The Vampire Happening

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The Vampire Happening
Vampire-happening-poster.jpg
German film poster for The Vampire Happening
Directed by Freddie Francis
Written byAugust Rieger
Karl-Heinz Hummel [1]
Produced byPier A. Caminnecci
CinematographyGerard Vandenberg [2]
Edited byAlfred Srp [2]
Music byJerry van Rooyen [2]
Release date
  • June 4, 1971 (1971-6-4)(West Germany) [3]
Running time
102 minutes [2]
CountryWest Germany [2]
LanguageGerman [4]

The Vampire Happening (German : Gebissen wird nur nachts, lit.They only bite at night) is a 1971 West German comedy horror film directed by Freddie Francis. [4]

Contents

Plot

An American film actress has inherited a castle in Transylvania. But what she doesn't know is that her ancestor, Baroness Clarimonde Catani is a vampire who has awakening from her tomb to cause mayham.

Cast

Production

In the early 1970s, Italian producer Pier A. Caminnecci was looking for a film for his wife Pia Degermark whose previous film Elvira Madigan (1967) was a critical and financial success. [1] Caminnecci set up an international production for her in West Germany directed by British director Freddie Francis and written by German screenwriters August Rieger and Karl-Heinz Hummel [1] The script features a sub-plot based on Theophile Gautier's short story "La Morte Amoureuse." [1]

Francis later stated:

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. [5]

Reception

The film was not well received. [6] Allmovie gave the film one and a half stars out of five, stating that it is "not considered to be one of the crown jewels of the genre" [4] In his book Comedy-Horror Films:A Chronological History, author Bruce G. Hallenbeck praised the visuals but referred to the film as "sort of a ripoff of Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers " which "doesn't come within lightyears of Polanski's vision". [7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hallenbeck 2009, p. 92.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Browning & Picart 2010, p. 91.
  3. ↑ "Gebissen wird nur nachts - das Happening der Vampire". filmportal.de. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 Fountain, Clarke. "Vampire Happening". Allmovie. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  5. ↑ Zatterin, M., "Carreras, Francis, Guest, Lester", Fantafestival, 1986.
  6. ↑ Hallenbeck 2009, p. 93.
  7. ↑ Hallenbeck 2009, pp. 92–3.

Works cited

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