Good old 'gothic horror' starring the sinister acting chops of the legendary Christopher Lee, as well as the incredibly stunning beauty Karin Dor. "Blood of the Virgins" begins with the insane Count Regula, a castle-dwelling psychopath, being convicted of the heinous torture/deaths of twelve girls and is sentenced to be 'drawn and quartered' in a public setting. Thirty-five years later, a lawyer is handed a summons from the supposedly dead Count with the alluring offer of some insight into the lawyer's unknown family history. He is accompanied by an eccentric "priest" and are soon joined by two ravishing ladies, whom they rescue from a gang of masked carriage robbers along the dark forest road. They eventually arrive at the Count's residence which, not surprisingly, turns out to be comprised of a series of torture chambers and caged dungeons. They are all subjected to the various methods of cruel mechanisms - pendulums, spike-beds, snake pits as well as meeting the abhorrent Regula and learning of his plans to achieve immortality using the blood of a thirteenth victim... "Blood of the Virgins" - aka. "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism" and "The Blood Demon" - is a wildly entertaining, though obscure, bit of German horror, based on Edgar Allan Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum". It really delivers two separate types of horror - the first half of the movie taking place in a dreary forest occupied by villainous horsemen, creepy characters hanging out among castle ruins, and some very unsettling corpses draped over trees and dangling from branches. The atmosphere is extremely moody and morbid. The dungeon stuff was elaborate and dangerous, though far less "opaque". Christopher Lee, as usual, has very little screen time but is pleasantly menacing and his collection of dead virgins melancholic sight. I enjoyed the film highly - my only complaint was the change in tone; from somber to a more "lighter" themed divergence. Either way, it works out and the movie is suspenseful, creepy, briskly paced and entertaining.
Good old 'gothic horror' starring the sinister acting chops of the legendary Christopher Lee, as well as the incredibly stunning beauty Karin Dor. "Blood of the Virgins" begins with the insane Count Regula, a castle-dwelling psychopath, being convicted of the heinous torture/deaths of twelve girls and is sentenced to be 'drawn and quartered' in a public setting. Thirty-five years later, a lawyer is handed a summons from the supposedly dead Count with the alluring offer of some insight into the lawyer's unknown family history. He is accompanied by an eccentric "priest" and are soon joined by two ravishing ladies, whom they rescue from a gang of masked carriage robbers along the dark forest road. They eventually arrive at the Count's residence which, not surprisingly, turns out to be comprised of a series of torture chambers and caged dungeons. They are all subjected to the various methods of cruel mechanisms - pendulums, spike-beds, snake pits as well as meeting the abhorrent Regula and learning of his plans to achieve immortality using the blood of a thirteenth victim... "Blood of the Virgins" - aka. "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism" and "The Blood Demon" - is a wildly entertaining, though obscure, bit of German horror, based on Edgar Allan Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum". It really delivers two separate types of horror - the first half of the movie taking place in a dreary forest occupied by villainous horsemen, creepy characters hanging out among castle ruins, and some very unsettling corpses draped over trees and dangling from branches. The atmosphere is extremely moody and morbid. The dungeon stuff was elaborate and dangerous, though far less "opaque". Christopher Lee, as usual, has very little screen time but is pleasantly menacing and his collection of dead virgins melancholic sight. I enjoyed the film highly - my only complaint was the change in tone; from somber to a more "lighter" themed divergence. Either way, it works out and the movie is suspenseful, creepy, briskly paced and entertaining.
