Slaughter of the Vampires

The old Monterey VHS version is uncut, but this DVD version from Retromedia is missing quite a bit of footage. Avoid this one, especially as another company is due to release an uncut version on DVD in 2006.

On the face of it, the new (1/2007) Dark Sky transfer of this cheesy Italian gothic favorite would seem preferable to the 10/2005 Retromedia disc ("Image Entertainment"--only the distributor); the Dark Sky has a cleaner picture and, at 78 minutes (not 79), about two minutes more material. However, the Dark Sky version (actually taken as is from the cable station MonstersHD's print) is matted to an anamorphic aspect ratio of 1.85:1. While 1960s Italian films were sometimes filmed and shown in this aspect ratio--usually "hard-matted" to make sure (that is, the lens of the camera was itself matted to ensure that shape), European films would more often have been shown no wider than 1.66:1; and often, they were shown unmatted altogether at 1.37:1. SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES was not filmed "hard-matted" and Dark Sky's 1.85:1 soft-matting makes it look ridiculously cramped. Clearly never intended for 1.85:1, it is not only matted here, but completely reframed. The image is panned and scanned *vertically* under the mattes in the Dark Sky transfer to keep heads etc. from being cut off, making the original Director of Photography's decisions meaningless. Even with all this tampering, there's so much visual information missing that it's all but worthless: the film is badly disfigured to appeal to the 16x9 TV market. The Retromedia ("Image") disc, at under 76 minutes (not 78), is a shorter version and isn't as clean (though it has a very authentic feeling) but its open-matte, unreframed presentation represents the original film much better--though it's not completely right either. However, it seems unlikely that a film of such minor stature will be revisited on DVD a third time.

I've been fond of this film, ever since I saw it as a youngster on Channel 9, and they used to show at least 2 versions. This copy seems complete, though I wish they had done some restoration of the image. One of the last b/w Italian horror films, this film get short shrift from most writers on this period, but I like this little film a lot. It's shot in a very atmospheric style (lots of shadows), and the girls are gorgeous as only girls from that period can be. The lead vampire is a bit ridiculous, but you don't watch a film like this and expect Ingmar Bergman. For what it is, it's quite fun as a late edition to the Italo-horror film cycle of the 60s.