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The Vampire and the Ballerina 1960
BLOOD-LUSTING FIEND WHO PREYS ON GIRLS! VAMPIRE-QUEEN WHO FEEDS ON LIFEBLOOD OF MEN!
The Vampire and the Ballerina also known as “L’amante del vampiro,” is a 1960 Italian horror film directed by Renato Polselli. The film is notable for its blend of vampire lore and dance elements.
In a remote European village, a ballet troupe arrives at a doctor’s house that lies at the edge of a nearby castle to rehearse. The castle however is inhabited by vampires who seek to use the girl’s blood.
Among the dancers is a beautiful ballerina named Louisa played by Hélène Rémy. The village is rumored to be cursed by the vampires who live in the old ruins. As the ballet troupe rehearses for their performance, they become entangled in a series of gruesome murders.
The Vulture 1966
The Vulture 1966 is a British horror film directed by Lawrence Huntington. It’s an obscure offbeat horror film that has a strange vibe that to me almost feels like a strange fuzzy dream you don’t want to bother resorting to Jung to figure out. It is set in The film stars Robert Hutton( Man Without a Body 1957, Invisible Invaders 1959, The Slime People 1963, Trog 1970).
Read my feature on Invisible Invaders HERE:
An American atomic researcher Eric Lutens escapes to Cornwall to take a break from work and visit with his wife Trudy’s (Diane Clair) family.
In the heart of this chilling tale, a mythological creature emerges— with the face and hands of a human but the imposing colossal body of a monstrous vulture that rises up from its grave having been buried alive centuries ago and moved to an old church cemetery, now seeks vengeance on the descendants on those who put it there.
A school teacher Annette Carrell as Ellen West cutting through the church graveyard during a stormy night is frightened beyond belief and the shock sends her hair ghostly white and leaves her in a mental hospital raving mad with her unreal story telling it to anyone who will listen. The livestock are inextricably going missing, one of the local sheep is found torn to bits in a cave.
The unearthing of a golden coin and the revelation of an open grave cast an eerie spotlight on an unusual local legend. Many centuries in the past, a man named Francis Real had fallen under suspicion of practicing witchcraft. He met a gruesome fate, being seized and buried alive alongside his peculiar companion—a strange vulture-like bird along with a chest filled with valuable gold coins.
The ominous tale went on to recount that Francis Real had sworn an oath to exact revenge upon the descendants of the local squire who had supervised his burial. This unsettling revelation deeply troubles Eric, as it turns out that the cursed man had been an ancestor of Trudy’s, sending chills down their spines as they grapple with the implications of this ominous family connection.
A vigilant gamekeeper catches the faint echo of what appears to be a remarkably large bird flying over the estate owned by Trudy’s eldest surviving relative, Brian Stroud (Broderick Crawford). Intrigued he discovers a mysterious black feather on the ground.
Eric sends it to a renowned expert specializing in local avian species. His hope is that this expert can shed light on the identity of the bird, this feather belongs to. Enter Akim Tamiroff as Professor Koniglich, a local historian who needs to get around using two canes as a result of an accident. He has had dealings with Brian over the years.
Additionally, we meet Brian’s brother, Edward (Gordon Sterne) who resides in a nearby town. Koniglich listens intently to Eric’s story and hints at being intrigued by science. Eric, who works with research on atomic mutation theorizes that someone has been experimenting which ultimately created this giant monstrous bird that carries off Crawford in its gigantic vulture-like talons.
Eric panics and realizes that Trudy is the creature’s next victim. Without a moment to lose, he races back to the quiet Cornish town, but it’s a race against time as Trudy is suddenly snatched from a desolate road near the Professor’s house. The menacing beast with large claws descends from above and snatches her away.
When he gets to the Professor’s and uncovers the astonishing secret concealed within the basement—an advanced nuclear-powered laboratory. There he finds a skeleton seated at a control panel, alongside a casket that has been broken open containing the gold coins. It appears that the Professor, driven by his obsession with his lust for gold, used his equipment to switch his matter with what lay inside the buried coffin.
But the Professor’s experiment backfired when his atoms mingled with the remains of the bird, resulting in the emergence of a grotesque composite creature that had broken free from its grave.
Making his way to the hidden cave nestled within the cliffs, he confronts the Professor who in a twist is unmasked as having a colossal bird-like body concealed beneath the cloak he had always worn. The reason for the canes. In a climactic showdown, Eric shoots the creature and stumbles into the sea below the cliffs.
Vampire Circus 1972
The Circus of Nights. A hundred delight!
Vampire Circus 1972 is an extraordinarily underrated atmospheric British horror film directed by Robert Young. A village in 19th-century Europe is more than happy to welcome a traveling circus who has broken through the quarantine to take the locals’ minds off the plague. But soon their children begin to disappear and the legacy of a long-ago massacre comes full circle. Vampire Circus stars Adrience Corri as the enigmatic Gypsy and Anthony Higgens as the equally beguiling Emil. John Moulder-Brown as Anton Kersh, Richard Owens as Dr. Kersh, Laurence Payne as Albert Mueller, Thorley Walters as the Burgermeister, Lynn Frederick as Dora Mueller, Domini Blyth as Anna and Mary Wimbush as Elvira.
The story is set in a small European village plagued by a deadly outbreak of the plague. The villagers, fearing for their lives, decide to quarantine the town and prevent anyone from entering or leaving. However, a mysterious and theatrical circus that create a fairytale atmosphere once it arrives in the village, seemingly out of nowhere.
The circus, led secretly by the enigmatic Count Mitterhaus, played by Robert Tayman, becomes a source of fascination and curiosity for the villagers. Little do they know that this circus is no ordinary one. It is a front for a group of vampires who have come to the village to satisfy their thirst for blood and revenge. It’s been 15 years since the village slain the evil Count Mitterhause, yet they have been living under his shadow ever since. A plague has left them cut off from the world and they believe the Count has cursed them.
The circus finally seems to bring a little joy into the lives of these tormented souls performing acrobatics, and feats of magic changing themselves into animals. But this traveling horror show has come to avenge their Count’s death and use of the blood of their victims to resurrect him from his tomb.
As the circus performances unfold, the vampires use their supernatural abilities to seduce and feed upon the villagers, leading to a series of gruesome deaths. Among the victims is the village teacher’s daughter, whose death prompts her father and a group of locals to confront the malevolent circus and its colorful performing vampires.
Alternatie versions:The BBFC examiners originally required heavy cuts to the film but many of these were successfully waived after Hammer consulted BBFC head Stephen Murphy. Among the cuts were shots of Hauser’s burnt face (reduced from 2 to 1), a face stabbing during the opening skirmish in the castle (removed completely), some bloody shots during the climactic decapitation, the whipping of Gerta, erotic elements of the circus ‘whip’ dance, and shots of the mutilated panther victims in the forest. However the latter scenes seem to have been reduced rather than cut, leaving the results somewhat ambiguous. It is unlikely that the cut footage still survives, and all later video and DVD releases feature the UK cinema print.
