The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) |
|
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) |
|
|
| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Horror |
Main Menu Audio Featurette-The Fearless Vampire Killers: Vampires 101 Theatrical Trailer |
|
| Rating |
|
||
| Year Of Production | 1967 | ||
| Running Time | 103:01 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (30:19) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | Roman Polanski |
|
Studio
Distributor |
 Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Jack MacGowran Roman Polanski Alfie Bass Jessie Robins Sharon Tate Ferdy Mayne Iain Quarrier Terry Downes Fiona Lewis Ronald Lacey Sydney Bromley Andreas Malandrinos Otto Diamant |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $19.95 | Music | Christopher Komeda |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) |
|
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
 |
||
| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English French Italian Arabic Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers (or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are In My Neck) is one of my all-time favourite late-night camp 1960s B-Grade Vampire movies, the perfect blend of cheeky comedy, Gothic horror, complete foolishness, and Polanski's fascination with boobs.
As I wrote in my review of The Forsaken, "I generally enjoy vampire movies, and two of my favourites are Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and Interview With The Vampire (1994) . . . Vampire myths have been with us for thousands of years and occur in almost every culture around the world. Their variety is almost endless, but movie vampires are largely based on Eastern European myths".
Of course, many of these myths were distilled into the startling novel Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker; and The Fearless Vampire Killers has a great deal of fun satirising vampire lore, and generally making fun of the mythology surrounding them. Everything from garlic to coffins to crucifixes set up some great jokes and scenes throughout.
As for the story, Professor Abronsius (a brilliant performance by Jack MacGowran) and his hapless and bored (but completely terrified) assistant, Alfred (Roman Polanski), travel through remote towns in Transylvania in search of vampires. Having lost his teaching position at Kurnigsburg University, Abronsius is determined to prove the existence of vampires, and wipe them out at the same time.
In one remote town, they meet some strange characters, including a hunchback with a mean streak (Terry Downes), a lecherous and greedy Inn-Keeper (a magnificent Alfie Bass), and the mysterious Count Von Krolock (wonderfully brought to 'life' by Ferdy Mayne). When Abronsius and Alfred find themselves 'guests' in Von Krolock's castle, they are confronted with much more than they bargained for . . .
The transfer is presented in the film's original aspect ratio of 2.40:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The sharpness is reasonable, but the shadow detail suffers in the darker scenes, such as at 13:24.
The film's art direction, costumes and sets are gorgeous, but the colour looks a little washed out (although this might be intentional). It certainly gives the film an old-world feel.
There are no problems with MPEG or film-to-video artefacts. Film artefacts appear throughout, but most are small.
English, French, Italian, Arabic, Dutch, English for the Hearing Impaired, and Italian for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are present on the DVD, and the English subtitles are accurate.
This is a dual-layer disc, with the layer change placed at 30:19.
| Sharpness |  |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour |  |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
There are three audio options on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s), French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s), and Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s).
The dialogue quality and audio sync are mostly fine, but the sync does slip occasionally.
The minimalist musical score is credited to Krzysztof Komeda (as Christopher Komeda), and it is very effective.
As a mono track, there is no surround presence or LFE activity.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use |  |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
Surprisingly, there are a few extras.
A very simple (and static) menu, with Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono) audio.
Featurette-The Fearless Vampire Killers: Vampires 101 (10:19)
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono) audio, this appears to be an extended trailer for the film (composed mostly of new footage), presented as a guide to understanding vampires.
Theatrical Trailer (2:08)
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono) audio.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Fearless Vampire Killers has been released on DVD in Region 1, and our versions are the same.
If you love the Hammer Horror movies, or cheeky, slapstick 1960s horror/comedy in general, then Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers might be for you.
The video quality is slightly disappointing but still very watchable.
The audio quality is okay albeit mono.
The extras are few, but good.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
| Display | Grundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
| Speakers | Sony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer |