Leon Klimovsky's STRANGE LOVE OF THE VAMPIRES (1975)

[Marshall Crist Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Marshall Crist]

Just saw this film for the first time and don't know what to think. I saw the title and was intrigued. Director Leon Klimovsky is hit-or-miss for me, but when he is "on" he is really on. WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMAN is great and really kickstarted the Spanish horror boom of the 70s, but I also love the ridiculous but sometimes effective VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES. Emma Cohen stars in this and she was good in HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, so I wandered over to YouTube and holy shit there's this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfBfTLM1Jgw

It's the music track from the TORSO trailer! Always wanted to hear that in its entirety without the announcer yelling TORSO! every few seconds. And those solarized, psychedelic images under the credits are what I'm about. So I pick up a bootleg and not surprisingly the quality is bad. The movie is not so great either. It's very schizophrenic. Many of the non-horror scenes have jarringly inappropriate music, and the dubbing is about as bad as it gets. I can only believe that a nice quality, subtitled version would make a world of difference. Some of the later scenes have some great, artsy atmosphere, so it's a real mixed bag.

Anyone seen this and have some feelings about it? It seems undeservedly obscure compared to other similar films of its era and pedigree. Does anyone know why it is so under-the-radar?

[John Bernhard Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close John Bernhard]

I really like the film, Emma Cohen is perfectly cast.
Like her part in CUT THROATS NINE or OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR, I could not imagine any other actress realizing the role so perfectly.

Klimovsky crafts a different type of vampire story, before Anne Rice brewed up her romantic, time anguished bloodsuckers.
It's mostly bad quality copies that have hurt this one, and no official release since VHS.
It's also a pretty downbeat affair, with not much else beside gloom, doom, and a fatalistic sense of the inevitability of death.

It's also got nudity, vampires doing crazy things, and several unusual episodes that stick in the memory.
It very much rewards with multiple viewings if you enjoy these euro horror films from the golden age.

There is a solid fan dvd-r available, widescreen German VHS image with English & German tracks.
You may have seen the old Dutch tape which is truly an eyesore and very dark, and the film improves considerably with a decent copy.

Victory holds this film in their library, and as Scream has just released and or announced 14 titles from them ( Naschy 10x, Ossorio 4x ),
I hope they picked up the rest, which would include STRANGE LOVES & DRACULA SAGA ( and DEMON WITCH CHILD ).

No idea why it's so obscure, as it played the US as NIGHT OF THE WALKING DEAD it's odd it never turned up via Sinister or Something Weird.

Here are partial screencaps from the fan approved English fandubbed german vhs dvd-r