Night 3 of 31 Nights of Horror

IMDB lists this as a horror/comedy, but the poster makes it look scarier than it is and I chuckled more than laughed while watching it. Don’t let that description scare you off though, it’s not a bad movie. I actually wound up really liking it. The film starts off slow, but really kicks into high gear in the second half.

It’s a vampire movie made at a time when vampires had fallen out of public favour. Roddy McDowall’s character even says they’re less popular than “demented madmen running around in ski masks hacking up young virgins”, and this movie feels a lot like a love letter to the older vampire movies. McDowall’s character (and can I just say how fantastic he is in this movie?) is even named Peter Vincent, which I assume is an homage to actors Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.

I said in the intro post to this series that I wondered if older movies would hold up today. In this case, I would say yes, absolutely. Only the hair and clothing really date it, the special effects and make up hold up really well, there’s a wolf-to-man transformation scene that was clearly inspired by An American Werewolf in London (should I watch that one this month? I feel like I should) that looks better than a lot of today’s CGI.

Kind of a short review, I know, but I don’t have a lot of nitpicks for this movie, and I don’t want to spoil anything. I enjoyed it. I couldn’t find anywhere you could stream this one for free (in Canada at least) but most every online service seems to have it for rent. If you remember this hidden gem or are suddenly inspired to give it a watch, let me know what you think