Stefan and Valerie, a newlywed couple make a stop at a resort hotel on their way to visit the grooms mother. The hotel is obviously in an off season since they are the only guests there. The mysterious Countess Bathory and her lovely assistant arrive and convince the couple to stay a bit longer but something is amiss here, the concierge recognizes the Countess from a previous stay fourty years ago and she hasn’t aged one bit. Before long she has Valerie under her spell as Stefan struggles to win his wife back.
The one remarkable thing about this film is Valerie’s resemblance to our very own DCD. Do you see it? Does this mean DCD is really a vampire? Is this why she has such affection for '70's disco wear? Is Desroc being forced to cook gourmet meals while under her vampy trance? These are things we may never know.
Otherwise it’s just another of those odd early ‘70’s horror flicks with plenty of sexual overtones and hammy actors. One interesting thing though, it’s the first time I ever saw a vampire afraid of water, not holy water just regular tap water. She was not getting into that shower I tell you and all I could thing was if they can’t wash and they are technically dead or undead anyway then boy they must be pretty darn stinky.
7 comments:
So my inquisitive hubby looked up vampire lore and apparently there is a rule that vampires cannot or perhaps just don't like running water. So baths good/showers bad. Pretty funny, who knew?
You have revealed my secret!! Death to you all!!
Eh, not really. I think I may try to develop that vampy trance a bit more though, see if it gets me a brownie creme brulee, cause MAN are those good!
Eww, stinky vamps!
That's so funny, that is DCD!
JSP is tired of me saying this but I just can't handle early 70s horror movies, especially the vampire ones. I find them all glacially paced and I don't like the Technicolor look. When I really think about it I don't really like "horror" from approximately 1968-1975 (of course there are exceptions, JSP so don't give me your Wicker Man, Rosemary's Baby argument).
She looks more like DCD than DCD!
The temptation to quote Lost Boys here is overwhelming, but I can't bring myself to call my sister "shit-sucking." Let's just note the reference and move on. Excellent catch on the resemblence, Cat.
I think what's going on with horror in that period is that every period has a set of features that low-rent movies go for, and they're usually badly imitating the quality movies of the same era. Look at sci-fi both pre and post Star Wars: if you're doing a crap version of zippy action (post SW) it can still be fun, if you're doing a crap version of the more cerebral stuff it's a total snooze. Same goes for horror. Bad 80s slashers are more fun than drawn-out bad 70s mood pieces.
Hmmmm, that's a very interesting observation. It makes sense that bad 80s horror is fun to watch because even bad at least something is happening. I think, also, that I just don't like the late 60s early 70s world.
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