Blood of the Vampires (Cinematic Titanic)

Film Year:  1966
Genre:  Horror
Director:  Gerardo de Leon
Starring:  Amalia Fuentes, Romeo Vasquez, Eddie Garcia
CT Number:  7

The Movie

Imagine Days of Our Lives in 19th century Mexico.  Played by Filipinos.  With vampires.  And blackface.  Yes you read that right, us gringos aren't the only ones who can pull a Robert Downey Jr.!

"What do you mean 'You People?'"

Initially titled Whisper to the Wind, Blood of the Vampires is fairly drama focused for a vampire movie.  I think one could make the argument that the drama is more successful than your average Twilight movie, though that's nothing to write home about.  This story features a family discovering that their father keeps their vampiric mother trapped in the dungeon.  Their son is bitten by her and he begins draining the entire village of their blood.

There's lots of talk in this monster movie, often in the discussion of implications of vampirism's impact on one's personal life.  Yes, being a blood-sucking demon is bad enough, but so help me if it ruins our wedding!  To be honest, this emotional take on monster filmmaking isn't entirely uninteresting, but if one comes for the horror chances are one won't stay for the angst.  The production that's somewhat removed from the culture it's portraying doesn't quite help either.

And blackface.

The film is stylish and fairly well filmed.  It's possible this could have been a good film with certain other resources at their disposal.  Unfortunately it winds up just being a trashy bargain bin film that you might find at the dollar store.

The Riff

Cinematic Titanic puts the "nanotated disc" into the Time Tube for the final time in this last entry in their first wave.  Being their last studio release, let's make it count.

"Step aside, science!  This is a job for superstition!"

Blood of the Vampires is talkier than most riffed movies should probably be.  Sure it's a monster movie, but the drama is a non-stop roller-coaster while the horror just becomes a minor inconvenience that interrupts it.  I can see why this atypical film would be appealing to the Titans and why they feel it could be a good fit, though it feels like there isn't much room for them to work.  They give it a solid effort, though it's not quite a fulfilling riff experience.  The most that can be said is that the riffs on the blackfaced servants are usually quite funny.  The rest of the show is a constant stream of smiles with the occasional chuckle (my favorite being J. Elvis's Johnny Cash impression).  It's worth watching for the strongest moments, but it's hard to fully recommend it.

The sole host segment, and final host segment of Cinematic Titanic I might add, involves J. Elvis passing out drinks to help everyone get through the movie.  The majority of the segment is about Frank breaking sobriety to take one, though I think the biggest laugh goes to Mary Jo, who refuses one before someone points out that the film is only halfway over.  "Give me that!"  There is also an intro about how somehow the three Godfather movies got mixed up in the archive, causing Frank to exclaim surprise at there being good movies to be accessed.  To that I respond have you SEEN Godfather III? 

Blood of the Vampires was the final Cinematic Titanic release done in the studio format before the decision was made to focus primarily on live shows and record those for DVD release.  And while this riff is fair at best and the Live shows are fun, I feel something was lost by abandoning the format.  The format of these first seven entries in the Cinematic Titanic lineup are charming and fun, and I wish we could have had more.  This one ends this run on a bit of a whimper, though there are strong laughs at several points.

Average

The DVD

Like all Cinematic Titanic releases, Blood of the Vampires was initially released through their now defunct website.  Picture was good, even if the film was pixelated, and audio was great.  There were no special features.  It's currently available from Shout Factory in their Complete Collection set, where it shares a disc with the first Live show, East Meets Watts.