Vampires Night Orgy, The

A bus carrying a group of new employees winds up in a small village after their driver has a sudden heart attack. The passengers stay at an old inn where the food, drink and service all seem great until strange things begin to occur. When there's not enough meat to keep the guests' appetite satiated, various extremities are axed from locals by a massive woodsman (Fernando Bilbao, an immense actor who played the Frankenstein monster in several Jess Franco films). The cuisine turns out to be leg of man, and one hapless woman (Dianik Zurakowska) finds a finger on her plate! A sexy Countess (Helga Line) appears to be the village matriarch and she bribes the visitors with cash for their inconvenience, as their bus is stranded. She seduces a young tutor, and then puts the bite on him as we discover the monster that she really is. In the meantime, others quickly become vampirized while trying to escape from the ghoul-infested community.

Klimovsky here gives us a minor endeavor, not the classic that his two previous vampire films were. Stagy shocks and silly antics replace the usual eroticism (when one character unknowingly eats human meat and says, "I've never tasted anything like it," another knowingly replies, "If it's one thing I'm sure of, it's that"), but it still manages to be fairly eerie.

Eclectic's DVD of THE VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY presents an alternate "clothed" version as opposed to the one previously released on VHS by Sinister Cinema. Several nude scenes are now replaced, including Dianik Zurakowska's undressing for Jack Taylor--the film's hero, a peeping tom who spies through a tiny hole. In this version, she appears in a rather see-through blue nighty, while Sinister's displays her fully nude. Her second stripping fares better in the this version, allowing for more onscreen nudity not visible in the Sinister tape.

Another altered scene occurs when the Countess (Line, no stranger to nudity) seduces the pretty boy tutor. In Sinister's version, she is topless and there is some extended petting, while the Eclectic cut has her in a black nightgown. It's also worthy to note that this scene on the Sinister tape is accompanied by different music; a pop tune containing a female singer moaning and groaning on the soundtrack ("kiss me!"). Eclectic's disc represents the original Spanish cut (with the original Spanish credits), while Sinister's tape is the more extreme import version which played at American drive-ins in the mid-70s on a double-bill with Naschy's erotic-charged COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE.

Eclectic's DVD transfer is a vast improvement over the old Sinister cassette rendering, and seems to be using the same source print as the Pagan U.K. release. The Sinister print was taken from a rather beaten, slightly faded 35mm print, filled with jump cuts, scratches and water damage marks, and although it was slightly letterboxed, the image was still noticeably squeezed and not in its proper ratio. This DVD presents the film in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio (non-anamorphic), and the composition is very complimentary. The print source is in nearly flawless shape, but the colors are slightly dull and darker scenes look a little too dark. The English-dubbed audio, with its pop/jazz music score is a bit flat sounding, but not bad.

There are no extras on the disc. Note that Alpha's recent budget DVD of THE VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY includes the same widescreen print source. Although it's about half the price, the transfer has terrible resolution (lots of picture noise in faces), as well as some artifacting issues. Of the two U.S. versions of this title, Eclectic's wins hands down.

The premise is basic. When their driver has a heart attack, a busload of tourists find themselves stranded in a strange, out of the way village. How strange is it? Well, it's so strange that so-called actress Helga Line lives there. As the "mysterious countess," Helga has big hair, big eyes, big fangs, and a big interest in having juicy-looking men over for dinner. Soon odd things begin to happen: there are screams in the night, dripping blood, etc. You get the picture.

The direction is fairly non-existent, and while my friend calls it "atmospheric," I felt the cinematography consisted largely of pointing a camera at random in the vain hope that something interesting might happen in front of it. As for the DVD quality, I've seen better and I've seen worse--but when a film is offered in its original widescreen ratio and you feel like you wouldn't be missing anything if it were in pan-and-scan, well, that pretty much says it all. That aside, you have your choice of the original Spanish language or badly dubbed English and a "photo gallery" of dubious interest.

If your taste runs to such drive-in delights as CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, you might actually enjoy this film. But even so, this is one orgy that you won't be afraid to write home to Mom about, and while I frequently shut my eyes during the film I promise you it wasn't from fright. Final word: drive a stake through this DVD without opening the box.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer