During Mussolini’s reign, the government tightly controlled the Italian film industry. Only films deemed appropriate were allowed to be made. After the war ended, the industry grew exponentially, so by the mid-1950s, they were starting to make films that might appeal to an international audience. In 1956, director Riccardo Freda decided it was time to make a horror film. This would be Italy’s first horror film since the silent era. He made I Vampiri (or The Devil’s Commandment and Lust of the Vampire as it was called overseas) on the cheap with a shooting schedule of just two weeks. He hired his friend Mario Bava as cinematographer and special effects man. Two days before the shoot was scheduled to end, something happened, and Freda dropped out. Bava stepped in and completed the film, making substantial changes to the script.
This makes Lust of the Vampire an important film in the history of Italian cinema. I wish I could say it made it a great film, but the story is lacking. It does, however, look amazing. You can see Bava’s fingerprints all over it.
In Paris, beautiful women keep turning up dead with their blood completely drained out. The local press dubs the killer a vampire.
Sometimes we follow a reporter trying to find the vampire. Sometimes we follow Dr. Julien du Grand (Antoine Balpêtré), a scientist experimenting on corpses to find the secret to eternal life. And then there is Giselle du Grand (Gianna Maria Canale). She lives in a castle and is loosely based on Elizabeth Bathory, the real-life Hungarian noblewoman and accused serial killer who, they say, used to bathe in the blood of virgins. Our Giselle doesn’t do any bathing, but she does drink the blood of her victims, which keeps her young and beautiful.
Truthfully, it has been a long, weird week, and I was very tired while watching this. I watched it in my bedroom, lying on my bed. I nearly fell asleep. As such, I had trouble following the plot. But from the reviews I’ve read, everyone has trouble following the plot. It isn’t a well-written story.
But it looks amazing. Mario Bava filmed it in black and white, and he was a master at playing with light and shadow. They say they used only existing sets, but they found some good ones. Giselle’s castle is fantastic-looking. Bava gives it a wonderful atmospheric and gothic feel. They do some great effects with Giselle. They applied makeup in different colors and then applied different filters for different moments. This would reveal (or conceal) different makeup effects, causing her to age and become more grotesque.
It is very much worth watching, especially if you are a Bava fan (and why wouldn’t you be?)
themidnightcafe.org 