Tuesday, September 11, 2007

El Ataud del Vampiro

A couple changes to the blog beginning with this review. First, you’ll notice that I’ve learned how to copy and paste code off of other sites in order to hide the bulk of the blog from view short of clicking on a link. This is to keep a proper level of order to the proceedings, and to keep the main page from looking so damned thickly-choked with text. Additionally, from now on each review will be followed by a link for you to buy the movie on Amazon, so you can all share in my enjoyment or lack thereof. Happy now? Great, then let’s get on with the review.

This film is the sequel to yesterday’s El Vampiro, which you may have guessed, and they came as a two-fer from Casanegra. While the original had its fair share of flaws, which you may recall from my review in which I cheerfully listed them, it did manage to build up a solid mood with a keen visual sense, and when it began to get a little silly, as vampire movies generally tend to, the filmmakers were unafraid to just go completely over the top ridiculous with it, and I can rather admire that. Its sequel, which assembles most of the cast from the original film, including the villainous count, back from the dead after a foolish doctor decides to steal his corpse to perform experiments on, only to have a thief accidentally remove the stake from his heart, freeing him to theoretically wreak havoc on those who had opposed him.

There are two main problems with all this, and they are the complete absence of the two things I liked about the original. There’s no creepy, moody visuals; most of the film’s set in a generic looking hospital set, leaving me with nothing to work with. It also never really manages, or even attempts, to go over the top with anything, making sure the whole film is very paint by numbers. I can’t even get worked up about it being bad, it’s just generic and lifeless. Now, having said that, feel free to use the link below and buy five copies of it and its predecessor. Help feed my movie addiction, people!

No comments: