soulexpress Review of The Vampires Night Orgy

The Vampires Night Orgy (1973)

Headlight broken, headlight working, headlight broken,headlight working!

[3/10 · 29 August 2017]

Rule of thumb: if the village you're heading toward appears on no maps, don't go there! No good can possibly come of it. For example, if you're like this busload of tourists marooned in the Italian village of Tonia, the entire populace could be vampires—even the old guy with no teeth.

As far as low-budget Italian horror films go, THE VAMPIRES' NIGHT ORGY is neither terribly good nor bad. I'm only reviewing it because certain things about this one really bugged me. Forsooth (but not too forsooth):

• The jazz score was completely out of place. It would have been more fitting on a TV cop show like "Mannix."

• The young daughter of one of the tourists is befriended by a mysterious little boy who can vanish and reappear at will. The film never explains who that kid is, or why he hangs out in a village of vampires. The boy inadvertently suffocates the little girl, buries her body in the graveyard, and watches in mirthful delight as the girl's mother digs up her child's corpse and drags it away. I don't know how this kid is germane to the plot, but I do know this: I don't like him!

• The not-infrequent continuity errors--especially toward the end, when the two surviving tourists flee the village in a car. At first, both headlights are on; but a jump-cut later, one is burnt out. Another jump cut, and the headlights are both off. Jump cut again, and both lights are back on. Mind you, this all happens in just a few seconds, while the car is moving quite fast. There's also a scene inside the vehicle in which it is daylight when the camera points toward the windshield, but nighttime when it points out the rear window. (It's supposed to be midnight.)

So, there you have it: THE VAMPIRES' NIGHT ORGY, the film version of the creepy-looking guy who sits on a park bench all day but never really bothers anyone.