The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
“Oy vey, have you got the wrong vampire.”
Also….
“Pardon me, but your teeth are in my neck.”
My introduction to vampires came watching the original Dark Shadows TV series with my mother in the late 1960s. It scared the heck out of me.
A few years later, I saw The Fearless Vampire Killers on late night television. It made me jump from time to time, but the fanged-ones were suddenly a little less frightening and a lot more…human. It was a winning combination and one that sparked a fascination with all things pointy teeth until well into my teens.
Rewatching a movie that meant a lot to you as a boy (or girl) can be risky. Peter Graves asking Jimmy if he likes movies with gladiators was quirky when I watched Airplane! in 1980. Forty years and countless child abuse stories later it is more than a little creepy.
So how did the return to TFVK go?
Let’s start with the premise.
The setup comes straight from a standard Hammer Films style vamp flick of the late 60s. Professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran - The Exorcist) is a “bat specialist” visiting Transylvania with his aide, Alfred (Roman Polanski - who also directed and was co-writer). It becomes clear quickly that Abronsius (who a six year old Movie Cat mistook for Albert Einstein) is not there for the garlic sausage: he is intent on proving the existence of vampires.
The first half of the film takes place in a village inn where the professor and Alfred meet a number of colorful characters, including the ostentatiously Jewish innkeeper, Shagal, (Alfie Bass - Revenge of the Pink Panther), his wife, Rebecca (Jessie Robins), and his beautiful daughter, Sarah (Sharon Tate, Polanski’s future wife).
The second act is in the castle of Count von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne, who played bloodsuckers in several later films, including My Lovely Monster). The Count shares the digs with his (not too much of a Spoiler) equally fangy son, Herbert (Iain Quarrier).
We won’t spoil the story and go into detail on the goings on in the inn and castle, but they include some interesting, often funny, and occasionally disturbing turns.
So how does it hold up?
The movie was a lot quirkier than I remember (or, more likely, appreciated as a kid). Jewish vampire? Got it. Flamboyantly gay vampire? Check? Subtle and creepy details like a blood stain on a bathtub that you will miss unless you really pay attention? Yeah. And innovative camera techniques? Yup.
The humor I remembered as a kid was still there, but it had a darker edge than I recalled. The vampires were also different: far less the dashing and seductive Dracula played by Christopher Lee and world’s apart from Tom Cruse’s Interview with the Vampire. These are menacing…but motheaten. They are beaten up, something fragile, and supernatural…but far from superhuman. In a way that made them even scarier. They exude a sort of desperation that makes them feel more dangerous than the sophisticated vamp that you could imagine debating with or, perhaps, being seduced by.
So what’s the verdict?
The Fearless Vampire Killers isn’t a typical horror film. Nor was it intended to be. A friend who screened it with me concluded by saying “I’m not sure how to respond to this movie.” That is how many will feel and, I think, what Polanski hoped.
Check it out HERE and let us know how you respond to it.
Three out of Five Bats.
🦇🦇🦇
Bonus poster by the legendary Frank Frazetta!
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