The Blood Drinkers (1966)

Absolutely Fantastic

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

"Dr. Marco" (Ronald Remy) is a vampire who wants to revive a woman he loves named "Katrina" (Amalia Fuentes) back from the dead. In order to do that he needs to perform a heart transplant and the only acceptable donor is her twin sister "Charito" (also played by Amalia Fuentes). In the meantime, Dr. Marco must keep Katrina alive and so he has people killed so that their blood can be given to her. Naturally, these deaths cause concern among the local populace which makes it quite a bit more difficult for Dr. Marco to complete his operation. Anyway, what I found remarkable about this film was the unique technique of using red-tinted film to signify the presence of vampires. Rather interesting indeed. Likewise, the heavy use of smoke to imitate fog wasn't too bad either. On the other hand, being originally produced in Tagalog and dubbed into English caused the dialogue to seem a bit flat. Additionally, the heavy influence of Roman Catholicism was probably a bit too strong in my opinion. But this was a movie made in the Philippines so perhaps this was customary during this specific time period. In any case, this wasn't a bad movie but the overall production values seemed to be somewhat lacking. That said I rate the movie as slightly below average.

"Kulay Dugo Ang Gabi", also known as "The Blood Drinkers" and "Blood is the Color of Night", is a Filipino horror film. And considering how incredibly cheap and awful all the other horror films have been that I've seen from this country, my hopes were not very high!! "Blood is the Color of Night" turned out to be an incompetent film--though significantly better than any of the previous Filipino horror films I saw-such as "Beast of the Yellow Night", "Brides of Blood", "Mad Doctor of Blood Island" and "Beast of Blood". They were so horrible that "Blood is the Color of Night" appears like Shakespeare in comparison!!The film sometimes actually manages to set an appropriately frightening mood with the fog and the vampire wearing cool wrap-around sunglasses. However, most of the time it just looks like it was made by Ed Wood's brother--with screaming bats on strings, narration to explain WHAT is happening, weird and inexplicably tinted scenes (the pink ones were especially hard on the eyes though they also came in many other colors as well as full color), the bald vampire with a whip, Maura's bad hairdo and some really bad acting and writing.The plot involves the head vampire (the bald guy) saying that he needs to do a heart transplant on his bride. Now, if she is a vampire or going to become one, I can't see any reason that he should be doing surgery (after all, isn't she supposed to be dead?)! I also wasn't sure why he had to get her sister's heart. And, I have no idea why he repeatedly did NOT take this heart when he had many good opportunities. Of course, the same could be said about the handsome hero. When baldy beat him in a kung fu fight, he could have and should have killed the hero...but he just let him go!! Any vampire this stupid deserves to lose by the end of the film! But, weirdly, the movie has a very, very, very strange and inexplicable ending--one you just have to see to believe (such as the vampire using a gun and the hero using a flare gun)! Overall, a silly but watchable film. Not at all good but considering the source, it could have been a lot worse!!By the way, can anyone tell me why Mr. Vampire called his henchman 'Gordo' (Spanish for 'Fatso')? The guy was a skinny hunchback! And what's with the name calling? Is this any way to treat your devoted followers? He should remember that it IS hard to get good help.

An evil genius vampire whose minions include a hunchback, a midget, a hot chick with sunglasses, and a rubber bat tries to save the life of his vampire lover by transplanting her with the heart of her long, lost sister. The sister, inconveniently, is still alive. Plays at times like an Ed Wood movie, at others like a classic, albeit low-budget, horror film. Made in the Philippines, which lends jungle atmosphere, interesting architecture, and enough catholic iconography to satisfy the Pope. Badly dubbed in English, including the fact that three completely different characters are, evidently, supposed to be mute and make the exact same, "Uhn, uhn, uhn," noises in the exact same voice, which is blissfully confusing. Features one singing cowboy scene, Captain Kirk-style martial arts, and a musical score that sounds like it could be library tracks but nonetheless is very effective. The film is sometimes black and white, sometimes color, and sometimes tinted a garish magenta, which actually works to heighten the atmosphere at least part of the time. Anyone who has read this far and is still interested will not be disappointed.

Polished performances, outstanding effects, pathos, delicious and powerful antagonist, nod to spirituality, eerie atmosphere, scary moments, moody, and superb. A feast for cerebral viewers. Inclusion of diversely enabled cast members is an ingenious touch.