The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance (1975) User Reviews

Italian Eurosleaze

[m0rphy · 4/10 · 18 November 2003]

In contrast to my fellow reviewers, I always try to find something redeeming in any film I see.Yes, the quality of the dubbing and lighting is abysmal, the acting is wooden and the opening sequence highly misleading what with all those lascivious female lesbian vampires with blood dripping.Something must be lost in the translation of the word "Bloodsucker" from the Italian in the title; almost as if the producers were originally going to film a Gothic Vampire tale and then changed their minds but could not afford to give up their dramatic opening sequence, so tacked it onto the film anyway.

This film made in 1975 has recently been issued on DVD and comes with its own theatrical trailer which in some respects is more daring than seen in the film!Now anyone who buys this film has probably already read its synopsis anyway and knows what to expect - Italian softporn from the mid 1970s.I bought it because I am attracted to Christa Nelli (credited most often as "Krista Nell").The absence of a cast of characters I find most frustrating in a lot of these Eurosleaze films from the 60s & 70s.I had hoped Imdb would show the cast of characters as one hears their names in the film but without a cast list, it is very difficult to link them to the actor concerned.I think Krista Nell played "Cora" but underneath that massive hair style, costume and make-up it is difficult to distinguish her for sure.

There is mostly a two dimensional portrayal by the actors of their parts and no one really stands out.Maybe something is lost in the dubbing process.What were the positive points?Well the music was atmospheric and of course if you're into beautiful lesbian soft porn its there.The external locations used were good and I would like to know where they filmed the castle on its island.It purports to be set in "Ireland" (North or the Republic?)in 1902, so everyone sports period piece costumes.Some of the scenes I found unintentionally funny especially those sex scenes!!Anyway an enjoyable romp.I rated it 4/10.

Late and decadent Italian Gothic

[pumaye · 5/10 · 25 April 2004]

Strange, mediocre movie, a late specimen of the Italian gothic horrors that were very popular in the Sixties and early Seventies. More an excuse for showing what its ancestors couldn't (i.e., lot of naked female bodies, several love scenes, even a couple of lesbian ones)that a real horror, this convoluted tale revolving around a charming count and an old curse that stalks the women in his castle is very slow for more than a half of its total and in the end fails to deliver any chills and even the final explanation is boring and silly. This is very unfortunate as the male lead is Giacomo Rossi Stuart, that was very active during the Sixties in several interesting Gothic samples (like Operazione Paura by Mario Bava, the better of the Italian directors of this genre).

A Horror Film? A Giallo? Not Really.

[gavin6942 · 4/10 · 27 February 2013]

As I watched this film on Netflix, I was given the Redemption version with eight minutes of terrible introduction before the film even began. I would strongly encourage anyone who watches this to skip ahead to the film... (the DVD is probably the same, and there is no excuse for that).

Critic Robert Firsching said, "In the hands of a better filmmaker, it might have been an interesting pastiche, or even played as a clever spoof, but Rizzo appears to have made the whole thing up as he went along." That may be fair, as it seems to have very little plot and revolve around getting different characters in bed with each other.

Fans of Mario Bava might recognize a few faces: we have Giacomo Rossi-Stuart ("Kill, Baby, Kill") and Luciano Pigozzi ("Blood and Black Lace"). Those looking for horror will be disappointed, though. Despite the title claiming there is a "bloodsucker", this is not a horror film or a giallo in any real sense. It is an Italian sex comedy, and little more.

Alfredo Rizzo directed only eight films, but appeared as an actor in 97. He was certainly a better actor than a director.

Falls flatter than a pancake

[macabro357 · 2/10 · 12 May 2003]

(aka: The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance)

Lots of naked babes in this one with a couple of lesbo scenes thrown in. The film is supposed to take place in Ireland but it looks more like Rome and the Adriatic to me.

Gothic lesbians get invited to a Count's island castle for the weekend. One by one they seem to be missing their heads due to a madperson running around.

It's not very scary or bloody and the rooms look like they are lit with floodlights even though candles are lit. Go figure...(sic)

Dubbing is worse than usual and the plot only serves as an excuse for the eroticism and nudity. Directed by euro horror actor Alfredo Rizzo, this is one snoozer.

Pretty boring 2 out of 10

Tits And Decapitation-And It's Still One Of The Worst Films I've Seen In Years...

[EVOL666 · 2/10 · 17 March 2010]

Wow-this one sucks. I'm gonna sum it up as quickly as possible. 

A count invites 4 naive sluts back to his castle. A bunch of nothing happens for a long time. Some lame and un-erotic soft-core sex scenes happen. Some girls get their heads cut off (off-screen)-The End.

The only things going for this one are the decent looking sets and costumes, some bad dubbing which leads to some unintentionally funny dialogue, and a few brief nudie shots. And believe me-those things are not enough to redeem the 90-minutes of tedium that this film is. In fact-the best part is the tacked on beginning from the distributor that features some slutty goth chicks covered in blood and showing their tits-and again-this is definitely not worth the price of admission for this garbage. As everyone else has noted- the title of the film is completely nonsensical-as there's absolutely no bloodsucking, nor dancing of any sort in the film at all. It may as well have been called 'The Goat-Raper Leads the Circle-Jerk'-and at least then it would have had a better title that also pertains to nothing in the film. An accurate title would have been '90 Minutes of Torture'-another alluring title that would have at least been truthful...for the viewer. Honestly-the trailer that's on the disc shows all the best parts (and i use the term 'best' extremely loosely...) so I highly suggest watching that instead if you're still curious.  I can't imagine anyone liking this wreck of a film-please take my advice and leave this one on the shelf. 2/10

Fans of giallo will find something of value in this film

[dickson-1 · 3 May 2002]

The packaging for this film is quite misleading, which may account for all the ill will towards it: first the title itself implies this is a vampire movie (it's not) and the cover picture shows an actress (Krista Nell?) with a vaguely Bride-of-Frankenstein-esque hairstyle, which also gives a misleading impression of the subject of this film. And it must be acknowledged at the outset that "Bloodsucker Leads the Dance" is a trifle, more of an excuse to get its actresses naked than a serious attempt at filmmaking.

That said, however, I don't think the film is entirely without redeeming characteristics, especially for fans of giallo (Italian thrillers), the major characteristics of which this film displays in its plot (a murderer with supernatural overtones is stalking a bevy of sexy houseguests at the remote country mansion of a count) and its gothic setting. If you take it for what it is (a flimsy giallo made on a shoestring budget) and not high art, you notice a few fun things about this production while viewing it: a cool soundtrack, nice costumes and sets, a perverse view of human nature and of course lots of female skin. It can be a fun movie to watch if you approach it in the right spirit. Probably not for those not already "hooked" on giallo, though.

"We're not the castle type." Boring, rubbish, dull & pointless piece of European crap.

[poolandrews · 2/10 · 15 August 2006]

La Sanguisuga Conduce la Danza, or The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance as I believe is it's common English title, is set on 'Ireland' in '1902' where the mysterious Count Richard Marnack (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) invites soon-to-be out of work theatre actress Evelyn (Patrizia Webley as Patrizia De Rossi) & three more of her fellow soon-to-be out of work actress friends Cora (Krista Nell), Penny (Lidia Olizzi) & Rosalind (Marzia Damon as Caterina Chiani) to his castle situated on a small island just off the coast. At first Evelyn is reluctant but is persuaded when it is agreed stage hand Samuel (Leo Valeriano) goes along as well. Once there Count Marnack tells his guests that his Father & Grandfather both cut the heads off their cheating wives using a ceremonial knife & there's a feeling of unease when it turns out that Evelyn looks EXACTLY the same as the current Count's wife who ran away not too long ago... Along with having to worry about weirdo servants it turns out that someone wants to use the knife themselves to chop a few heads off...

This Italian production was written & directed by Alfredo Rizzo & is total, complete & utter crap from start to finish. First things first lets start the criticism with the title The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance, lets examine that title because when I do I feel somewhat cheated that there aren't any Vampires or any form of bloodsucking whatsoever, no-one 'leads' anything at anytime & there most certainly isn't any dance or dancing so don't expect any of these things. What you should expect though is a tedious, dull, boring pointless little 'giallo' that takes over an hour before anyone is killed & any sort of murder mystery starts to take shape, the first hour of La Sanguisuga Conduce la Danza is as plot less & uninteresting as anything out there. The best way to imagine it is to think of the most boring soft-core porn film you've ever seen, then cut most of the soft-core porn out & that just leaves bad actors, bad dubbing, bad dialogue, a tiny bit of soft-core sex & lesbianism & absolutely nothing else. Yep, it really is that bad. The mystery elements are crap, people do illogical things for no apparent reason & the overly complicated 'twist' ending is as bad as the rest of it, The Sixth Sense (1999) this ain't!

Director Rozzi does an OK job & La Sanguisga Conduce la Danza actually has a nice look & feel to it despite it's obvious low budget, I mean there are scenes where he shows a 'storm' raging outside the castle however the stock footage used is in black & white! So the film jumps from bright colour to black & white whenever it cuts to the storm & back to colour again! There is one absolutely hilarious scene where a maid & her friend discuss her breasts & she lets her friend feel them who is then full of compliments, this scene is so funny & just so unnatural that it's priceless & easily the films best moment even if a bad 70's porno would be embarrassed by the dialogue! There is minimal nudity & the sex/lesbian scenes are very tame. Forget about any blood or gore as there isn't any apart from a decapitated head.

Technically the films pretty good, the period setting & production design are actually quite impressive although it's not massive in scope it does the job effectively enough. The film has a nice sense of colour & the cinematography is fine. The film is dubbed so it's hard to give an opinion on the original performances but the voice actors are terrible & the dialogue is even worse than usual.

La Sanguisuga Conduce la Danza is a terrible film, it makes no sense, it has virtually no story for over an hour, it has possibly the most misleading title ever & is really dull & boring with a confused stupid 'twist' ending. As far as Euro horror fans go there are plenty of much better films than this so please don't waste your time, as for anyone else this is definitely one to avoid. Trivia Note: the notorious (& banned in the UK) Nazi exploitation/horror film Horrifying Experiments of the S.S Last Days (1977) AKA SS Hell Camp & The Beast in Heat was directed by Luigi Batzella & he has a fairly substantial role as a police detective in La Sanguisuga Conduce la Danza.

I wasn't expecting the hardcore inserts!

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 27 March 2018]

Films just show up in my YouTube subscriptions and I watch them, always hungry to discover something new. Imagine my surprise when I looked up and this film went from a giallo to a totally NSFW affair!

Dublin, 1902. As an acting troupe finishes their latest show, Count Marnack shows up and invites Evelyn and her friends - Cora, Rosalind, Penny and stagehand Samuel - to his castle. Once they get there, everyone but Samuel gets down - as we share a name I was displeased by this. But seriously, I was not expecting hardcore insert shots on YouTube. I figure they had a program to catch things like that (they caught a clip of a song in a trailer we used and took one of our podcast posts down and they let this go?)!

The secret is that the Count's father and grandfather killed their brides with a ceremonial dagger. And the Count's first wife went missing long ago. Soon, people start showing up with their heads missing. So whodunnit? The maid? The gardener? A ghost?

This film boasts some nice period costumes and settings, but it's patently ridiculous. It wants to be a giallo but where those films are sexy, this is just plain rutting in the sheets. I feel like Jon Lovitz's character Evelyn Quince from SNL's Tales of Ribaldry. "No, no, no, no, we'll have none of this! You've gone too far! You've ruined it for me!"

That said, I've never seen a movie go from pornography to an Agatha Christy style resolution within its running time. That said, the insert scenes weren't in the original cut and were only added when the film was released in France as L'insatiable Samantha in 1977.

SUCKED DRY

[mmthos · 3/10 · 4 July 2020]

"It's very dull here" says our leading lady about a half hour in. You said it sister! Never have I seen a more lethargic group of potential vampire victims, and the Count's droning on will put you to sleep rather than strike terror into your heart. There's brief nudity and a lesbo clip watched surreptitiously by a voyeur maid, but really pretty tame. Embarassingly cheap, I did a double take when I couldn't believe they actually spliced black and white stock footage of a storm at sea into this otherwise entirely color, if anemic, motion picture! After an hour, without a hint of even a drop of blood on the horizon, and the killer's footprints showing up on the floor (!), I had to give up.

No bloodsucker, no dancing. Not even the nudity can save this bore

[Stevieboy666 · 4/10 · 18 January 2020]

A Count in Ireland invites a troupe of attractive actresses to his island castle in the early 20th Century. Once there his guests literally lose their heads, one by one. Sadly this Count is no vampire, instead we have a murder mystery fashioned around Gothic horror. An Italian movie, this falls short of being a genuine giallo. This film is slow, dull and the English language version suffers with awful dubbing. We get day for night scenes, when a storm rages the film makers have inserted some stock footage - in black and white! Set in Ireland but obviously not filmed there. There is plenty of soft core sex and nudity (bums and boobs), but this is not enough to save this from boredom.

Fine-looking but dull Italian giallo/horror hybrid

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 5 December 2015]

THE BLOODSUCKER LEADS THE DANCE is a late entry in the Italian giallo cycle, although this has just as much in common as the Gothic horrors that flooded Europe in the '60s and '70s. Things get off to a good start as a bunch of disparate types are invited to a remote castle on an island just off Ireland (although the locations are unquestionably Italian throughout) and you think you're going to be in for a good "old dark house"-cum-"slasher" film as they're bumped off one by one.

True, this is exactly what happens... but not until we've suffered an HOUR of plot-less, no-story drivel. An hour of talky, poorly-dubbed inaction, as the various characters walk around and generally have sex together in a series of poorly-staged encounters, ranging from a couple of lesbians together in their bed (hilariously, the maid sees them and tries to emulate them later on) to a female aristocrat who has it away with the rough fisherman to a woman who sleeps with the count because she reminds him of his missing wife! Basically all this sex is just an excuse to show the female characters in the nude as often as possible but the result is boring rather than titillating.

Finally, things pick up in the last half an hour with a series of gruesome decapitations – well, I say gruesome, but there's only one or two gory scenes in the film (and the first 'head' we see is clearly a woman buried up to her neck in the ground). The film strives to include a murder-mystery type plot and indeed the cast is fleshed out with red herrings, from the half-man hated by the women, to the religious fanatic butler, and the sleazy 'peeper' of a gardener. However, the mystery is solved in the most routine way imaginable, without a second's excitement; indeed this film doesn't have a moment's action in it at all; I was hoping for a few chases or fights, but there's nothing. To make matters worse, the murderer, when revealed, then goes into a fifteen-minute explanation of their crimes...this is just as boring as it sounds.

The film's cast is rather unengaging. The actresses seem to have been picked for their willingness to take off their clothes rather than any real acting ability and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, a regular in Italian cinema, must give the most wooden performance of his entire career. In fact the only one who comes away with any credibility is Luciano Pigozzi, aka the Italian Peter Lorre, who has a ball as the aforementioned sleazy gardener. Sadly he's on screen far too little, although the moment where he's caught spying on the lesbians is the stuff of high comedy.

The one thing this film has going for it is its look. The castle surroundings are beautiful and sometimes spectacular and the costumes are all spot on. An atmosphere is built up from the setting alone without the director having to make any effort. The one thing I could have done without was the stock footage of crashing waves which is repeated throughout the film; astonishingly, this piece of footage is shot in black and white, while the rest of the film is, of course, in colour. The effect is bizarre, to say the least. Italian actor Alfredo Rizzo made half a dozen films as a director in the '70s, but he really should have stuck to being in front of the camera, as this film is a real yawner.

Tedious erotic horror

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 29 June 2007]

The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance - what a laughable title, it's so utterly misleading. It's not surprising that the film-makers try and mislead us though because this is one terrible movie.

The story basically involves a murder mystery in a castle on a remote island.

Very little happens in this film. And when something does wake the viewer from his stupor, it invariably is unintentional comedy in the form of atrocious dialogue delivered by a hopeless group of voice-artists. These guys are so bad they make the actors they deliver voices for appear like a group of remedial-level morons. It really is hard to determine how bad the acting is when you have dubbing this abysmal. But the voice-artists cannot be blamed for the script. It's a travesty. Unintentionally funny at best, pathetic at worst. The story in general is, to say the least, uneven. The women characters are particularly idiotic; the men are either creepy or tedious.

The whole enterprise smacks of pure exploitation of the audience. It doesn't remotely deliver what it promises and even when the murders (finally) start happening, they all occur off screen. All we get is a few half-hearted severed head shots.

A few people have said that this movie is a giallo. I cannot agree less with this opinion. Anyone who enjoys Italian thrillers should give this movie a wide berth as there is nothing remotely thrilling about it. It's basically a soft-core porn film with a horror angle. But it's not very erotic either.

I can't recommend this to anyone.

Lame and Lifeless

[Scaramouche2004 · 1/10 · 27 April 2005]

The Horror Channel plays nothing but erotic soft porn Gothic flicks each night from 10pm till about 4 in the morning, but their 'scare' factor is very limited, if one exists at all. In fact I am sure I will find a multi-million pound lottery win more scary than anything this channel has to offer.

The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance deserves special mention because it is I feel, the undisputed low of a channel full of lows. I cannot even begin to tell you how bad this film is, but for the purpose of completing the minimum 10 lines demanded by this site, I will at least give it a go.

Firstly the title is misleading and bears no resemblance to the action on the screen. In fact the film might as well have been called 'Toothbrush' or 'Wallpaper' for all it has to do with the plot. At least they used toothbrushes...at least they had wallpaper.

There are no bloodsuckers for miles around and whats even worse there are no dances, not one. I'm sure they were making two different films by mistake here.

A more suitable title would have been, 'Horny Italian Count Leads Five People to a Scary Castle and Bores us Silly for Ninety Minutes.' Yes that fits better.

The acting is terrible and and the dubbing appalling, and that guy who plays Seymour was almost as wooden in his walk as he was in his character....abysmal.

The only saving graces of this film are a small but slightly interesting lesbian sex scene, two small and very interesting heterosexual sex scenes, and the added attraction in that every single female character gets her kit off. Bonus.

Otherwise steer a wide birth away from this one. No vampires, no dancing, no scenes of a brutal or gruesome nature and no way on Gods earth I will ever, ever, ever watch this one again.

No word of a lie, this film could put you off motion pictures for life.

No bloodsuckers here --

[gregoodsell · 28 January 2001]

-- it just plain sucks. Set in turn-of-the-century Ireland, said film could have BEEN MADE at the turn-of-the-century, what with it's bright, ugly, flat lighting, plot so-old it creaks and gore scenes that would shame a Sunday School spook house! Rich man invites theatrical troupe to his isolated island mansion and the women all start turning up beheaded. Many who like bad movies will find nothing of interest. Read a book instead!

This films copies a scene from "Torso"

[jcplanells3 · 1/10 · 5 October 2007]

This movie is not only a very bad movie, with awful actors --or presumed actors--, a bored direction and a story unattractive, it also copies exactly an scene from the excellent "giallio" "Torso", directed by Sergio Martino in 1973 (two years before), one of the most celebrated psycho-thrillers of Italian cinema and a cult-movie around the world. In "La Sanguinusa conduce la danza", the director replays the bed scene between the black girl and the white girl, with an peeping-tom watching from a window of the bedroom. Naturally, the scene in Rizzo's movie is ridiculous and inferior to the softness and charming in Martino's film. To put another black girl, another white girl and another peeping-tom replaying the scene is simply the most appropriate way of prove that Rizzo's movie has no ideas, no originality, no taste, and nothing at all. I think that such things are an offense to spectator.

Dull ...dreadfully dull

[thetick-65848 · 2/10 · 29 July 2020]

I love giallo, I love claustrophobic murder mysteries, I love slow burners, I don't like the way this movie does any of it.

It's just plain dull. I didn't know a movie with a nearly constant exhibition of topless women could be so boring. There's no style, no flair, but there's no real technique or understanding either. The camera is pointed, there's an occasional establishing shot, the actors deliver lines, stock footage, breasts are exposed, some passionless kissing, someone's wax head is found, etc.

The ending is all over the place.

Person: "I killed them." Cop: "Yes, you did, except you didn't." Other person: "I know who killed them!" Cop: "You would be right if you weren't wrong." Other: "So I did it?" Cop: "Yes, except no." Last person: "It was me?" Cop: "It was you!" Last person: "It was another person that no one knew existed." Cop: "It was the other person the whole time!"

Yes, it ended with the reveal of a secret character. It tried to be a mystery without letting the audience "play along" through clue revelations and tried to be suspenseful without building suspense or making us care about any characters.

It's difficult to articulate what was wrong, because there wasn't anything of substance in the first place. It was like watching a TV episode that was stretched to feature length by just letting the camera linger too long on every shot.

It was dull and impossible to get into. It was entertainment by only the barest minimum definition of entertainment --bare chests.

What was Redemption thinking? No Vampires here!

[lingus · 2/10 · 16 March 1999]

After an initial release of 4 very good Eurotrash titles, REDEMPTION has managed to scrape the bottom of the barrel with THE BLOODSUCKER LEADS THE DANCE. I found NO Bloodsuckers anywhere in this movie.

The story is simple. A mysterious count invites several actresses to his castle for a little vacation. After some sofcore sexual shenanigans the girls get decapitated one by one. Who is the killer? Who knows? There are more red herrings in this one than at the local fish market on Friday.

The pace is excruciating. The story is silly and the skin scenes aren't all that terrific either.

Give this one a miss.

Insert 'give me some head' joke here

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 5 September 2018]

There's no Bloodsucker in this film, although if you've seen the version I've just watched, something gets sucked alright, and there's horizontal dancing to say the least.

I suppose the title is misleading on purpose, because our film starts off with four girls who were part of a drama troupe (plus one love-sick servant) at a loose end following the folding of their latest play. Luckily (or not, when I think about) an aging count with a very strange voice (played by Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) invites all four of them (plus the unrequited love person) over to his Irish island for a bit of the old craic and perhaps Guiness.

The girls all head over there and since there's not much plot in this film, let's talk about our characters. The count used to be married but his wife disappeared or died or something and now he's fixated on one the girls, saying how she looks so much like his wife. Two of the girls are lesbians which delights servant Luciano Pigozzi, who does a bit of pan-watching on them before inviting the maid to watch too. She's in love with the Count however and has a secret that Pigozzi threatens to reveal unless she goes to bed with him. Then there's the nympho actress who gets it on with local guy Mike Monty, and the butler who is a hellfire Christian who says everyone is going to die. Got that?

Now, most of the liaisons in the original version would have contained softcore rummagings, the likes of which us folk living in the future with instant hand-held filthy squeezy would ignore in order to put the kettle on. Back in the day before we stopped paying musicians and filmmakers for their efforts people would go to the cinema, some of which would be what they call 'adult', which is like Red Tube on a big screen only without someone remotely recording you having a chug so they can blackmail you later.

Sometimes, they took low-tier Euro films like this and added in some 'hot' footage of people actually doing it, and that's what they do here. It took me rather by surprise when the lesbian couple pretending to get it on transformed into an entirely different couple - one of which was a totally different race from the lady she was portraying. That and sixty-year old Luciano Pigozzi turning into a black haired dude with a moustache had me thinking that continuity wasn't at the top of who made the porno bits' list. Bizarre.

Back to the plot - in between all this madness, someone starts beheading the babes (there's an explanation for this that I can't be bothered going into) and nearly everyone's a suspect. Plus, the explanation at the end once the cops are brought in is totally ignored in favour of another explanation. Go figure.

Of course, it matters not what I thought of the film because if I had read this review, I would have already made my mind up to watch the film anyway. This is a film that receives no visitors from passers-by

THE BLOODSUCKER LEADS THE DANCE (Alfredo Rizzo, 1975) *1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 3/10 · 3 March 2010]

A particularly maligned example of Italian cult cinema with a nonsensical title to boot (if anything, the alternate THE MARK OF Satan is even less relevant to the plot!), this hybrid of Gothic Horror and Giallo (with a strong dose of Erotica) only contrives a flat sort of atmosphere throughout – actually matched by handling which is downright dreadful! Here, we get the usual group of people (an acting troupe) stranded on an island (to which they were invited by a Count – since he had become enamored of the leading lady, a dead-ringer for his missing spouse)! The characters are pretty much stereotypes: middle-aged but dashing hero (played by Giacomo Rossi-Stuart and whose family history bears more than its share of violent tragedy), demure heroine, sluttish companion (recalling Mae West and emerging the most annoying of the lot!), a meek but devoted stage manager (forever chided by one and all for his unmanly behavior!), a couple of lesbians, a mysterious gardener (the ubiquitous Luciano Pigozzi who, for once, gets in on the action, if you know what I mean), an envious housekeeper (nominal star Femi Benussi though, for what it is worth, this is really an ensemble piece), a religious fanatic of a butler, an impressionable chambermaid, etc. While the film is not by any means unwatchable, the atrocious dubbing, snail's pace, shoddy production (with the scenes depicting the raging sea lifted from some black-and-white film!) and the fact that the murders only occur within the concluding half-hour do not help matters. Besides, Marcello Giombini's score, though pleasant in itself, comes off as incongruously modern under the circumstances; that said, the revelation proves a surprisingly elaborate one (considering there is surely no shortage of suspects here).

Appealing strangeness.

[parry_na · 5/10 · 4 July 2018]

A period piece Italian giallo from the mid-1970s, featuring some wonderful rain-swept locations and some mild sexual moments - all of this sounds like a guarantee of success. Somewhere along the way, however, dullness overtakes proceedings. The dubbing must take some of the blame for this. Although I've seen worse, some of the voice actors sound incredibly bored. Whoever voiced the magnificently - almost unnaturally - coiffured, twinkling Count Richard Marnack (played by prolific actor Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) reduces the character to a monosyllabic sneerer instead of the suave charmer of a certain age he is supposed to be. Krista Nell was due to play the starring role, but due to health reasons, played the secondary Cora. Sadly, this was her last film - she died the same year. Patrizia De Rossi plays Evelyn, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Count Marnack's wife. And they all they all have one thing in common: they all hate Samuel (Leo Valeriano). So when various characters begin dying in graphic circumstances, I drew my own conclusions. I might have been wrong.

The ending is quite abrupt, as often things are with films such as this. It is also not entirely satisfying, with a very effective revelation not quite answering all the questions regarding the previous 86 minutes. Whilst far from the best giallo film I have seen - in fact, it is only loosely a giallo - it has a certain appealing strangeness about it.

Several sexy scenes were inserted into this for its French release, where it was known as 'L'insatiable Samantha (1977)'.

How Bad is This?

[derek-duerden · 4/10 · 19 March 2024]

Genuine question - because I'm not really sure...

Firstly, I must say that I saw the softcore original dubbed into English (on Arrow) without the hardcore inserts that transformed it into "L'Insatiable Samantha". Whether they make it "better" or "worse" I can't therefore say.

However, as others have noted, the voice cast for the dub are the *worst* I have ever heard. Emotions (where present at all) are all over the place - not to mention the accents. Trying to get beyond that to judge the dialogue itself is really quite difficult - but I ended up concluding that the script (in any language) would be classed as "pretty poor". Looking beyond the script and dialogue into the acting itself, I also concluded that this was often quite bad also - for example, the occasional histrionics on show.

Assuming that the mild lesbianism won't be enough for you, the main impressive aspect of all this is in the cinematography, sets and costumes. It really does *look* like the kind of gothic horror/melodrama that one used to get from Hammer and their european equivalents. However, the plot feels like a "let's make this up as we go along" type, with the ultimate clue being the absurdly long expositionary confession at the end, which was presumably intended to explain everything, tie up all the loose ends and (probably) tell the cast what they'd been doing for the previous few weeks.

Bizarre.

Castle of decapitations.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 1 January 2011]

The action of "The Bloodsukcer Leads the Dance" takes place in 1902.A group of theatre actresses is invited by wealthy Count Richard Mamack to his castle.He is especially attracted to Evelyn because she reminds him of his dead wife.There is the curse of in the Marnack family that involves decapitations of females.Alfredo Rizzo's "The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance" is a dreary and unremarkable Italian Gothic horror with plenty of sleaze.It has few sexy Italian starlets including Krista Nell,Patrizia Webley of "Malabimba" fame and Femi "Strip Nude for Your Killer" Benussi.Apart from plentiful sex and nudity there isn't much to recommend in "The Bloodsukcer Leads the Dance".7 severed heads out of 10.

This film does NOT do what it says on the tin!!!

[mccarthystuart · 23 November 2004]

You know something? It amazes me just how much that some film-makers get away with. 'Bloodsucker leads the dance' is billed as a vampire movie, yet it turns out to be anything but!! It's little more than

a cheesy soft-porn 'whodunnit' murder-mystery thriller

Atrocious dubbing and misleading synopsis aside, this film does have

a few things going for it. Firstly, the music score is quite airy and atmospheric, and the period costumes are quite nice, and the sets are quite elaborate (even though quite a few of them can be seen in the film, 'Nude for Satan')Mind you, some of the set do like as if they're made out of Cardboard.

There are also some convincingly grisly scenes of severed heads to spice things up a little.

At the risk of giving too much away, what I noticed about this film is the way in which it plays around with the viewer's suspicions and makes you think at first that the creepy butler was behind the murders. I shan't reveal who the real killer is, though!

All in all, this film won't win any Oscars, but if you happen to be into Italian 'Giallo' cinema, then you can't go wrong with little number.

Slightly flawed but highly enjoyable Gothic chiller

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 3 September 2016]

About to close for good, a group of theater performers invited out to an appreciative Count's castle find themselves subjected to a family curse about women being beheaded which comes to pass once again when the guests suddenly start turning up dead.

This here was quite a decent if somewhat bland semi-slasher effort. One of the few things this one does get right is the absolutely stellar Gothic imagery, as there's almost more at play here in that regard than there is in terms of it being a slasher. Taking place during the turn of the century and at a glorious, splendid castle it fits more at home with the tales of the Corman/Price/Poe films of the decade previous where it's Gothic majesty in the setting and locations gives off that same style and feel quite readily here. Once it brings up the cursed plot line and the family history involving the adulterous relatives repeating themselves it causes this one to really sell that kind of feel and tone for that movement quite easily. Once it turns into a somewhat slasher effort later on, the setting of this giant castle makes for some pretty suspenseful times that play far more in line with the supernatural than an actual murder mystery which takes on that kind of classic feel with the way the body count is found throughout here in the later stages strewn throughout the castle in bloody manners strewn in here at quite regular intervals during the final half. Alongside this is a rather healthy dose of nudity from the girls where it shows them undressing and indulging in some fondling for each other which manages to add a different feel to the Gothic atmosphere by going to far sleazier levels than those ever could've done. Still, even with all this fun stuff there's some problems. One of the main issues here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of action transpiring here for long sections of the film's running time. The first murder doesn't occur until nearly an hour into it, so the rest of the time is spent with it really just dragging out with the group being recruited towards going to the castle and then the staff's reaction towards them which not only gets dragged out but isn't all that original and creative which really strikes this down somewhat more. There's even more here lowering this one when it comes to the final rampage where it keeps most of the death's off-screen and then stumbling upon the bodies later, which carries on for nearly all the remaining kills here and does bring this one down somewhat, though it's mostly the other issue that stops this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Nudity and Language.

Sexy times at the Marnack castle.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 16 August 2021]

Count Richard Marnack (Giacomo Rossi Stuart) invites members of a struggling theatre company to spend some time at his castle; there, they learn of the Marnack's terrible past, the Count's ancestors being rather partial to hacking off their wives' heads with a large knife. History repeats itself when the guests start turning up minus their noggins.

Having read some of the reviews here on IMDb, I wasn't expecting to be entertained by The Bloodsucker Leads The Dance, and sure enough, the first half an hour proved to be fairly unremarkable, with an uninspired plot and some truly terrible dubbing to boot. Therefore, I was completely blindsided by the film when, thirty minutes in, it was as though either Jess Franco or Joe D'amato had suddenly seized control of the direction: the film went from dreary gothic horror to graphic sexploitation in an instant, with some very explicit lesbian action. I hadn't been expecting that!

It turns out that the version I was watching was in fact a French release from 1977 called L'insatiable Samantha which features the original sex scenes in their entirety (these were trimmed for the 1975 Italian release) plus hardcore inserts for some extra spice. While the film's murder/mystery storyline is, for the most part, extremely bland, the intermittent scenes of XXX naughtiness add a welcome degree of sleaze to proceedings. Throw in a couple of severed heads, and an incredibly abrupt and therefore rather amusing conclusion, and The Bloodsucker Leads The Dance isn't quite the unbearable snooze-fest I had been led to believe it was.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.