“The Kiss of the Vampire” has one hell of an opening scene, but after that, the viewer must endure about thirty minutes of Dullsville as a newlywed couple arrives in a creepy European town and interacts with the strange, subdued locals. Note that the entire village seems to consist of only three people: Professor Zimmer, the innkeeper, and the innkeeper’s wife. There’s the Hammer casting budget for you!
Thankfully, the action picks up during the creepy masquerade ball. I also enjoy watching our hapless hero (played by the somehow likable Edward DeSouza) get humiliated by the vampires when he attempts to rescue his wife.
The sets are cool and Gothic, if obviously studio-bound; this is the kind of movie that many would call cheap, but tolerant and loving horror fans would probably describe it as quite lavish.
I have some plot-related problems. Professor Zimmer’s transformation from tottering drunkard to know-it-all savior is too abrupt and unconvincing. I can’t understand why he doesn’t stop the Harcourts from visiting Ravna, since he’s so sure that the latter is a vampire. All he does is issue cryptic warnings – who’s that going to put off? I also don’t understand why the vampires try to convince de Souza that he never had a wife. Do they really think that trick’s going to work? Of COURSE he knows he had a wife! They really should just kill or convert him; setting him loose to make trouble is an unconscionably stupid decision. Anyway, they drop this little lie so quickly that one wonders why they bothered in the first place.
Other problems include a scene involving whiny, panicking vampires (hardly the most terrifying villains), and the strange lack of music in the climatic scene. As usual for a horror film, certain casual asides in the dialogue are more interesting than the story itself; Zimmer describes his daughter’s conversion into a vampire in the most fascinating terms, and even suggests that vampires can be redeemed through faith in God. All of which amounts to nothing, of course, since Hammer films can never be too deep. What we get is the usual fight over a pretty girl, the staple of vampire movies for way too many years.
Groaning aside, all Hammer films do have a certain charm, including the slow ones. A worthwhile attempt is made to make the vampires seem elegant and mysterious, and their eerie piano song does add to the atmosphere. I just wish the movie held up a little better; with a rewrite and some nips and tucks, this could’ve been one of the greats. Alas, as it stands, it’s merely mediocre.
