The Vampire Happening (1971) User Reviews

An honest opinion

[Monica4937 · 5/10 · 30 November 2008]

This is the story about a young actress, Betty Williams, who inherits a castle in Transylvania. When she arrives, the caretaker immediately recognizes and shows her the stark resemblance between Betty and her great great grandmother, Clarimonde: who just so happens to be a most feared vampire. During her time in the castle, Betty unknowingly awakens the 'still fresh looking' corpse of Clarimonde deep in the castle vaults and mayhem ensues.

If intelligent and thought provoking is what you are looking for, then you won't find it in The Vampire Happening. This is a movie that garners its charm from the satirical, sex driven jokes found throughout the entire film. You have your senile old man that has a habit of freaking himself out all of the time, an aspiring monk that happens to be a closet nymphomaniac (this becomes comically apparent when he starts seeing visions of sexual display in the form of nature during a walk in the woods.), and last but not least, gratuitous amounts of nudity.

Yes, it's full of bad acting, bad scriptwriting and shoddy direction, but this film still managed to accomplish what I'm sure the filmmakers ultimately intended: it entertained me. I think it's important for any person expressing interest in the horror genre to give movies like The Vampire Happening a chance: there's something to admire in the people who make them.

Lady and the vamp

[Chase_Witherspoon · 6/10 · 13 May 2011]

Eccentric horror/satire by Hammer studios legend Freddie Francis has an American movie starlet (Degermark) inheriting a Transylvanian castle, home to a long deceased though presently undead ancestor who bares a striking resemblance to the actress. Vampire hunters (Hunter and his bumbling, ageing companion Murillo) make several unsuccessful attempts to end the vampire dynasty, even resorting to false fangs in order to infiltrate a vampire masquerade party-cum-orgy. Shameless rip-off of "The Fearless Vampire Killers" is a topless orgy of sex and violence with some wacky slapstick and corny dialogue.

Combining uniquely German beer-hall humour, moody looking sets and an 'international' cast, director Francis has conjured an entertaining romp in which almost every female is topless and buxom, their male counterparts not as pretty but just as randy. Anyone who sees this movie will remember the party scene in which special guest Count Dracula himself (Ferdy Mayne) flies in by chopper to anoint the organisers and generally lend a certain prestige to the vampires' bash. It's an hilarious ode to the era of free love - here among the vampire fraternity - and is without doubt the film's crowning glory. Watching the voracious vampires make a mad dash for their coffins before the sun rises is also a comic highlight.

Controversial Swedish actress Pia Degermark is alluring and does a reasonable job in a dual role of contrasting characters, while Hunter (one of the few English speaking actors in the picture) exercises some comedic talent as he romances both the lady and the vamp. Quirky, sexy and irreverent romp is obscure, worthy of cult status and should be viewed accordingly.

Amusing spoof of Hammer's vampire films

[Wuchakk · 5/10 · 31 March 2014]

"The Vampire Happening" is a West German horror/comedy from 1971 (the German title can roughly be translated as "You Only Get Bitten at Night"). The beautiful Pia Degermark plays a double role as an American actress who inherits a castle in Transylvania and discovers that her grandmother is a vampire who looks just like her, albeit raven-haired, also played by Pia. Some of the inhabitants of a nearby monastery and girl's school join the ranks of the undead and the vampires throw a helluva costume party where Dracula shows up.

The movie combines elements of "Kiss of the Vampire" (1963) and "The Devil's Nightmare" (1971) with the zaniness of "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (1967). It's a fun romp and not supposed to be taken seriously; anyone offended by its irreverence needs to visit the psyche ward.

Ms. Degermark's amazing beauty is a key highlight. Pia was married to the producer at the time and was a promising starlet; she previously won awards at Cannes (Best Actress) and the Golden Globes (Most Promising Female Newcomer). Not that I care about such awards; I just want to establish Pia's blossoming career at the time. Unfortunately, this was her final film -- of only four -- and she divorced the producer a couple years later, falling into anorexia, poverty, fraud and prison in the later 70s. How the mighty have fallen! But, thankfully, I heard she later got her life back on track. In any event, she was in her prime in this movie and does an impressive job in the dual role; in fact, she easily carries the film.

Actually, there are quite a few good-lookin' women on display here, but their portrayal is too one-dimensional. If you're a breast man, though, you'll be ecstatic.

The film was directed by Freddie Francis, an Oscar-winning cinematographer, known for such quality films as "Glory," "Cape Fear" (1991), "The Elephant Man," "The Creeping Flesh" and "Dracula has Risen from the Grave," but also lesser films (to be nice) like the infamous "Trog." I point this out to stress that this is not some amateur production, although you might think it is since it's such an obscure public domain film, featured on numerous cheap DVDs.

"The Vampire Happening" plays out like a satire of Hammer's vampire flicks. As such, there's quite a bit to appreciate here if you're in the mood for a horror sex comedy. The problem is that the story tends to meander.

I found the depiction of the Roman monastery and monks to be interesting. Is this what people think Christianity really is? Dull, sterile men wearing drab robes swearing off sex and marriage, utterly appalled by any depiction of nudity, sex or sexuality? I guess they never seriously examined the Song of Songs in their studies (or much of the rest of the Bible, for that matter). What an absurd and erroneous depiction of Christianity, and I'm not blaming the filmmakers, but rather the idiotic religious spirit and sterile organizations that foster such a depiction.

FINAL WORD: Although "The Vampire Happening" is a Euro-trash horror sex comedy, it's a fun film if you're in the right mode. It amusingly spoofs vampire flicks and features a strong protagonist/antagonist performance by Pia Degermark. On the downside, it's a little overlong and the story isn't fully engaging, not to mention they drop the ball with the women by being ridiculously one-dimensional. Nevertheless, it's more entertaining than Polanski's overrated "The Fearless Vampire Killers."

The film runs 102 minutes and was shot at Castle Kreuzenstein, Austria.

GRADE: C+/B- (5.5/10)

Interesting if not good

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 2 July 2021]

Italian producer Pier A. Caminnecci, who was the money behind Succubus, Castle of the Creeping Flesh, Two Undercover Angels, Death on a Rainy Day and Kiss Me Monster, wanted to make a movie for his wife Pia Degermark, whose movie Elvira Madigan had been a major success. We've seen it before, but have we seen it as a ripoff of The Fearless Vampire Killers* with British horror director Freddie Francis, an international cast based in West Germany and the producer's wife playing two roles, much less the producer himself in a cameo?

Decades later, as part of Italy's Fantafestical 86, Francis would explain, "I was aware from the start of the difficulties in shooting a horror parody. I really believed that I was working with normal people in the movie industry, and thought I could have made a decent film. With time, I became aware that the producer was an imbecile who treated the project like a home movie. He wanted to do the casting, make cameos in the film, and wanted his wife as an actress. It was a disaster which I can't say anything serious about."

Degermark plays American actress Betty Williams and her great great grandmother Clarimonde, one of the many vampires here. She's also nude for most of the movie, which I'm certain that came from her getting to show off for her husband. As soon as the vampiric relative rises from the dead, she sets about devouring and turning all of the young priests and nuns at the nearby monastery and girl's school.

This is still not the strangest vampire movie Francis would direct, as just three years later, he'd make Son of Dracula. But that's another story.

It's not a great movie, but hey - at least it's interesting. And quite frankly, Degermark is gorgeous. Sadly, this would be her last film and she'd divorce Caminnecci two years later. She suffered from anorexia, got into drugs and fell into a bad crowd, but then went further by being charged with stealing money from charities run by her stepmother. She lost her son to the child welfare system and went to jail for a period. Here's hoping her life improved, as it seems like it was getting better in the last interview that I could find from her, which was conducted in 2004.

*It's so influenced by that movie that Ferdy Mayne shows up as Fürst Christopher Dracula. Maybe also played a vampire in My Lovely Monster, Freckled Max and the Spooks and, of course, Polanski's comedy vampire effort. He's literally Dracula here, showing up in his own helicopter.

Looks great. Less filling.

[Sycotron · 20 August 2000]

Pia Degermark looks great throughout. She wears various costumes as she plays the dual role of a modern day baroness and a vampire ancestor who returns from the dead. She also appears nude for those who are not in to costumes.

Overall this is a very goofy movie with a lot of lame comedy. Still though Pia is breathtaking and worth a look just for that.

THE VAMPIRE HAPPENING (Freddie Francis, 1971) **

[Bunuel1976 · 5/10 · 16 January 2011]

This is another obscure horror title (actually a spoof), despite the involvement of Hammer/Amicus regular Francis; emanating from Germany, it was produced and scored by Pier A. Caminneci and Jerry van Rooyen respectively, who had been responsible for one of Jess Franco's most impressive works i.e. SUCCUBUS (1967). From what little I read about the film under review (the R1 DVD release arrived courtesy of Anchor Bay), the general consensus is that it does not work and the director should never have gotten himself involved to begin with. Still, Francis cannot have been too displeased at this change-of-pace since he would embark on a similarly outrageous venture not long after, the result being the equally maligned and even harder-to-find SON OF Dracula (1974)! Anyway, what we have here is a fairly engaging sex comedy which just happens to take place in Transylvania: having been an Oscar-winning cinematographer beforehand, the director ensures a good-looking film with the traditional (and authentic) Gothic scenery providing the appropriate contrast to the modern-day setting (the title itself being amusingly 'with it').

One other coup of the film, however, is the presence (in a dual role of a porn star with an Edie Sedgwick look and her dark-haired vampire ancestor) of leading lady Pia Degermark, though the "DVD Drive-In" reviewer seems to have appreciated her contribution solely on an aesthetic level (claiming he was unable to tell the two characters apart – well, the tell-tale sign was the different color of their finger-nails and, for the record, I preferred the 'older' version)! While she may have been cast due to her liaison with the film's producer, Degermark (previously from Bo Widerberg's tragic romance ELVIRA MADIGAN [1967], an established classic of World Cinema that I own but have yet to watch) carries the show with reasonable aplomb – which, at 104 minutes, is saying a lot! Unfortunately, her initial fairy-tale existence and fast living (she came from a wealthy family, for a time dated the King of Sweden and then, at just 17, won the Best Actress award at Cannes and was cited the Most Promising Female Newcomer at the Golden Globes!) spiraled into numerous health problems and, finding herself socially ostracized, even ended up in jail…but, thankfully, she now seems to have mostly picked up the pieces and gotten her life back on track.

To return to the film, it starts and ends with plane journeys: first, we get varied reactions to the in-flight viewing of a "Betty Williams" skin-flick (her name even appears in the opening credits of the movie proper!) and, ultimately, the vampire (having been mistaken for the porn star) landing in Hollywood in her stead! Among the numerous other characters to figure in the plot line are the Baroness' clumsy elderly servant (he orchestrates many a botched attempt to dispose of the bloodsucker and, at one point, even interacts with the audience!), a young monk (his initial suffering at being aroused by his fetching neighbor is amusing but his eventual sex-crazed antics when transformed into a vampire become tiresome) from the monastery adjacent to the castle, his irascible abbot (complete with funny German accent), a number of teachers (the male immediately becomes the heroine's lover, while the female is revealed as a lesbian) and promiscuous students from a nearby girls' school.

We even get the belated introduction of Count Dracula himself (played by THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS [1967]'s Ferdy Mayne, with Satanic salute intact!) – arriving at the concluding undead convention in a chopper flanked by Mafiosi(!) and depicted as quite the party animal; indeed, THE VAMPIRE HAPPENING must surely be the only movie which gives us the opportunity to see Dracula wearing spectacles, munching on a banana and even, quite literally, being caught with his pants down at sunrise ("Damn the zipper! Full speed ahead", he barks to his minions – a long way after Charles Coburn's 1943 Oscar-winning turn in THE MORE THE MERRIER)! There are even a couple of references to another Roman Polanksi horror effort, ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), as well as a cute jibe at Christopher Lee – interestingly, Francis had himself previously directed the actor's third stab at his signature role in Hammer's Dracula HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968)! This lengthy section of the film, then, suggests that everyone, from generals to sheiks to rock musicians and even astronauts(!), is 'in'.

To be honest, though obviously no classic, I rather enjoyed the film and only felt that it fell apart at the climax (with the multiple fang-work proving especially amateurish!). One unusual and prophetic aspect (little seen in the subgenre prior to the recent advent of the "Twilight" saga, which I actually have little interest in watching in view of its teen fan-base!) is when the bloodsucking Degermark restrains herself from draining the teacher's blood because she simply wants to re-experience the emotions of a sexual encounter with a living human being (for which the 'Prince Of Darkness' later takes her to task).

"They should ship that dyke back to Holland".

[lost-in-limbo · 5/10 · 7 October 2010]

Have a taste for blood… well let me throw in a side tray of goofy humour and seedy sexual activity. The (post-hippie stage) early 70s "The Vampire Happening" is a playfully sexy low-budget German produced horror spoof that sinks its teeth into the vampire genre. While not always on the mark with the gags (where sometimes the script didn't throw up enough or just repeated the gimmicks or rowdiness), as the fangs could have use a sharpen, but it remains rather diverting because of the idiotic silliness and free flowing skin.

Hollywood star Betty Williams, but her real name countess Von Robenstein has made her way to her newly inherited castle in Transylvania. Upon checking it out, she decides to stay. Unknowingly to her, Claramonde Catani her great grandmother is kept in a tomb in the castle and happens to be a vampire. They look so alike except for the colour of their hair and that of their nail polish, but Catani constantly switches identities with her granddaughter who confuses her anxious servant Josef and the town's folk.

The robust story is pure ham, digging up every opportunity to poke fun at the vampire conventions and the superstitious framework. The film's closing half focusing on the swinging orgy party filled with vampires and a special guest --- Count Dracula himself (a terrifically amusing mock turn by Ferdy Mayne) takes the icing. It's exploitative in its revealing, if tempting visuals (don't count the cheap, charming make-up) and the clumsy script is constantly cheeky with its innuendos. Pia Degermark is a complete hoot, as she's seductively saucy in her dual roles Williams / Catani. She's a prowess! Yvor Murillo is fitting as the bumbling comic servant Josef and Thomas Hunter is acceptable as William's lover. Director Freddie Francis does a surefooted job, if nothing overly special, but the choice of locations bathe nicely in a Gothic ambiance despite the modern setting. Liked the illustrated opening credits.

Probably the most obscure thing Freddie Francis ever did.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 3/10 · 21 January 2012]

A cheap German movie, from a British director, starring dubbed Polish, Swedish, Austrian and American actors in it. Why Freddie Francis? Why?

When watching this movie you would think that Freddie Francis must have been a horrible director, whenever he did a movie outside of the safe confinement of the Hammer studios. This movie is really all over the place and truly going nowhere with its story, even though this is of course the type of movie Freddie Francis was familiar with doing.

Don't even ask me what this movie is all about. It's basically a huge mess and it doesn't really seem to worry about following a main plot line. All of the stuff happening and characters are all very random and don't really serve a purpose for its story. Even when you take this movie as just an exploitation flick it simply isn't good enough because it really doesn't offer enough fun and entertainment.

At times the movie is trying to be just like a Hammer production, while at others it's going for a very straightforward comedy approach. It was confusing because the movie seemed like it wanted to be taken seriously, while at the same time it was going over-the-top with its comedy. It has a more awkward type of comedy in it, that seems out of place and even inappropriate. Seriously, why involve monks into a sexual orientated subplot. I just don't know how to take this movie. It's not a genre parody because it clearly wanted to be too much just like a normal genre movie but for a normal genre movie it just really isn't serious- or even good enough. Just having vampires, a castle and some naked women running around is not enough to make a good genre movie with of course.

But aside from its story, it also really is a poorly told and done movie. Perhaps you could mostly blame the budget for this but as a viewer you at least expect to get some entertainment out of this movie, which this movie however just never really provided enough of.

Perhaps you could also simply blame it on the fact many different nationalities were involved with making this movie. Perhaps because of this the actors couldn't really understand the director, the director couldn't understand the cinematographer, the editor didn't knew what the director wanted, the director couldn't understand the script. The movie really feels like one that got put together by a bunch of people who didn't know how to work together and everybody just simply did their own thing.

On a positive note: I kind of liked the music though. Why didn't Jerry van Rooyen work on more movies? It was some perfectly suitable genre music, that actually sounded too good for this movie and even sounded to be somewhat ahead of its time.

Really a movie that is going nowhere and it even doesn't seem to know itself what it wants to be.

3/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is an erotic horror comedy that must be seen to be believed.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 12 April 2011]

If "The Fearless Vampire Killers" wasn't enough for the psychedelic era of movie making (the 1960's), here comes this obvious rip-off that overloads the screen with moderate nudity, gags straight out of an "Airplane!" or "Naked Gun" movie, and a Count Dracula that highly resembles the classier Christopher Lee and is even named Christopher as homage to him. Starting off with a weird group of passengers on a plane watching an adult movie (including a gum-popping boy, a cigar chomping grandpa, and a young girl with glasses so thick her eyes look like a giant moon) and an effeminate steward ("Don't do that!", he screeches when the heroine draws blood from his hand while getting her martini from him), the stage is set for just under two hours of a film so bad yet funny, it's difficult to stop it no matter how badly you want to. The heroine, a Hollywood movie star, has come to Transylvania to sell her family estate, sending the castle's caretaker into hysterics over her resemblance to her grandmother, who is very much undead and stalking the night for prey. All this comes to a head at a party held in honor of "Count Christopher Dracula" where the heroine, her lover, the caretaker, two undead priests and the grandmother all covert together to wrap this turkey up. Fortunately, it's all available on a $5 DVD from alpha video that once you watch it you'll definitely want to pass on to friends who just want a chance to laugh at one of the silliest bad movies since the days of Ed Wood.

While the nudity is seemingly quite gratuitous, it's not done in an offensive way. The actress playing the countess and her undead grandmother resembles Elizabeth Taylor, while all of the other characters are parodies of types seen in horror movies since the silent days. It's clever in the sense that there are a lot of references that only old cinema buffs might get, particularly the old priest's resemblance to character actor Felix Bressart. There are moments when parts of the film don't appear to be as cheap as the rest of the movie. There's a great scene where the countess has fantasies of various people (including the gay steward) being tortured while in the castle's torture chamber. A young priest, fighting his lustful urges, is suddenly haunted by a topless vampiress and has all sorts of strange sexual visuals including a tree that opens up like a pair of legs as a branch resembling the male anatomy prepares to invade it. The actors all appear to be having a very good time being silly (especially the deceased young priest who, once dead, acts continuously like he was drunk), but it's still quite amateurish. While you'll definitely get the similarities to the plot of "The Fearless Vampire Killers", one thing I'm sure you'll agree on---unlike that cult Roman Polanski movie, this is one film I hope they never choose to make into a Broadway musical.

Silly vampire sex comedy is worth a single watch - if you're in a forgiving mood

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 26 November 2016]

This is a very strange, West German vampire sex comedy that mercilessly spoofs the kind of Gothic horror films that Hammer had been churning out during the previous decade. When you see the name of Freddie Francis as director, you immediately expect a great film, as this was the guy who shot the best of Hammer's output, as well as acting as cinematographer in many a Hollywood classic. Yet THE VAMPIRE HAPPENING must be the oddest film of the guy's career, and there's no trace of his presence in this anything-goes piece of trash that has dated extremely badly.

Of course, the 1970s was a hit-and-miss period for the comedy horror spoof. For every YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN there was a HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN. This one seems to use the Polanski hit THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS as a template, but it doesn't work very well. The plot is laboured and overlong and the comedy...well, it just isn't funny, unless you're in a VERY forgiving mood. Generally, the jokes come from the odd characters: the randy monk who sees sexual imagery in the trees in the woods; the vampire hunter butler, forever getting the wrong end of the stick; the stud teacher, busy bedding baronesses and vampiresses; the abbot, who spies on naked schoolgirls from his window. And of course, this is a sex comedy as well, so there's a topless woman every few seconds, as well as lots of saucy shenanigans and bedroom antics. There's nothing sleazy or exploitative here, this is the same kind of 'seaside postcard' smut that you'll find in the CONFESSIONS OF A WINDOW CLEANER type films from the same period. It actually brings back some nostalgia.

On the plus side, it's a very nice film to look at. Pia Degermark, a Swedish starlet, plays both the heroine and the vampire and she's very appealing in the dual role; Francis knows that he has a top leading lady on his hands and he really does make the best of her. She's stunning. Thomas Hunter was a muscly American star of the period and he performs well here, but my favourite actor is the unknown guy who plays the bumbling, elderly butler. He's the driving force of the film, really, and his humorous scenes aren't as embarrassing as some. Ferdy Mayne, who was in the Polanski film, pops up at the end playing Count Dracula, complete with cheeky in-joke ("Call me Christopher"). So, for the year it was made and the type of film it is, this isn't bottom of the barrel, but it's too confusing, choppy, and ultimately silly to be worth watching more than once.

It ain't that bad!

[bre_anna · 8/10 · 10 August 2008]

For its genre (eurotrash horror comedy) this is a wonderful example. It's funny, lame, and absurd in a "Oh God no" way. I recommend everyone who has a flexible sense of humour should watch this. I think the best thing about this film is its sweetly good natured cheekiness. There's no nastiness in it at all and if you get a cheap grainy version, so much the better! it simply adds to the ambiance. I love this film (and I'm not a complete idiot I love European silent film especially German and Nosferatu 1922 is my favourite movie of all time and I admire Paul Wegener as an intellectual and an actor)so, hopefully having established some "not complete idiot" credentials, take my tip, a bottle of red wine, and an appreciation for good natured nonsense, and you have yourself a great film! Go The Vampire Happening!!! (Oh, and the Martin (Luther!) monk joke is dead cheeky.

Stupid funny turn your brain off during it kind of flick

[dragontiger1988 · 7/10 · 21 February 2015]

Were to begin, this flick is a horror comedy and most certainly isn't a bad movie by any means. It is entertaining as heck to watch. But put your thinking on off mode during it and remember it was made on a low budget to were it looked dated around the time it was released. The story is well if there is much to tell is an actress from LA flies overseas to go to a mansion her Grandmother owned, to meet with a cowardly caretaker. The caretaker is scared of her thinking she is the vampire grandmother. The actress later learns of her Grandmother is still around in vampire form and she accidentally released her. So most of the movie the caretaker is jumpy scarred at the sight of either women not being able to tell them apart when he sees them threw out the mansion. The movie has it's share of sex jokes and topless vampire women. But you will have to go check this flick out to learn about the rest, as I'm not going to give away everything in this review. If you like vampires and old horror movies then go see this one. If your easily offended by nudity in movies then you maybe need not watch this flick. I rate it 7 out of 10

Freddie freakin' Francis?!??!

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 19 February 2013]

Clearly aiming to emulate comedy/horror hit The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), offbeat German-produced sexy horror/comedy The Vampire Happening sees a beautiful US actress, Betty Williams (Pia Degermark), travelling to her ancestral castle in Transylvania where she discovers that one of her supposedly long-dead relatives, Countess Clarimonde (also played by Degermark), is a vampire and has been feeding off the locals. Unfortunately, the film's attempts at replicating Polanski's spoofery are embarrassingly bad, making this 102 minutes of cringe-worthy nonsense which narrowly escapes being completely unwatchable thanks an excess of female nudity from some quality Euro-totty.

The film opens in typically bizarre fashion with Betty happily watching the in-flight entertainment on her flight to Transylvania; what makes this scene so strange is that the film being projected is not only R-rated and stars Betty herself partaking in a heated bout of nookie, but all of the passengers, children included, are watching. The erotic in-flight movie for all the family is just one of the many weird and confusing things about The Vampire Happening, other head-scratchers including an antique oil-painting of Clarimonde that looks suspiciously like a photograph, a hallucinatory sequence in which a randy monk is reminded of sex wherever he looks, a torture dream-sequence in which a buck naked, big-breasted babe is stretched on a rack, and, after much craziness involving mistaken identity, a vampire soirée where Dracula himself is the guest of honour, the count arriving in a helicopter emblazoned with a massive bat logo.

Despite all of that inexplicable madness, perhaps the most perplexing thing of all about The Vampire Happening is that Oscar winning cinematographer Freddie Francis directed this utter pile of drivel. While Freddie was far from the greatest director working in the horror at the time, he was more than capable of making an entertaining movie (such as the Amicus anthology Tales From the Crypt and Hammer's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave); even his clunkers Trog and Tales That Witness Madness look like masterpieces in comparison to this garbage.

Freddie Francis must have needed the money.

[BMatth6167 · 13 June 2004]

I purchased this film on the strength of reviews that suggested it was worth a look. I want my money back. There is very little about this film that is worth looking at once, let alone repeated viewings. It appears to be an effort to emulate the unique style and tone of Roman Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers" but fails in the attempt. I like Freddie Francis a great deal, particularly as a cinematographer but also as a director. His work has always had a touch of class even if the scripts he was given did not. Unfortunately, this is not an outing of his that I would recommend to anyone. Mr. Francis must have needed the job to take on this dismal horror-comedy that is totally lacking in horror and evokes few smiles and no laughs.

They ought to ship that dyke back to Holland!

[lastliberal-853-253708 · 5/10 · 13 March 2013]

The film features Swedish actress Pia Degermark, who destroyed a promising career by appearing in it. Instead of stardom, she eventually ended up homeless and sent to prison. Sometimes poor choices have disastrous consequences. She plays a dual role as an actress who inherits a castle and her grandmother.

Degermark is not the only one to see the inside of a prison, as Ingrid van Bergen spent seven years inside for manslaughter. Maybe a curse of the vampire.

There is a bit of comedy mixed with the vampire horror. The Baroness (Degermark playing as her grandmother) likes to flash her big naturals at the monks praying next door. Of course some monks spy on the girls school. And Josef (Yvor Murillo) spends the whole movie trying to drive a stake in the heart of the Baroness.

Plenty of big naturals to distract from the silly script.

THIS MADAM IS THE TORTURE CHAMBER

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 21 June 2019]

A movie star inherits a castle in Transylvania and travels there only to find her great grandmother is a vampire and is still alive. In fact she looks so much like her, one person played both persons. The castle is located near a monastery and a girl's school to add to sexual taboos. The film culminates, without much linear plot into the title event, a "vampire happening."

The movie is a 70's Euro-trash sexual romp with no acting and attempts at humor.

Sex and ample nudity ( Pia Degermark for much of the film, Lyvia Bauer, Daria Damar, plus many more)

Mistaken Knockoff

[Cineanalyst · 4/10 · 20 May 2018]

This is a bad movie and a knockoff of other vampire movies, but the filmmakers clearly knew that, so it might be worth checking out for those interested in intentionally bad movies. "The Vampire Happening" mostly rips off Roman Polanski's far-better vampire farce "Dance of the Vampires" (1967), retitled "The Fearless Vampire Killers" in the U.S. Like that film, there's animation in the opening credits. There's a blabbering old man. The monk turned nymphomaniacal vampire is like the Jewish vampire in Polanski's film. Both films are full of sex jokes, but "The Vampire Happening" also has lots of topless women. Polanski depicted, perhaps, mainstream cinema's first explicitly gay vampire and did so in a rather inoffensive way; "The Vampire Happening" has several gags based on stereotypical homosexual characters. Both films bare some resemblance to Hammer's vampire films, and "The Vampire Happening" is even directed by Freddie Francis, who also directed one of Hammer's Dracula sequels, "Dracula has Risen from the Grave" (1968)--in my estimation, the worst entry in the series. And, in both films, there's a debauched vampire party crashed by a few humans (which is originally taken from Hammer's "The Kiss of the Vampire" (1963)) and where the head Count is portrayed by the same Ferdy Mayne. This time, Mayne plays Count Dracula, which is the reason I watched the film, as I've been watching a bunch of Dracula movies since reading Bram Stoker's novel.

Of course, "The Vampire Happening" has next to nothing to do with Stoker's tale. Dracula doesn't even appear in the movie until over an hour into it. This Count has the first name of "Christopher"--a gag referencing frequent Dracula actor Christopher Lee. He also travels by a helicopter with a bat painted on it, he nibbles on a banana, stares at a female vampire's breasts, and literally toots his own horn during a tickling session in bed with some other fem vamps. Superficially, the film resembles a couple other parts from Stoker. A Westerner travels to a Transylvania castle and encounters vampires; instead of Stoker's Jonathan Harker, this time it's a Hollywood actress who inherits the property and the title of Baroness. There's also the theme of vampirism exposing human society's sexual repression, but this is done in the obnoxious fashion of a trashy sex comedy here, such as with the monk turned vampire character. The castle is located next to both a Catholic monastery and a girls' school, both of which are rampant in anti-clerical horniness.

Besides the bad English-language voiceovers of the version I saw and the aforementioned sex stuff, most of the film's humor relies on mistaken identity, as the American actress looks like her vampire ancestor. Both characters trade hair colors by use of blonde and black-haired wigs, which may be confusing, but isn't funny. There are also many shots of a painting of the topless ancestor. Even after the human male characters learn about the switcheroo shenanigans going on between the two women, they still somehow mistake the two again in an ending that makes no sense.

One of the best parts of "The Vampire Happening" is its beginning in-flight movie, as the actress watches herself on screen in a sex scene. The sex scene, like the outer movie of "The Vampire Happening," features nude breasts and a lot of absurd, sexual-sounding panting, which is enough to confuse one child passenger into believing she's watching her first adult movie, but there's nothing explicit, or even anything that faithfully represents real sex--and, if anything, it's immature. At least the filmmakers knew that, though, I guess. The self-reflexive in-flight movie essentially admits what kind of movie "The Vampire Happening" is, and its doubling theme of the Countess alludes to the movie being a knockoff of other movies--although nobody is going to mistake this one for the better movies it imitates.

Maybe...if it's free

[sugerfoot · 2/10 · 15 January 2008]

I can't even remember where I found this movie, but at the time, for reasons unknown I chose to purchase it for my collection. Big mistake. What a waste of money, I know I'll never watch it again, and even getting through it the first time was torture! Its the story of a Baroness and a vampire, played by the same actress,living in a castle together, and basically nothing more. Lots of nudity, but nothing really crass. Might be fun late at night if there is nothing better to do and you don't have to pay for it. I suppose you could call it the "Barbarella" of Vampire movies. Also, I must point out that the English language dubbing is poorly done, and can be quite annoying at times.

sometimes once is enough

[shawshank86 · 5/10 · 24 February 2007]

i got this in a five movie set of vampire films for less than $10, if that hints at the quality. i honestly think that it's a pretty decent comedy, mocking the spaghetti flicks about vampires that were flooding the market, like don quixote is for knights...except cervantes was good and this writer had about the same effect as most twelve-year-olds would. i say this because of how bad some of the dialog is, and how sexually charged the film is. it seems like every fifteen minutes or so there's more exposed breasts. there is some obvious overdubbing, which isn't bad, it was just surprising. i did really like the incredible lisp count Dracula has the. it reminds me of cindy brady in the brady bunch movies.

A queer little film

[dieseldemon85 · 6/10 · 26 February 2023]

This came with a 50 horror movie pack, all low budget. Its not a great film but at the same time not terrible either. Mix of Dracula, comedy, exploitation, hippie. Betty Williams inherited a castle in translivania from a relative. On her visit she awakens her great grandmother who is a vampire played by the same actress. You get humour thru the servant Joseph, sex starved monk and Abbott. Plenty of decent boobs abound making up for the lack of story and an incredibly campy Dracula played by Ferdy Maybe. After seeing this you get the idea of where Richard O'brien got inspiration for Rocky Horror. This is a strange low budget that is worth at least a watch.

German vampire trash

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 July 2016]

"Gebissen wird nur nachts" or "The Vampire Happening" is a West German German-language film from 1971, so this one has its 45th anniversary this year. The director is probably the star here: Freddie Francis won an Oscar for Cinematography a decade before this film was made (and another one much later), but maybe he wasn't the greatest artist as the man in charge of the film. Or this film is an example of how it always comes down to the script as writer Hummel has not worked on another film ever and writer Rieger is mostly known (well not really known anymore) for his work on trashy German films. The 1970s were really not a glorious decade in terms of German film if you ignore the likes of Fassbinder, Herzog and Wenders. This one here is a trashy vampire film. It runs for 100 minutes and stars Swedish Golden Globe nominee Pia Degermark. It is never a creepy film and it is really almost never a funny film either. The erotic impact is negligible too. It's just there, without making any impact at all with regard to anything. The only reason I can appreciate this one somehow is as a guilty pleasure as the film knows very well how it's really bad and never aspires to be anything memorable in terms of quality. Without the bad, we cannot appreciate the good right? I personally do not recommend the watch though, unless you are a vampire film addict and have seen everything else. Thumbs down from me.

A hidden gem; from a "golden age"-of sorts

[artisticengineer · 8/10 · 3 January 2012]

This movie was the last of four movies showcasing the beauty of Pia Degermark; a Swedish actress from the 1960s. She was the classic beauty in the Swedish movie "Elvira Madigan"- a movie that won quite a few awards on the international scene and made her a well known actress on her initial outing at age 18. This movie came out in 1967 and though set in the 19th century actually reflected the changing attitudes and mores of Western Society during the "golden age" of the youth movement.

She had a very strong supporting role a couple of years later in the movie "The Looking Glass War"; a realistic view of espionage during that period. Her role as "The Girl" in that movie was very strong and she showed her acting strength alongside that of a young Anthony Hopkins!

"The Vampire Happening" is a much more lighthearted movie than Elvira Madigan or The Looking Glass War or the seldom seen "A Brief Season" . She had just married a wealthy Italian industrialist who was also a noted film producer, and he wanted to show off his "trophy wife." And, she wanted to show off herself; hence the large amount of nudity. In her case it was pretty much only topless nudity- of historical interest are the scenes in the torture chamber where a nude female is subjected to medieval punishment. These scenes were brushing against the censor standards of that age. Though Sweden (Degermark's home country) had allowed some "artistic" female nudity in its own films for a few years prior to that the films had generally not been distributed in the "unrated" format outside of that country. This film was one of the first distributed films showing the torture of a nude woman; as well as giving a substantial glance at her pubic region (not usually allowed back then- you could show breasts and butts only and were glad you show even that much!). They got away with showing the realistic torture scenes in this movie as they were depicted in a fairly "lighthearted " manner and in a day dream sequence. Nevertheless, this film is sometimes mentioned as a ground breaker in what it did show (sex and somewhat realistic torture of a nude woman).

Anyway, when you see this movie you really see a young bride during and enjoying the honeymoon phase of her marriage and that along is reason enough to view it. It is a lighthearted romp and if you find a technical mistake somewhere in it please be advised that probably nobody else really cares!! It brings up great memories for people who were teenagers during this time (like me). Of note is one of the final scenes in the movie that takes place in an airport- no metal detectors or X-Ray machines, no lines, and a beautiful architectural setting! Like the rest of the movie, it is a nostalgic look back at a golden age!

Entertaining B movie

[FrothyDahl · 7/10 · 3 December 2023]

Leering, juvenile, sleazy, unfunhy, with a stench of German sex comedy - that's all true. It has also entertaining and gorgeous elements.

Clarimonde's castle and the surrounding German scenery, including the flower-wreathed graveyard, make fantastic job as Transylvania, thanks to the great cinematography. There are lot of ideas borrowed from the 1967 Dance of the Vampires - the vampire hunters, for instance, one an older man with white shock of hair, other the young man in lust with the young woman they want to rescue from the vampire party. They mug and steal the vampires' clothes to get in - and Dracula is played by none other than Ferdy Mayne, the Count von Krolock from the bosomy but marvelous Dance.

Too bad the jokes here are from the rancid bottom of the sex comedy barrel - including the bare bottomed monk, unfunny and wearisome, like his Bishop with outrageously "funny" German accent. Both are vampirized and free to molest the bare-breasted school girls, while the lesbian teacher is punished when she tries the same act! Some lesbian/feminist film fan would have field day here - apparently the teacher is "dyke" because she can't get a man: in the earlier scene, the male lead - a man with more chest hair than average gorilla - rejects her for Betty. There is genuine nastiness in these sex politics, which make the 2009 Lesbian Vampire Killers seem like Andrea Dworkin and Angela Carter would have made a truce and written a script!

You should let the dead rest...along with this skin flick.

[lowlandermg · 3/10 · 13 June 2023]

Extremely dopey vampire sex comedy with bad jokes, stupid characters, and a dull story. A sexy Baroness inherits a castle and discovers she comes from a line of vampires. Careless, she releases one of her kin who had been coffin bound. She is certainly a flirtatious she-devil and goes so far as to try and seduce one of the local monks. The monk reminds me of MrBean, and bumbles around as much.

There is a scene where a woman is being stretched on the rack. The torturer turns the wheel while eating a banana. Music is awful. Bubble pops and bat noises. Main dudes car has VMPR on the license plate... foreshadowing? Comedy is of the sleazy D films of the time, including peeping tom monks and lusty vampires. There is more than enough skin to place this after Midnight on Cinemax. The funniest moment for me was seeing all the fillings behind Clairmonde Catani's fangs. Lol! There is even a scene where the baroness for whatever reason fondles a skull door knocker while making sensual noises.... With absolutely no explanation. The movie is purely mastabatory and impossible to follow or care what's "happening". Nothing scary or mysterious either and the comedy is juvenile pervy-fare. Dracula shows up more than halfway through the film and hams up the cringe to another level. At least he made it more interesting. Did you know that vampires could get drunk on alcohol? I didn't. Also don't think there is another film where Dracula flees the dawn in a helicopter while desperately trying to pull his pants up. He also has the line of the film at that point though: "Damn the zipper... full speed ahead!" There were moments where I was tempted to bail on this one, however there was just enough to keep the attention. Can't recommend as a skinemax film unless you are a boob-man. Devoured with a dram or three of Rare Breed. Cheers!

Infectious and utterly absurd Euro-vampire satire

[drownsoda90 · 8/10 · 1 July 2016]

"The Vampire Happening" follows an American actress who inherits a Transylvanian castle that belonged to her countess ancestor. Upon going to visit her newfound property, she not only unleashes the dead, but utter chaos, debauchery, and vampiric shenanigans on the local town.

This is a film that I'd been curious about seeing for a number of years, but had put on the back burner for two reasons: first, it's incredibly difficult to get a hold of; and second, I wasn't sure I'd like it. The scenario sounds intriguing enough, but vampire horror is not my favorite subgenera, and with the comedic angle, I just wasn't sure. Boy, was I wrong.

Let's be clear: this is not a "good" film by any stretch of the imagination, but it most definitely hits all the right notes for a niche audience. It is essentially a no-budget vampire comedy that is crude and absurd—however, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't an absolute joy to watch. Its most striking element is most definitely its Gothic atmosphere, accentuated by some relatively solid cinematography. The sets look like they were cribbed straight from a Hammer horror film from the early sixties, which is probably intentional, but the kitsch factor of it all is what makes it so much fun to watch.

The film is about as frightening as a "Scooby Doo" episode, and the humor is completely off-kilter, but there is a strange charm to it all as it balances humor with the macabre. It pokes fun at the subgenera with a sprightly approach, and edges on satire throughout. The cast is made up of multiple international actors and actresses, who spend most of the film half-nude and in various blasphemous scenarios, with Swedish actress Pia Degermark at the helm, playing a dual role as the vampy twentieth-century actress, and her grand-matron counterpart. Degermark is the highlight here, and most of the show is stolen by her.

Overall, I found "The Vampire Happening" to be far better than the reputation that precedes it. It is among the ranks of Jess Franco's most absurd work, and is a delightfully kitschy, Gothic odyssey. It is not a masterwork, nor does it posture itself as one—it's a lovingly satirical re-imagining of the contemporary vampire movie, loaded with bloodletting, tacky set pieces, nudity, and utter blasphemy—which somehow found its way into my heart (and my bloodstream). 8/10.