Newlyweds Wofgang (a solid performance by Walter Brandi) and Louise (the incredibly gorgeous Graziella Granata) celebrate their honeymoon in a remote castle. However, it turns out that a suave vampire (a nicely dashing and sinister portrayal by Dieter Eppler) resides in the wine cellar of said castle.

Writer/director Robert Mauri ably crafts a potently brooding and romantic gloom-doom Gothic atmosphere, makes the most out of the magnificent moldy castle setting, keeps the compelling story moving at a steady pace, and even gives a mild, but still welcome erotic charge to the scenes with the vampire preying on Louise. Granata's striking beauty, smoldering presence, and generous heaving bosom certainly doesn't hurt matters in the least. Ugo Brunelli's sumptuous black and white cinematography provides a pleasing lush look. Aldo Piga's robust score hits the rousing spot. Well worth a watch.

SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES is an Italian Gothic made in the midst of that country's horror period which roughly lasted from 1957 to 1965. Released in America in a shortened form that eliminates eleven minutes of unknown footage, this is in fact a subtle and slow-paced dark romance involving the traditional vampiric elements of a Dracula-style Count who seduces and vampirises the wife of a wealthy nobleman. The American re-titling instead makes it sound like we're in for some gory mass-vampire-killing action so fans looking for such action are likely to be largely disappointed. This is a ponderous yet well-made Gothic drama with a pacing so slow that only the most patient fans will find it rewarding.

The film is frankly dull, lacking in action or much of a story. Basically, a vampire seduces a woman and bites a few others. A traditional and already over-filmed tale that adds nothing new that we haven't seen before to the vampire cinema. Sure there are a couple of off-screen stakings and some cross wavings but this movie is almost action-free. Even the final brief battle between hero and villain and the tacky "skeletonising" of the latter is pretty uninteresting. A shame, because Roberto Mauri's direction is assured and occasionally stylish and the movie benefits from some fairly good acting and passable dubbing. As Wolfgang, the nobleman whose wife falls victim to the vampire, Walter Brandi gives us an accurate portrayal of sadness and grief, a downbeat character who ends the film having lost almost everything he had lived for (indeed at one moment he says that he would rather die than be without his wife, yet he survives at the end and she does not).

Luigi Batzella is also fine as Dr Nietszhe, the vampire fighter in the mould of Peter Cushing's Van Helsing and his character seems very similar to that of Clifford Evans in Hammer's KISS OF THE VAMPIRE - maybe even a possible inspiration. However the finest actor of note in the movie is Graziella Granata, the victim and later the vampire bride. This actress simply oozes sex appeal and her performance as the smouldering victim accounts for the film's high level of charged eroticism as she welcomes the vampire into her bed and wanders around the gloomy cellars of the mansion in a revealing negligee. Good stuff. Not so good is Dieter Eppler whose vampire count looks more like a made-up dame (with too much eye make-up) than a scary supernatural enemy - definitely a miscast actor here who flounders to make an impression.

Script-wise there are very few surprises to offer, with the exception of the governess who turns out to be a vampire herself. The one memorable thing is the classic piano work which makes up the film's score, haunting and melancholy music which adds to the atmosphere of the production. Efficiently and sometimes skilfully made, SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES would have benefited from a more original or pacy story and the cast and director deserve more than they're left with here. As it stands, it's just another traditional vampire story, no different to a hundred others and too much time is spent imitating other productions. Fine to watch just once but expect time spent fidgeting.

Looking as if he's waiting for a remake of "Wuthering Heights" so he can take on the role of the insufferable drunk Hindley, Dieter Eppler is the epitome of miscasting in a horror film ever. Women swoon for this dandy to remove their plasma, and as a result this is a very disappointing Italian horror film, certainly not in competition with those Mario Bava classics that I can watch over and over. It is certainly a good looking we must classic horror film, but you need charismatic casting to make you even remotely seduced by its leading creature.

The opening scene is pretty silly with a bunch of wealthy women sitting around in their southern like ball gowns as if they were in a poor TV remake of "Gone With the Wind" , gossiping about the men's folk and claiming they did not have the good fortune to have loyal servants. The dubbing is very poor and the music overly dramatic and distracting, not at all appropriate for a Gothic horror film. The film is often slow and painful, and there's little suspense. However for a low budget film, the photography is surprisingly appropriate, but the story has some very silly elements about it that makes it more like those dime a dozen Mexican horror films that seemed to be made for a peso. The fact that the female characters swoon when bitten had me laughing hysterically as if it was a bad TV variety show sketch.