This is a milestone film for Roman Polanski: one, it is his first film in color (and to the best of my knowledge he never went back). And two, he met actress Sharon Tate during the making of this film... they would soon be married and she would become pregnant.
The film, overall, was somewhat lacking for me. There is a minimum level of horror here, despite being a movie full of vampires. And the comedy is subtle, probably too subtle. If anything, maybe this film inspired Mel Brooks to make "Young Frankenstein", but I sincerely doubt that.
Polanski works well with psychological thrillers and horrors, but I think he misses the mark with his comedies. This one, along with "Cul-de-Sac", has not quite enough humor to really make it a "classic". Had anyone but Polanski (or some other "name") made it, I suspect it would have been long forgotten.
The film, overall, was somewhat lacking for me. There is a minimum level of horror here, despite being a movie full of vampires. And the comedy is subtle, probably too subtle. If anything, maybe this film inspired Mel Brooks to make "Young Frankenstein", but I sincerely doubt that.
Polanski works well with psychological thrillers and horrors, but I think he misses the mark with his comedies. This one, along with "Cul-de-Sac", has not quite enough humor to really make it a "classic". Had anyone but Polanski (or some other "name") made it, I suspect it would have been long forgotten.