Movie Review: The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
Synopsis: A pair of newlyweds, Gerald and Marianne, are driving through Bavaria when their car runs out of gas. They find lodging in a small village and accept an invitation to a costume ball held by a local, Dr. Ravna, not knowing he is the leader of a vampire cult. When Marianne is kidnapped by Ravna during the party, Gerald tries to rescue her but finds the villagers unwilling to help.
Who's in it? The movie stars Clifford Evans, Noel Willman, Edward de Souza, Jennifer Daniel and Jacquie Wallace.
Review: I was reasonably confident I had seen The Kiss of the Vampire before. However, it was a long time ago and as has often been the case as I've gotten older, I didn't remember anything about it. So, I decided to give it a try.
I'm always a bit pessimistic when it comes to vampire movies from the 60s and 70s. While there are some good ones, many (most) tend to be too predictable, too corny or not much better than a soft-core porn film. I am happy to say this is one of the films that at minimum is better than most.
The movie's plot reminded me a lot of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, only with vampires. Gerald (de Souza) knows what happened to his wife and who is responsible but the villagers, rather than helping, decide to pretend Marianne (Daniel) didn't exist and he never had a wife. It created an overall feeling of frustration and hopelessness, especially since Gerald wasn't just facing Ravna (Evans) but also his entire cult.
I also found I liked the vampire hunter Professor Zimmer a lot more than expected. When he agreed to help Gerald and revealed what he was, I was afraid he would be another ripoff of Dracula's Van Helsing. Instead, he was an intriguing character with quite a bit of depth. This included a backstory involving a vampire-murdered daughter and a drinking problem that made me wonder if he'd even be up to the challenge.
The movie isn't perfect. A lot of the scenes seemed to be dragged to pad the runtime and there were a few that didn't have any impact on the overall plot, making it a bit dull at times.
I also wasn't a big fan of the ending. I would describe it as a case of trying too hard to be unique, with the movie relying on a bizarre ritual that just didn't work for me, mostly because the weak special effects just made it look cheesy. Had the writers gone with the tried-and-true "kill the head vampire with a wooden stake to save the day" ending instead, it would have been considerably better.
Final Opinion: Most of the movie more than exceeded my expectations. Unfortunately, the more I think about that ending, the more I feel like the filmmakers fell short of making this a good vampire movie and instead gave us a film that is just above average.
My Grade: C+
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Here are some reviews of other vampire movies:
Movie Review: Slaughter of the Vampires (1962)
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