the resurrection of a malicious vampire queen after being asleep on an island for nearly 7 whole centuries. Directors Julio Salvador and Ray Danton sure as hell did their best to make Hannah (quite a modern name for an ancient vampire) look like a 700-year-old! This supposedly "evil" lady walks around her territory even slower than my grandmother would walk down a flight of stairs, and she suffers from a severe hernia! On the other hand, Hannah sure has a prettier face than my grandma and I wouldn't mind her sinking her teeth into my neck... Hannah's resurrection is the fault of a young archaeologist who opened the tomb after his own father (accidentally?) got crushed in the tomb. Initially she's still too weak to kill by herself and so she sends out her pet werewolf to do the nasty and bring back the blood of superstitious villagers. Once she has a little more strength, she endangers the island-population herself, and the sexy school teacher in particular. Hannah's walking pace sort of illustrates the entire film: slow, boring and truly annoying. "Crypt of the Living Dead" isn't at all scary or atmospheric, and this despite all the potentially great decors and locations. The events take place on an island, yet you never experience that inescapable feeling. There's no sleaze or gore (or what did you think?), the acting performances are weak and the ending is lame. Most definitely one to skip.

For the most part, Crypt of the Living Dead or Young Hannah: Queen of the Vampires or Vampire Women is a throughly retched movie. All you really need to know about the story is that 700 year old Hannah is released from her tomb on an almost uninhabited island. She bites a few locals and is then dispatched herself. There are so many negative things to say about this film that I'll just mention a few that really bothered me.One, Hannah has got to be the slowest vampire in the history of movie vampires. I've heard complaints about the slow moving Bela Lugosi in Dracula. Bela is like Carl Lewis compared with Hannah.Two, the characters do not act in a logical manner. I'm not talking about logic as you and I know it, but these people don't even act according to "horror movie logic". For example, a big deal is made about the effect of dog's bane(sp) on Hannah. In one scene, it is used to get Hannah to release the movie's hero. Once free of her clutches, he immediately goes after her. But, does he bother to take the dog's bane that was just used to save his life - NO.Third, nothing really happens in the movie. I'm not talking about a slow story. Instead, I'm talking about no story. There is a great long section of the film (the first hour or so) where, literally, nothing happens. It's not till the slow moving Hannah is awakened to prey upon the illogical victims on the island that anything seems to happen.