Blood of the Virgins (1967) User Reviews

A bite out of Argentina

[Maringo · 4/10 · 11 July 2002]

The worst aspect of this film is most definitely the tired script. For starters, the basic plot involves a group of young people running out of petrol and having to spend the night in a creepy house (not very original). It then turns out that the house is populated by vampires (not that you wouldn't have guessed that from the title of the film). It doesn't get any better after that either.

But the film does have a certain charm. The obligatory (for a 1967 horror film that is) sex and drugs scene at the beginning of the film is good fun (love that music!). The lead female vampire is very attractive and as such is destined to be seen naked at some point in the film. The surreal use of a seagull filmed through a red filter as a cheap alternative to a bat also adds to the charm of the film.

Overall, it's a recommended film if you're a fan of vampire films and haven't yet seen the genre done Argentinian-style.

Argentinian horror is a mix of the quirky and derivative

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 5 December 2015]

Argentina's first vampire film is a potboiler enlivened with plenty of sex and violence. At its best moments, it recalls Jean Rollin's stylish vampire movies with almost surreal scenes of sexy female vampires wandering through the night in their negligees and seducing innocent men. At its worst, this is a tepid, often boring and predictable yarn that runs through all the old clichés without adding much in the way that's new in the genre, and it suffers from a serious lack of pacing in the second half. The plot is the old tried-and-trusted story of "a group of blokes and birds spend the night in a spooky location and are attacked by vampires" which seemingly fuelled an endless array of European horror films during the '60s and '70s. Director Emilio Vieyra (also responsible for the truly demented CURIOUS DR. HUMPP) has confessed that he's a big fan of detective stories and the second half of this film plays like a mystery, with a man investigating the strange illness of his girlfriend which is caused by... well, I'm sure you can guess.

Where BLOOD OF THE VIRGINS excels is in its exploitational aspects. There's a great prologue (which reminds one of the mini-movie at the beginning of VAMPIRE CIRCUS) in which a vampire is thwarted when his prospective bride marries her cousin. The cinematography is colourful at all times, although some of those '60s fashions are definitely a bit garish. Be sure to check out the incredible nightclub sequence near the start of the film in which travelogue footage is interspersed with naked strippers dancing on a table while a guy in huge joke-shop glasses ogles them in disbelief. Definitely dated, and played for laughs anyway. Another bizarre aspect of the film is the repeated red-tinted shots of seagulls we see in place of the more traditional bats. Now, I like a change as much as the next man, and the use of seagulls is something a bit different, but why? An explanation would have been helpful!

Unfortunately, the characters are a bit dull and lifeless, the cast wooden and unmotivated. The hero in particular is one of those "tweed suit" guys with long sideburns whom you just can't help disliking. The vampiric Count is a direct Dracula rip-off and doesn't get much dialogue, being more of a silent menace like Christopher Lee in Dracula, PRINCE OF DARKNESS. The film does pick up for an action-packed finale, shown in unflinching detail with gore splashing everywhere, but this scene comes as too little to late. BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE is a nice try, but a poor excuse for a horror film only for those really obsessive completionist horror fans.

If you see only one 1960's Argentinean vampire movie this year. . .

[lazarillo · 24 December 2004]

Obviously, this is not a great movie but it has its charms (several pairs of them actually). It has lots of Argentinean mujeres sin ropas, it has a male vampire who seems to be sucking his blood out of something else on his female victims besides their necks, it has a female vampire in a see-through teddy who becomes so engrossed in softcore sex sessions with her male victims that she often forgets to bite them at all, it has long, strange interludes of topless go-go dancing, it has a recurring red-tinted shots of birds flying for some reason, and it has the old familiar stranded-travelers-in a-haunted-castle plot except that the travelers are all Argentinean hippies and the whole thing is in Spanish! As you might have guessed this is from the same director as the "Curious Dr. Humpp" (aka "The Vengeance of Sex"). It features the same two top-heavy actresses, Gloria Pratt and Susan Beltram, except that they're in color here and naked frequently enough to give their infamous countrywoman Isabela Sarli a run for the money in the sexploitation sweepstakes. It was probably not as good of film as "The Curious Dr. Humpp" originally, but it's in better shape because unlike the earlier film it seems to be in it's original south-of-the-border form and is not heavily padded with American-shot inserts of some truly unattractive Times Square "actresses". Not a great movie, but if you see only one 1960's Argentinean vampire movie this year, make it this one.

Dancy music and Argentinian vampires (yes, of course it's bad)

[Milo-Jeeder · 4/10 · 20 April 2007]

It was clear to me that this film could not be a masterpiece in any way. Directed by the same person who directed "The Curious Dr. Humpp" and starred by an actor like Rolo Puente, this film could not be taken seriously. I knew it was going to be unintentionally humorous and I wasn't mistaken. Of course it was cheesy, the acting wasn't Academy Award material and the film encloses several unintentionally side-splitting situations, but whoever said a horror film cannot be enjoyed when it reunites these qualities, is wrong.

In "Blood of the Virgins", a group of obnoxious friends go on a vacation trip to Bariloche in order to party all the time and be naughty all night long. As they're driving, the van breaks down and they have no choice but taking refuge in a dark cottage that seems to be forsaken (oh, this is new!). The place looks eerie, but it is not actually abandoned. The owners of the place are Ofelia and Eduardo, a couple of centenary vampires that have been living in the shadows for a very long time, waiting for young blood to feed themselves and get stronger. The first ones to disappear are the girls, which is not surprising, given that they're extremyly idiotic. After that, the guys start looking for them and even face the ones who started all that chaos.

The film is stupid and cheesy and I doubt anyone would think otherwise (including the director and all the people involved in this). Of course, there are some good moments of gore and utterly red, fake blood and this is always enjoyable in these kinds of horror flicks. The landscapes are also very beautiful (but do we really care about that in a horror film?) and the shots make them look dark and dangerous. I can only recommend "Blood of the Virgins" for anyone who can enjoy the bad side of horror films, with a lot of far-fetched situations, poor acting, fine looking topless girls for the guys and unintentionally hilarious special effects here and there. Rolo Puente without his famous mustache, looking young and fighting against an old couple of vampires with a bunch of unknown actors, is something that really made my day when I saw it.

BLOOD OF THE VIRGINS (Emilio Vieyra, 1967) **

[Bunuel1976 · 4/10 · 5 October 2008]

This is the second horror film I’ve watched from Argentine director Vieyra – the other being the better-known but overrated THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP (1967/71); I had long considered purchasing Mondo Macabro’s SE DVD but was doubtful about its quality – besides, I recall being bored by HUMPP (even if that one had extraneous footage added to it for export versions). Now that I’ve caught up with this one (acquired from ulterior sources), it’s hardly any more engaging (in fact, the film doesn’t even have a plot to speak of!) – but, at least, the dream-like/lethargic atmosphere throughout is reasonably effective.

That said, the striking pre-credits sequence (including the animation accompanying the titles themselves, curiously presented here in Italian!) is immediately stymied by a lengthy modern-day sequence which, amid numerous psychedelic trappings (such as gaudy fashions and go-go dancing), allows one no chance to get to know the characters – resorting to some rather embarrassing stream-of-consciousness editing instead! Incidentally, the suave head vampire is given little of substance to do here: though he gets to bite a couple of girls, his conflicted lover (who actually regrets her undead existence) – a beautiful blonde whose natural attributes are frequently and gratuitously exploited by the director – is at least as much to the fore and does some enslaving (albeit of a sexual kind) of her own! For what it’s worth, the couple have a manservant roaming about the apparently uninhabited castle looking sinister and generally mysterious and who’s involved in the film’s concluding twist.

Though clearly no more than a footnote in vampire movie lore, as I said, this is a watchable enough effort (and, thankfully, a compact 75 minutes) marked by flashes of eroticism, gore (the film was even banned on its home-turf when originally released!) and weirdness (a particularly nice effect is created by the recurring red-tinted shot of flying seagulls).

Blood of the Virgins (1967) *

[JoeKarlosi · 2/10 · 3 June 2004]

Zzzzzzzzzzz

How many ways can you write off yet another foreign vampire film whose main concern seems to be how many girls in gowns, fangs and breasts it can offer during its running time? Hey, this isn't a bad thing in itself -- but nothing else of any substance is happening here, and this is an easily passable snoozer from Argentina that you can use to help you sleep, if need be. The only things saving this from being rated a total BOMB - aside from the aforementioned babes, that is - would be an artsy credits sequence at the beginning and a couple of well executed kill sequences to open one eyelid for in between naps. * out of ****

A silly, sexy and occasionally surreal Argentinian vampire flick.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 27 November 2016]

Buxom blonde Ofelia (Susana Beltrán) is pressured by her family into marrying Eduardo, even though she loves Gustavo (Walter Kliche). What she doesn't know is that the man she really loves is actually a vampire. On Ofelia's wedding night, Gustavo sneaks into the marital bedroom as Eduardo is getting busy with his new wife, stabs the man through the neck with a dagger, and ends Ofelia's life by draining her of blood.

Later, when Ofelia has been buried, Gustavo goes to her grave to see her rise from the dead as a bloodsucker. The pair are reunited. Cue groovy, animated, psychedelic titles…

Titles over, we are introduced to a group of hippies/beatniks who are on holiday, sightseeing, skiing and attending swinging parties where the women take off their clothes to jiggle their bits. While driving down a remote road, the gang's van runs out of fuel, leaving them stranded, cold and miles from their destination. Fortunately, one of the them is familiar with the area and knows of an abandoned lodge not too far away, so the group head for shelter, unaware that vampire Gustavo and his big-breasted 'bride' are lurking nearby, waiting to feed.

Directed by Argentinian Emilio Vieyra, who also gave us the bizarre cult classic The Curious Case of Dr. Humpp (1969), and the rather entertaining oddity The Deadly Organ (1967), Blood of the Virgins is packed with wild visuals, jazzy music, soft-core sex, a smattering of gore, and hot women with large breasts (Vieyra might not be able to tell a seagull from a bat, but his good taste in women is in no doubt—as well as Beltrán, there's also gorgeous brunette Gloria Prat as Laura, one of the vamps' victims), all of which makes it a reasonable time-waster despite the rather routine plot and some atrocious acting.

Good opening, routine after that

[The_Void · 6/10 · 24 April 2008]

South America isn't best known for producing films; but there were a handful of decent horror films coming out of places like Mexico and Brazil in the fifties, sixties and seventies. Argentina is one of the less well known for producing horror; although they did deliver The Curious Dr. Humpp in 1971, and also this film in 1967. Blood of the Virgins (not to be confused with the probably superior Harald Reinl film from the same year) is not a great film by any means and I can certainly understand why it doesn't exactly have a strong fan base as it could have been a lot better, but it is at least a decent way to waste seventy five minutes. The film starts by focusing on two lovers; Ofelia and an eerie stranger named Gustavo. Ofelia is due to be married to a suitor and naturally her lover doesn't take too kindly to that so, being a vampire, he decides to kill the husband and turn Ofelia into a vampire so the pair can spend all eternity together. We then cut to 1960 where a bunch of dumb kids take shelter in an abandoned lodge after breaking down.

The start of the film actually seemed like the opening to a really interesting vampire movie; so it's a real shame that writer and director Emilio Vieyra got lazy and decided to go with the old 'bunch of kids' routine rather than focusing on the far more interesting story of Ofelia and her vampire lover. I guess he figured that the kids would sell better and that's a shame as the film becomes completely routine after the first fifteen minutes. The atmosphere is good at the start of the film too as the director keeps things nicely shrouded in mystery, but this too evaporates after the film moves into its second stage. Naturally, the acting is nothing to write home about and nobody particularly impresses for doing anything over than delivering a camp performance. There's a fair bit of gore, which is nice except for the fact that it all looks very cheap and fake. Overall, I probably would have better things to say about this film if the opening fifteen minutes were stretched out over the seventy five minute running time; but nevertheless, Blood of the Virgins is just about worth a look for horror fans.

Trashy Argentinian vampire flick with plenty of nudity.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 1 April 2008]

A group of obnoxious swingers are touring the vamp's area when their hippie van collapses,leaving them to spend an unforgettable and seemingly unlivable evening at the Count's lodge.The Count has kept an unwilling yet equally undead bride in his clutches and the blood begins to flow...I kind of enjoyed this trashy little flick,however there are some incredibly dull and boring spots.The acting is very bad,the atmosphere is non-existent,but if you are a fan of exploitation flicks,who enjoys watching bare breasts of some fine looking Argentinian ladies you may want to give this blood-sucker a try.Cinematically we're treated to numerous topless Go-Go dancers who wiggle wildly to cool-school jazz while inserts of sea gulls double for vampire bats.Vieyra's genre credits include:"The Deadly Organ",the mind-blowing "Curious Dr. Humpp" and of course "Blood of the Virgins".My generous rating:6 out of 10.

Blood, beasts, breasts -- all you need

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 8 September 2020]

Amongst consumers of the seamier world of exploitation film - alright, let's be fair and call ourselves scumbags - Emilio Vieyra is best-known for his 1969 film The Curious Dr. Humpp, an astounding retitling of his film La Vengenza del Sexo (The Revenge of Sex). Blame Jerald Intrator, director of Striporama and dubbing supervisor for Night of the Bloody Apes) for that, as he also bought Vierya's Placer Sangriento (Bloody Pleasure) and released it with the equally awesome title The Deadly Organ. Oh yeah - he was also smart enough to insert twenty minutes of nudity into La Vengenza del Sexo, a movie already rife with naked bodies.

This is Vierya's vampire film. Actually, he also made La Bestia Desnuda (The Naked Beast) too.

Ofelia's (Susana Beltrán, who appears in several of the director's films, including saying "Use my body to keep you alive!" to Dr. Humpp and another I need to see called Stay Tuned for Terror) is about to be married to Eduardo but is truly in love with Gustavo. On her wedding night, her true love breaks into the honeymoon suite, kills her husband and turns her into a vampire just like him.

We fast-forward to the 60's where Ofelia's curse continues as she seduces and drains numerous teens one by one after their van breaks down. While she's using up men, Gustavo is planning on doing the same with all the ladies.

The Argentinan government cracked down hard on this mix of gore and sex, keeping it hidden away for four years before allowing it to be released in all its bloody go-go dancing glory.

Mondo Macabro released this back in 2004, so here's hoping that someday soon it gets another reissue. It's so worthy of your time, a movie with seagulls instead of bats.