THE VAMPIRE (1957)

THE VAMPIRE (1957)

Tagline: A New Kind of Killer to Stalk the Screen!

(Horror, Sci-Fi, Why Did It Have To Be Bats) [PG]

Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but it would have been an [PG]. 

Exactly, Paul, but that doesn't make you another Dracula.

In this one, Dr. Matthew Campbell is trying to regress the mind to its primitive instincts and uses lots of animals in his experiments. He decides to take a drug with the main ingredient being vampire bat blood. Because that almost always works. In any event, he dies but not before trying to warn his colleague Paul Beecher of the drug’s effects. Paul suffers from migraines and accidentally takes the vampire bat pills and quickly becomes addicted. He determines that taking 1 pill a day is enough to fight the cravings, but each time he does he wakes up the next day having no idea what happened the night before aside from weird dreams. Meanwhile, he’s taken a liking to Carol Butler who returns his affections, but notices he’s becoming more and more erratic. On top of all this, nightly people in the area are coming up dead with two bite marks on their necks. At first, the police and scientists suspect capillary disintegration, but is something more sinister at work? Can the mystery of the killings be solved before the city falls prey to THE VAMPIRE? 

First off, it feels like this thing is moving snail slow for about the first 20 minutes, but once the intrigue and action kick in, things start to really get going and we end up with quite the horror movie. One thing I have to say though is the final “vampire” look they give this guy is pretty rough. He looks menacing, but I have no idea why they have him go from having normal-looking eyebrows to the craziest eyebrows in the business. I mean, they are incredibly goofy looking. 

If I was going to make changes to this thing, I would start by giving it a way better score. I have seen most every sci-fi flick out there from the 50s and now several 50s horror movies and this one has one of the worst scores. It’s almost to the point where the score is inviting you to walk away from the screen and go do the dishes or order a pizza in time for the next movie. 

Acting wise we get some pretty solid outings from the likes of Coleen Gray who plays Carol Butler. She isn’t in as many scenes as she could have been, but she does a great job. Her sci-fi stuff actually came after this as she appeared in both THE LEECH WOMAN and THE PHANTOM PLANET. John Beal plays Dr. Paul Beecher and is also pretty solid although even if I was a vampire, I wouldn’t play a role where you have to hit a woman. I mean, not unless she was a vampire too…or a radioactive squirrel with razorblade arms. John Beal had a very accomplished career showing up in at least 105 productions including THE FIRM. I also liked Dabbs Greer in this as Dr. Will Beaumont. Greer also has a really solid Hollywood and had another big sci-fi/horror flick called INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. We also had Kenneth Tobey as Sheriff Buck Donnelly. His big sci-fi flicks were THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA. 

Overall I don’t really have a lot of complaints about this one. It does have some story ideas I have seen introduced before, but overall it’s an interesting take on the vampire idea kind of side-stepping all the traditional supernatural stuff and just keeping it as sci-fi horror as they could.  

I give this one a 4 out of 7. It’s one of those movies I see myself returning to watch. It also had a satisfying ending. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF GRAMERCY PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Purchases made at Indy Planet for any issue of DARK 30 will go towards funding the next issue.