The Invasion of the Vampires (1963) User Reviews

Great Dubbing

[Steve_Nyland · 6/10 · 17 October 2009]

LOL the English language dub track for the INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES bootleg I managed to find at a used record store is a marvel in itself. Some sort of surrealist masterpiece. Sounds like it was recorded in the lobby of a church over coffee by an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Then there's the huge, and I mean HUGE fake flapping bat -- makes the fake bat from Jess Franco's "Count Dracula" look like a masterpiece of animatronic puppeteering by comparison.

Then there are the names: Count Frankenhausen and Broomhilda are the best (yes, I know it's Brunhilde but I'm having fun here), and all those wild electronic sound effects cues heard in like 3 other of these MexiVamp potboilers. Can't get enough of them actually ... I think this one comes after BLOODY VAMPIRE and WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES, which is a trip with that funky haunted bone organ by H.R. Giger.

Seriously though, these Mexican vampire movies are a treat for fans of Gothic atmospheric horror, filmed ingeniously by non-Hollywood types with a sense of style that is unique. There's about seven movies from this era that aren't too difficult to find:

The Vampire (1957) The Vampire's Coffin (1958) World of the Vampires (1961) Santo Vs. the Vampire Women (1962) The Bloody Vampire (1962) Invasion of the Vampires (1963) Bring Me The Vampire (1963) Empire of Dracula (1966)

This one being perhaps the most difficult to score, though all are floating around on various public domain DVDs and underground DVD-R releases of varying quality. Mine was pretty poor but you know, it's sort of fitting. Watching this creaky old movie on a flickering B&W screen at 3:20 in the morning on a Saturday is kind of what material like this was made for. Though a hearty archival restorative effort to resurrect these movies is long overdue. They are all marvelous!

6/10

Dripping with Gothic atmosphere

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 6 August 2016]

Although it gets off to a slow start and remains slow-paced for much of the running time, THE INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES remains a watchable Mexican B-movie thanks to the wealth of atmosphere it offers for the horror fan - as well as the fantastic ending, which depicts the actual invasion itself on a small scale which is no less impressive and bears a strong similarity to the plot of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD which came seven years later. Having only previously witnessed Mexican wrestling flicks which offer oodles of action and no atmosphere whatsoever, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this movie matches both the Universal and Hammer movies (which it copies heavily, especially Hammer's Dracula) in terms of a spooky, chilling atmosphere.

The familiar plot tells the tale of a small village in which young people are disappearing, lured to the "Dead Man's Lake" by a hypnotic female and then found dead and drained of blood in the morning. The superstitious villagers are too scared to act, so in comes the young Doctor Alvaran to solve the mystery. It appears that Count Frankenhausen (gotta love that name) went missing months before and has become the chief vampire, putting the bite on the townsfolk and transforming them into vampires themselves who remain in a state of suspended animation until his eventual destruction. This leads to the much-remembered finale which uniquely shows the staked vampires rising from their tombs and graves to wreak vengeance on the human populace. As well as being quaintly spooky, this is at least one original moment in the film which you won't have seen elsewhere.

Otherwise, it's business as usual, with lots of cross-filled cemetery sets filled with overflowing dry ice and cold dark tombs. The clichés of bubbling cauldrons, thunder and lightning storms, and secret passages in ancient houses are all present and correct, although bizarrely garlic isn't adequate to fight the threat of the undead this time around - some other plant takes its place. The ending sees a potion being concocted which returns the dead to their human form and dispels the vampire threat! The acting from the entirely Mexican cast ranges from the poor to the quite good, with Rafael del Rio making for quite a charming young hero who carries the movie. Sadly, Carlos Agosti isn't very effective as the chief vampire Frankenhausen, who stands around doing Christopher Lee impersonations and baring his fake fangs to little impact. More subtlety may have helped. However, the supporting cast - including the female victim and a wicked housekeeper - are good value, with the exception of a snivelling town doctor who has the most irritating/amusing dubbed voice ever. I think it's the same guy who dubbed the dwarf in the NEUTRON films although I can't be sure.

The black and white photography is good, bringing out the atmosphere and shadows of the cheap sets, although the camera-work is too static and lifeless for the film to be a technical masterpiece. As for special effects, all we see are a few (de)materialisations, as well as some huge cheesy rubber bats which are propelled by visible wires to menace our heroes and very funny to watch. A highlight of the film sees the hero Alvaran taking on Frankenhausen in the form of a bat, eventually spearing him to a wall but not before he has his face and shoulder well and truly clawed. As mentioned before, the finale includes scenes of the survivors hiding inside a protected building while the vampires mass outside and is pretty creepy.

The most atmospheric thing about this film for me - leaving those typically dry-ice enshrouded sets aside for a moment - is, somewhat surprisingly, the sound track! All manner of weird and wonderful background noises are constantly present during the film, with all sorts of weird animal howling, wind blowing, and distorted computer noises! These help to create a landscape filled with unknown threat and dread and beef up the movie's atmosphere considerably. Although there's hardly any action and the film is far from exciting, as an atmosphere piece THE INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES works, which is why fans of old-fashioned horror yarns would be wise to check it out.

Superior sequel to "The Bloody Vampire"

[kevinolzak · 6/10 · 8 September 2019]

1962's "The Invasion of the Vampires" was the direct sequel to "The Bloody Vampire," a low budget epic storyline filmed in two parts by writer/director Miguel Morayta, with many of the same cast members, among them Carlos Agosti as the vampire Count Frankenhausen, Erna Martha Bauman as Countess Eugenia Frankenhausen in the first, daughter Brunhilda in the sequel, Bertha Moss as Frau Hildegard, and Enrique Lucero as manservant Lazaro. At the conclusion of the previous entry the Count had put the bite on his beautiful Countess then disappeared, leaving his daughter Brunhilda at the Haunted Hacienda owned by her grandfather, Marques de la Serna (Tito Junko). The old man has never informed the young girl of her undead parentage, and the arrival of Dr. Ulises Albarran (Rafael del Rio), skilled in the teachings of Count Cagliostro, means that Brunhilda has another protector to watch over her during nights of the full moon. Count Frankenhausen remains at large, using his lovely daughter as a lure for young men to meet their doom at his fangs as she wanders out to Dead Man's Lake in a hypnotic trance, but the doctor needs help in gathering the proper roots to put a stop to the growing cult of vampirism. Just as much bogged down with dialogue as its predecessor but definitely an improvement for a climax worth waiting for, once the Count perishes in hilarious bat form and all his previous victims (including his Countess) subsequently rise from their coffins to walk again, an army of the undead preying upon anyone venturing out in the darkness. Only by restoring the bat corpse to its previous human state via the scientific method prescribed by Cagliostro in the first film will the evil be stopped once and for all. This time a mostly silent Count Frankenhausen appears only sporadically, and in one chase sequence foreshadows Robert Quarry's better known Count Yorga in two AIP classics from the early 70s, while both the Marques and Brunhilda were mentioned yet never seen in the initial chapter. Had the convoluted storyline been pared down to a tighter single feature it would have been hailed an atmospheric masterpiece of Mexican horror cinema, but as it is there are many who champion both pictures despite their faults.

A sequence to watch for

[pmsusana · 24 January 2001]

Like most of the Mexican horror films imported to the U.S. by K. Gordon Murray, much of this film is rendered unintentionally funny by some really awkward dubbed dialog. However, the film is worth checking out because of one splendid sequence which survived the dubbing process with its eeriness intact: When head vampire Count Frankenhausen is fatally speared during a brawl with the film's hero, Frankenhausen's numerous victims (despite each having already been staked through the heart) rise from their coffins in a quite unsettling scene, and march on the town. The reason this sequence still works so well is that it's mostly silent, with no mood-shattering dubbed dialog. Even in its Americanized version, this film still creates a powerful atmosphere of hovering evil, and the black & white photography is excellent.

A legion of zombie like vampires are on the march.

[michaelRokeefe · 2/10 · 21 July 2002]

K. Gordon Murray again takes a Mexican horror film and dubs it for American consumption. This movie does have its moments of eeriness and I enjoyed the musical score more than the story. A vampire in his bat form is speared against a wall during a short brawl with the doctor(Rafael del Rio) studying the deaths in a Mexican village that occur during the full moon. The major scene is with Count Frankenhausen(Carlos Agosti)in his winged form speared to the wall as his victims rise like zombies with stakes in their chests destined to terrorize the village in mass. The black & white photography and the evil sounding musical background does present a scary atmosphere. Plus the windy rain storms add to the overall feel of horror that accompanies THE INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES.

Is that Mr Pointy sticking in your chest?

[evilskip · 6/10 · 30 March 2001]

Another south of the border terror brought to you by K Gordon Murray.This in fact is the sequel to The Bloody Vampire and actually is quite a bit better.

This adds some truly hackneyed but eerie new things to the vampire lore.When the vampire is staked, all of his victims will rise up to seek blood.So we are treated to a very scary silent scene of vampires prowling about in the fog with huge stakes in their chest.

You can actually watch this movie with little or no knowledge of The Bloody Vampire.The only returning characters are the Count and his butch assistant Frau Hildegard.

Maybe it will come out on dvd like The Bloody Vampire has.It is the better of the two.

Zombie vampires

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 1 July 2020]

Invasion of the Vampires is directed by Miguel Morayta, who also made one of my favorite strange south of the border films, Dr. Satan.

Finally, a vampire who has it all figured out. If anyone kills Count Frankenhausen, all of his dead victims rise from the grave in his place. That's way better than the way it usually goes, with the brides of Dracula going up in smoke as soon as he gets staked.

If not for the American dubbing, this would be a pretty atmospheric throwback. So do what I do: turn off the sound, watch the subtitles and make your own soundtrack inside your brain.

Chilling original vampire film

[N. Eades-2 · 7/10 · 22 October 1998]

Though filmed on an obviously low-budget, with some almost humorous special effects, it remains a chilling atmospheric vampire story with true moments of horror. A definite cult classic. If possible, see it in the original Spanish version.

Unwatchably boring.

[fairnymph · 2/10 · 8 June 2008]

This bored me so horribly I was unable to finish it. I generally do not like older films much - I just prefer the style of more modern (80s onward) film-making - and this was visually unpleasant, poorly written, acted, and directed. At times the dialogue was so ridiculously blunt and deadpan (especially from the main 'hero') it was laughable, but not adequately to make the film watchable. The music was also dreadful, the story entirely unoriginal, and there was almost no one pretty to look at (yes, I am shallow), nor any good scenery (not that much could appeal in grainy black and white).

I very, very rarely am unable to finish films and I have an incredibly high tolerance for vampire flicks, but this was just dreadful.

Bloodsuckers in animated suspension.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 20 February 2022]

Outside of the vampire bat with the rabbit ears, this is the best of the Mexican vampire movies that I've seen, about a half a dozen thus far. It has a truly spooky atmosphere that starts with a funeral procession, and then shows someone being led to their doom, following a mysterious female figure into a body of water where you all of a sudden hear a scream. A priest arrived at the castle, researching rumors of vampirism in the area, and he is led into a world of much darkness where around every shadow could lurk the cause of all of these evils going on. Wild Count Frankenhausen ain't no Dracula, he's pretty eerie?looking, as is the obvious vampire bride who reminds me of Bela Lugosi's brides in the original "Dracula" and Carrol Borland in "Mark of the Vampire", also with Lugosi.

The only issue I had concerning the dubbing was that of the actual count, his tone so different from all the other actors and it sounded like it was done differently. Some of the music sounds like it was done on a very out of tune organ, but that works to add to the spooky atmosphere. The art direction is very good for a film obviously made on a very low budget, and of the other Mexican vampire movies I've seen, this one is the closest to the actual Bram Stoker legend, even though this is not based on "Dracula". It's a nicely done little horror film that I'm glad to have found, perfect for a dark and stormy night. The vampire puppet, though, looks hysterically bizarre, and creates a few unintentional laughs.

Smoke machine and the bandit.

[PCC0921 · 4/10 · 23 September 2020]

Classic Mexican horror movies always had a cool atmospheric style to them. They also always had a strange or unique idea of the vampire mythos. They always seemed to be promising and then ........ the first line of awful dubbed English is heard and the film loses all its luster. If you can see these films in their original Spanish language, complete with English subtitles then do it. It should enhance the film experience with this film much more (I was stuck with the dubbed version).

A lot of smoke is seen hovering over nicely built set pieces. Director Miguel Morayta uses some nicely framed, eerie shots, as well as, moon-lit lighting and even the costumes look alright too. There is some good stuff to this, but it ends up being a tediously boring adventure into the vampire realms of Mexico. One of the inconsistences with the Mexican translation/interpretation of vampire lore is the main vampire (Baron Frankenhausen??), looks a lot like Burt Reynolds with fake teeth in his mouth. Actually, all the vampires had really bad fake teeth. There also is a weird thing going on with corpses walking around with stakes still in their chests.

One final thing. The giant vampire bat that the Baron turns into is the size of the coffin. It's huge. For some reason, many film-makers, even Hollywood, could never master the idea of the fake bat. The bat always looks fake. It's not until the 70s that they started to make the bat look more real. So, we can't really fault this film on that either. Aside from the other issues with the film, it's the dubbing, dialogue and hackneyed script that really kills it. I really wanted to give this film a better rating, but by the time the film was over I felt exhausted and settled with my F. Hopefully someday I can see the Spanish version and maybe raise the grade a little.

4.0 (F MyGrade) = 4 IMDB

One of the finest horror films from Mexico...

[mikesthunder · 9/10 · 22 February 2008]

The opening scene of La Invasion de los Vampiros sets a wonderfully chilling, Gothic tone which carries through. It's a very effective, creepy movie. Mexican horror is unique. It's not often in a classic horror film you can mix a desert setting equip with blowing sand and tumble weeds with lush atmosphere and vampires. This film very effectively captures the essence of what made great Mexican horror what it is. Although some of these films are often considered campy, one should realize that this is largely due to the infamous English dubbed prints Americans watched in the late 60s, which often times were poorly done and therefore often detracted from the films serious elements. I highly recommend this title as it is as well produced as any other horror counterpart from this era. That is if you can find a decent print of it, which sadly is not easy to do. This film deserves to be re-released properly.

I saw the dubbed version

[Angel_Peter · 2/10 · 3 May 2017]

Well what to say really. I would start by saying I do watch a lot of black and white movies and even some slow ones I do enjoy. Of course horror movies from this time is rarely scary, so do not expect them to be.

This movie I found moving very slow. I did not feel the story went anywhere. In my opinion there should have been cut half an hour of the running time at least. To be honest it is a miracle I did finish this one, but the last 20 minutes were entertaining. The movie in general do treat the vampire myth a bit differently than normal.

I would only recommend this movie to vampire completionists.

Invasion de la DVD

[m_magoon · 19 February 2003]

Nothing new to add as to the quality of the movie--the reviewers here have summed it up quite well. After seeing "Bloody Vampire" I just had to see its sequel and, as Count Cagliostro would say of vampires--a DVD of this movie actually exists!

After an on-line search, I found that it's available in DVD-R format, which, they claim is compatible with most DVD players.

I'd never tried a DVD-R and was a bit apprehensive, especially at the price (20 bucks delivered) compared to the 5 bucks Bloody Vampire cost me. But what the heck, I wanted to return with Count Frankenhausen to the Haunted Hacienda so I ordered it.

The picture and sound quality are very good considering it's an old B-movie... I'd say a bit more superior than the Beverly Wilshire DVD of Bloody Vampire.

It is, however, the dubbed version, which gives it that certain comical charm, however, I'd still like to find a subtitled Spanish version some day and see it as the film makers intended. It'd be a fangtastic horror flick!

Frau Hildegarda's Feast

[EdgarST · 5/10 · 23 April 2024]

After "El vampiro sangriento" (Cf.), this tired entry ends Miguel Morayta's vampire diptych in the same hurried fashion as its predecessor, but unfortunately this time there are no surprises: the same bat with donkey ears hanging from nylon threads, more quarrels of Frau Hildegarda with everybody in sight, long sections of dialogs, and not enough action. Rafael del Río plays a fragile-looking and very indecisive disciple of Dr. Cagliostro (absent this time from the story) who arrives in the same region of the previous film, where nobility and charros live in terror because of count Frankenhausen's evil deeds. The young man's mission is to fight the count with a serum made from the flowers of black mandragola. It takes him 89 minutes of 92 to do so, while the attacks persist, the fangs grow bigger, and the number of dead men increases. Credit must be given to Bertha Moss, whose Frau Hildegarda is fun.

Los vampiros mundanos.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 24 July 2023]

When I set out to try and watch every pre-2000 horror film, I hadn't counted on there being quite so many bad films from Mexico during the 1950s and '60s. Invasion of the Vampires is a typically cheap Mexican vampire movie of that era, heavy on the dialogue and light on fright, with the only scene worthy of mention being an attack by a giant, furry vampire bat (the hilarious looking flying rubber rodent suspended on wires, swooping towards the film's hero, before being pinned to a wall with a wooden pole).

The unremarkable plot sees expert in the occult Dr. Ulises Albarrán (Rafael del Río) travelling to a small town that has been plagued by numerous mysterious deaths. At the hacienda of Count Frankenhausen (Carlos Agostí), he discovers that the count is a vampire, and sets about preparing a special acid (extracted from the roots of the mandragora) that can destroy the undead. However, when Albarrán successfully defeats Frankenhausen, the count's victims rise from their coffins as vampires (despite having already been staked!).

While the dreadful dubbing on the copy of the film I watched didn't help matters, I am certain that I would have found Invasion of the Vampires just as tedious in its original language with subtitles. There is way too much talk, the direction is pedestrian, and the plot is a jumbled mess of vampiric nonsense that generates zero suspense or scares. Apparently, this film is the follow-up to El vampiro sangriento, which I have seen, but subsequently forgotten; I imagine that Invasion of the Vampires won't linger in the memory for very long either.

The Sequel to "El Vampiro Sangriento"

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 12 February 2022]

This film essentially begins where its predecessor "El Vampiro Sangriento" left off with the vampire known as "Count Frankenhausen" (Carlos Agosti) relocating to a remote part of Mexico with the intention of creating enough vampires to enable him to control the entire human race. Wise to this, his main nemesis from the last film "Count Valsamo de Cagliostro" (Antonio Raxel) has sent one of his students named "Dr. Ulises Albarran" (Rafael del Rio) in search of him and eventually takes up residence in a small town which has been plagued recently by numerous deaths with the most recent being the young son of the local mayor "Don Maximo" (David Reynoso). Yet, even though the villagers are willing to do whatever he asks of them, he encounter great resistance from the local priest "Padre Victor" (Enrique Garcia Alvarez) who considers talk of vampires to be heresy. Even worse is the reaction from "Frau Hildegarda" (Bertha Moss) who is acting in the capacity of the house madam for his main benefactor "Marqués Gonzalo Guzmán de la Serna" (Tito Junco) who does everything in her power to thwart any action against Count Frankenhausen. Now, rather than reveal any more I will just say that, while this wasn't necessarily a bad vampire movie, there were a couple of noticeable faults which definitely affected the film as a whole. For starters, although its predecessor had English subtitles, this particular film used rather poor-quality English dubbing which clearly diminished the overall effect. Of course, since this was a Mexican film intended for a Spanish-speaking audience, then I suppose I have no right to complain. Likewise, perhaps there are other versions of this film that use the same high-quality English subtitles as in its predecessor. Be that as it may, the other noticeable flaw involved the object used to resemble a flying bat which looked more like a fluffy bunny rabbit instead. Needless to say, this totally ruined the effect they were trying to achieve. In any case, while I don't consider this to be a bad vampire film by any means, I didn't think it was quite as good as the one before it and I have rated it accordingly.

One of Best Post-Lugosi Vampire Movies

[wdbasinger · 8/10 · 5 December 2007]

I enjoy some of the supernatural thrillers from south of the border. My favorite Mexican movie may be "The Braniac" with Abel Salazar. In any case, this could be my second favorite.

This supernatural thriller has a lot of atmosphere and suspense as a doctor arrives to investigate a series of terror attacks from vampires. The resolution in which a chemical substance is isolated which eliminates the fiends is quite original.

The background music adds to the overall eeriness of the film. Indeed, it is really quite haunting and combined with the special effects, can really scare the viewers.

8/10 Dan Basinger

The bravura climax rivals the very best of Hammer Films

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 28 July 2023]

This stylishly mounted, darkly atmospheric example of vintage Mexican Vampire Gothic includes striking scenes of crepuscular creepiness that readily matches Italian maestro, Mario Bava. The unearthly, teeth-grindingly dissonant score by maestro, Luis Hernández Bretón manifestly gives Martínez's melodramatic, strangely desolate, shadow-steeped B/W bloodsucking bacchanal a divinely unsettling quality! There's a terrifically macabre sequence wherein a malign multitude of freshly staked vampires grimly awaken in a smoke-hazed tomb and prowl the tempestuous night which oozed a fascinatingly bizarro, Carnival of Souls ambience! Performances are uniformly excellent, boasting impressive set design, the evocative cobwebbed Gothic milieu is impeccable, plus a bravura climax to rival the very best of Hammer Films. Miguel Morayta Martínez, I salute your truly magnificent Gothic masterpiece!