Horror
1 hour and 18 minutes
Not Rated
Written by: Piero Regnoli, Rijk Sijöstrom, and Riccardo Freda
Directed by: Riccardo Freda
Produced by: Luigi Carpentieri & Ermanno Donati
Cast:
Gianna Maria Canale
Carlo D'Angelo
Dario Michaelis
Wandisa Guida
Paul Müller
Beautiful Parisian girls were his victims!
Here we have one of the greatest examples of Italian cinema to come out of the boom filmmakers were producing in that nation post World War II. During the fascist reign of Mussolini, Italian filmmakers were limited on the kind of films they were allowed to produce. As was the case in Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy was only interested in films that would depict "Il Duce" and the fascist state of Italy in a positive light. Obviously, horror films had no place under this agenda. Once Mussolini was overthrown, however, it was the brilliant auteur filmmaker Riccardo Freda that would bring about the first Italian-made horror film of the talking-pictures: I Vampiri.
Without I Vampiri, beautifully made Italian horror films of the later decades such as Suspiria, The Beyond, Cannibal Holocaust, and Blood and Black Lace may not have come about. I Vampiri therefore remains one of the most seminal and important horror films and has earned a respected spot in the annals of film history.
The story itself is not unique. Freda perhaps knew this and given that this was a total experiment (the first Italian horror film) he most likely wanted to cash in on other ideas being explored by low-budget American-made horror films. The film focuses on setting the ideas of vampirism in a modern-day context. You won't see Dracula in films like I Vampiri, Nightmare Castle, or Atom Age Vampire, but rather mad scientists chasing the idea that eternal youth can be obtained through copious amounts of fatal blood transfusions.
There is much argument as to who actually directed I Vampiri. Riccardo Freda is often credited, and indeed he played a major part in writing the film's screenplay. But there are also those who claim that the credit belongs to the film's director of photography: Mario Bava. The story goes that Freda became enormously frustrated with the film's limited shooting schedule and stormed off set, allowing Bava to step in and finish production. Bava, like Freda, would later become one of Italian cinema's most prolific auteurs, and would be given the handle, "The Godfather of Italian Horror." Because Bava and Freda were both auteurs with their individual styles it's easy to tell who I Vampiri really belongs to. With big, baroque set pieces, Gothic lighting, mad scientists laboratories adorned with "modern" technology - I Vampiri is unquestionably a Mario Bava film through and through.
Many of the elements in I Vampiri seem to be where Bava cut his teeth (quite effectively, I might add) before comfortably adding them to his later films. I Vampiri showcases a Gothic castle (something that appears in nearly every Mario Bava film) that has a secret passageway behind a fireplace leading to the castle's tomb. This exact castle/tomb passageway is again showcased in Bava's film Black Sunday. Also in both Black Sunday and I Vampiri are Bava's unique talent for makeup effects. In I Vampiri a young, beautiful woman is transformed in one single take into an old, hideous hag. The effect is so stunning and frightening, one can't help but wonder how Bava pulled it off.
The set pieces are beautifully photographed. Bava was a fan of wide shots, which allow the castles, tombs, and laboratories to become the film's main stars. The actors within these set pieces appear small, adding to the claustrophobia and discomforting atmosphere Bava knows how to handle so perfectly well.
While it isn't perhaps a stand-out, or unique motion-picture, I Vampiri remains vastly important for being the spark that ignited the explosion of Italian-made horror films that would flow from the 1960s until the mid to late 1980s. It showcases the supreme talent of Mario Bava, without really even giving Bava the credit (perhaps a good thing for Bava considering the film was a disaster upon its release).
With shocking special makeup effects, gorgeous cinematography, and stunning giant Gothic set pieces, I Vampiri remains one of the more important films in the long discussion of cinematic history - and a fine example of the talent within Mario Bava, "The Godfather of Italian Horror".
10/10
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