The Slaughter of the Vampires (1962)

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This was renowned as the best of the 3 virtually interchangeable vampire 'classics' emanating from Italy early into their Gothic Horror phase; however, while that may be so, it is still nothing to write home about! I am not sure about THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA (1960) since it has been some time from my sole viewing of it, but this at least maintains a period setting throughout (beginning with villagers rising up against a bloodsucking couple). Incidentally, while Walter Brandi also turns up here, he is not the monster – the latter, in fact, is played by Dieter Eppler and he proves one of the hammiest ever depicted, while hilariously looking like Criswell from the Ed Wood movies! Brandi, then, makes for an ineffectual lead (he is even bitten twice throughout, offering virtually no opposition to his female assailants!) – though he does contrive to ambiguously participate in the climax, where we are unsure whether he intends harming a little girl or not, before trapping Eppler and proceeding to impale him with the pointed edges of a wooden gate! During the course of the film, Eppler manages to vampirize two ladies: Brandi's wife Graziella Granata (who is virtually put under a spell by the villain, whose coffin is hidden in their country-estate's wine-cellar!) – an unintentionally amusing scene has her responding to Eppler's disembodied voice, then he nonchalantly appears from behind a nearby tree! – and her maid (who looks an awful lot like a plumper version of Isabelle Adjani!). The most impressive member of the cast is Paolo Solvay, actually a pseudonym for director Luigi Batzella (best-known for the nonsensical erotic Gothic NUDE FOR Satan [1974]), here appearing as Dr. Nietzche(!) and evoking Peter Cook, of all people, in appearance – in his case, the most hilarious bit has him telling Brandi of Granata's imminent demise and getting no reaction whatsoever (incidentally, the English dialogue of this one is exceedingly stilted, which may well have been an intentional choice so as to complement Eppler's stagy performance)! Another future film-maker, Alfredo Rizzo, turns up here as well but in a minor role this time around.In conclusion, I recently watched an interview with director Mauri on the "Stracult" program on late-night Italian TV: apart from SLAUGHTER itself (in Italian), this section included scenes from a number of his other efforts…and I was sufficiently intrigued to acquire the black-and-white Giallo NIGHT OF VIOLENCE (1965), the psycho-drama MADELINE, STUDY OF A NIGHTMARE (1974; with Camille Keaton, and whose failure through poor distribution Mauri particularly bemoaned) and THE PORNO KILLERS (1980; albeit in its softer original form) soon after!

"The Slaughter of the Vampires" is an ambiguously titled (are the vampires doing the slaying here or being killed off themselves?) Italian horror outing from 1962. A fairly paint-by-numbers affair, though filmed in B&W, the film reunites stars Walter Brandi and Alfredo Rizzo from the earlier "Playgirls and the Vampire." Here, Brandi plays Wolfgang, a nobleman in an unnamed country whose new wife, Louise, played by the luscious Graziella Granata, is being preyed on by a vampire so generic that we never even learn his name; call him The Vampire. As portrayed by Dieter Eppler, this neck nosher is so very compelling that poor Louise gives in to his charms almost immediately, soon becoming a most, uh, toothsome vampiress herself. Good thing that Wolfgang has been given the address of a most van Helsing-like doctor in nearby Vienna.... Offering absolutely nothing new to the vampire mythos and no new spins on this hoary staple of the horror genre, "Slaughter" yet has enough pleasurable aspects to merit it a mild recommendation. For one, Eppler is pretty darn impressive as the undead seducer, and when he speaks, his words are like pure poetry. The film has been given some interesting directorial touches and camera angles by Roberto Mauri, actually does have atmosphere to spare, and builds to an exciting conclusion. Perhaps best of all, a piano-dominated, dreamy and evocative score has been provided by Aldo Piga that effectively brings an air of otherworldliness to the entire affair. The picture really isn't that bad; just completely unoriginal and wholly derivative. Anybody out there know the Italian expression for "been there, done that"?

One would imagine that this film came out of those pocket books so popular with the ladies. It is a Gothic romance from start to finish with sumptuous sets, heaving bosoms and formal attire.Graziella Granata is absolutely gorgeous even in black and white, and she falls into the vampire's (Dieter Eppler) trap immediately. Here husband (Walter Brandi) is absolutely clueless at what is happening right under his nose.Don't worry, the fearless doctor knows what he is dealing with and chases the vampire and his minions to extinction - or , based on current HBO programming - to Louisiana.

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD: I have a weakness for European low-budget horror films from the 1960s so I watched this film wanting very much to find some good in it. Unfortunately, my attempt was in vain. Walter Brandi (spelled "Brandy" in the credits) plays the vampire (or one of them). He had been in a movie before this called THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA where he sported a cool make-up job. Well, he has no such cool make-up job in this film. In fact, there's not much of anything cool in this film. The music score is nothing special. The B&W photography isn't that great and neither are the sets. It's mostly a bunch of un- interesting people sitting around talking for the greater part of it's running time. WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD:At the end, the vampire is staked and disintegrates. Sound cool? Don't bet on it. If you want cool disintegration scenes, see FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) or HORROR OF DRACULA (1958) or THE EVIL DEAD (1982). If you want to see a disintegration scene handled poorly, watch as the filmmakers dissolve from Walter Brandi to a series of drawings of withered heads then a skull then nothing. Also, the drawings move about in relation to one another with each dissolve. I made a better disintegration scene as a kid with a Super 8 camera and some modelling clay. After seeing this, I understand why it isn't even mentioned in most books about horror films.