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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Vampires Night Orgy (La Orgia Nocturna de los Vampiros) (1973)

The Vampires Night Orgy (La Orgia Nocturna de los Vampiros) (1973) (NTSC)

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Released 25-Aug-2010

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Cult Booklet
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1973
Running Time 78:52
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By León Klimovsky
Studio
Distributor
Gryphon Entertainment Starring Jack Taylor
Dyanik Zurakowska
José Guardiola
Charo Soriano
Helga Liné
Manuel de Blas
David Aller
Luis Ciges
Gaspar 'Indio' González
Antonio Páramo
Fernando Bilbao
Alfonso de la Vega
Rafael Albaicín
Case Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI ? Music None Given


Video (NTSC) Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Not 16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     The film commences with a funeral during the opening credits when the coffin splits open to reveal a mouldy, maggoty corpse, before switching to a group of travellers on a bus in the countryside. When their bus driver dies of a heart attack the travellers divert from the main road to the village of Tolnia hoping to find shelter for the night. They find the village totally deserted, but the inn has a fire and is well stocked so they settle in. Shortly after another traveller, Luis (Jack Taylor), arrives at the inn, telling them that he had been in the village for an hour but has also seen no-one. They all decide to stay the night and find rooms. Luis gets lucky; he discovers a peep-hole in his room that allows him to see into the next room where pretty blonde Alma (Dyanik Zurakowska) is undressing. After midnight, Ernesto (Indio Gonzalez) decides to check on the bus. He discovers instead that there are indeed people in the village, who attack him and tear at his throat.

     In the morning, all is normal and the villagers come to the inn to help provide breakfast for the stranded travellers. The village head, Boris, called The Major (Jose Guardiola), tells Luis and Alma that the night before everyone had been at a funeral in the cemetery. Behind the scenes there is a problem: the village does not have enough meat to feed the travellers, so The Giant (a wonderful Fernando Bilbao) uses his axe to cut off the leg of a villager, and a roast is on the menu. And Ernesto turns up, looking very pale.

     When neither Luis’ car nor the bus can be started, The Major takes everyone to meet The Countess (Helga Line) who offers them the hospitality of the village until suitable parts to fix the bus will arrive. What’s more, she will pay for everything. The Countess also takes a liking to young teacher Cesar (David Aller), who stays behind in her villa when the others return to the inn. The Countess seduces Cesar, then sinks her teeth into his neck to suck his blood before throwing his body off the balcony to the ravenous villagers below. It seems the travellers have stumbled onto a village of vampires, and one by one they are caught and converted into the living dead until only Luis and Alma are left to try to make their escape.

     The Vampires Night Orgy (the DVD cover calls the film Vampire Night Orgy but the former is how the title appears in the credit sequence and how it is known in the UK release - original Spanish title La orgia nocturna de los vampiros) is an entertaining vampire film from prolific Argentine born director Leon Klimovsky who made a number of well-regarded Spanish horror and vampire films in his long career. If the acting leaves a little to be desired, the village looks good in widescreen and the film builds up a number of tense and creepy moments, such as the sequence with the child in the graveyard. The film also has a nice touch of black humour. After Luis watches Alma through the peep-hole, he sends her a note telling her not to worry as “someone is watching over you” and when the leg of the villager as served as a roast one man comments “I’ve never tasted anything like this” to which The Major replies “no, you certainly haven’t”. There is also a wonderful scene where Alma finds a finger in her food, and the escape from the village is exciting and well-staged, and with a nice twist as well. The music is fairly typical 1970s, with up tempo horns and is intrusive and tends to undermine some of the tension. The creepy scenes work far better when the music is minimalized.

     As usual for Spanish films made late in Franco’s reign, two versions of the scenes involving sexual content were shot for The Vampires Night Orgy. The version for international release included both Dyanik Zurakowska (when she undresses with Luis watching) and Helga Line (when she seduces Cesar) in nude scenes. For Spanish audiences the actresses were clothed in these scenes, and sadly this is the version that is now available, although Dyanik Zurakowska is topless in one scene.

     Vampire Night Orgy is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a box set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world, Germany, Spain, Italy and England, from 1922 to 1974. The full list is Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932) on disc 1, Atom Age Vampire (1960) and Fangs of the Living Dead (1969) on disc 2 and Vampire Night Orgy (1974) and Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride (1973) on disc 3. The set also includes an informative 8 page booklet.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The Vampires Night Orgy is presented in a ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio and is not16x9 enhanced. The print is NTSC format.

     This is a nice looking print. The print is quite soft and detail is not great, and colours are dull. Blacks are mostly OK, but do deteriorate on some occasions, shadow detail is not great but is acceptable for an unrestored film that is almost 40 years old. On the other hand, the print exhibits only infrequent small dirt marks and the odd scratch, as well as minor aliasing on surfaces such as the bus grill (2:23) or car grill (54:11). Generally, a nice print to look at.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English Linear PCM track at 1536 Kbps. The audio is not in as good a condition as the video.

     This is the English language dub of the film. Dialogue is easy to understand and the effects are actually quite good. Clocks tick crisply, footsteps echo and things go creak in the night to good effect. On the other hand, the audio exhibits a continual hum that is distracting, plus the occasional crack.

     I could not find a credit for the score. As noted in the review, the music was a very 1970s up tempo score that is intrusive and tends to undermine some of the tension created by the visuals.

     The lip synchronization in the English dub is rather better than most, but is still obvious on occasions.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Booklet

     A booklet provides some interesting information and a summary for all the films in this box set.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     There are a couple of releases of The Vampires Night Orgy listed on Amazon. The Region 1 US release is listed as 1.33:1, the Region 2 UK as 2.35:1. Neither is 16x9 enhanced, and both are the “clothed” version of the film. There seems to reason to go beyond our version which has the added benefit of being included in the Blood Suckers package for a RRP of $19.95 for six films. I cannot find an equivalent of this three disc, six film package in any other region.

Summary

     The Vampires Night Orgy is an entertaining vampire film from prolific Argentine born director Leon Klimovsky. If the acting leaves a little to be desired, the village looks good in widescreen and the film builds up a number of tense and creepy moments. The film also has a nice touch of black humour. The video is quite good, the audio less so. A booklet is the only extra.

     The Vampires Night Orgy is included in the six film, three DVD collection Blood Suckers, a set from Gryphon of vampire tales from around the world between 1922 and 1974.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ray Nyland (the bio is the thing)
Friday, March 09, 2012
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S580, using HDMI output
DisplayLG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderNAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
AmplificationNAD T737
SpeakersStudio Acoustics 5.1

Other Reviews NONE