Kiss of the Vampire isn’t anything special within the vampire horror subgenre, but still thought it was a lot of fun with a simple story and even simpler characters.
Kiss of the Vampire
— Collector’s Edition —
(1963)
Genre(s): Horror, Fantasy
Shout Factory | NR – 88 min. – $29.99 | July 14, 2020
Date Published: 07/11/2020 | Author: The Movieman
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Shout Factory provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3.5/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Lost on the way to their honeymoon, a young couple stumbles upon a mysterious family of vampires and their unspeakably evil leader. When a wrong turn leaves newlyweds Marianne (JENNIFER DANIEL) and Gerald Harcourt (EDWARD DE SOUZA) stranded in a remote Bavarian forest, they have no choice but to accept the hospitality of the hypnotic Dr. Ravna (NOEL WILLMAN), distinguished lord of a nearby castle. Ravna uses his “children” to lure the newlyweds to his lair, and soon they are plunged into a nightmare from which there may be no escape. Their only hope is Professor Zimmer (CLIFFORD EVANS), who calls upon an ancient ritual in a desperate attempt to destroy the vampires and free Marianne from Ravna’s power. Note: This portion does contain a spoiler. Quick Hit Review: Kiss of the Vampire, a Hammer Production release, is hardly the most complicated horror-fantasy I’ve come across, even from that era, but it was still highly entertaining even if the performances (though I found both Jennifer Daniel and Edward de Souza to be semi-charismatic), and story itself, wasn’t anything special. The finale though was a highlight, in the cheesy sense anyway, seeing a bunch of rubber bats on the attack, strings clearly visible. Nothing about Kiss of the Vampire that stood out but I think would make for a fun viewing especially around the Halloween season and being only 88-minutes long, a quick watch for those who love vampire from the 1960s or 70s. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.75/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover. The interior has reversible artwork. Audio Commentaries:
The Men Who Made Hammer: James Bernard (17:17) is a profile featurette on the composer of many Hammer horror pics, including this film. The Men Who Made Hammer: Bernard Robinson is another profile on the production designer. The Kiss of the Vampire (1:66 Version) is a different aspect ratio. Kiss of Evil (1:32:45) is the TV version of the film with alternate scenes. Kiss of Evil Additional Scenes (16:44) where you can just watch the new scenes made for the TV version. Kiss of Evil Trailer (1:42) Rounding things out is a Theatrical Trailer (1:29), Radio Spot (1:02) |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Shout Factory releases Kiss of the Vampire onto Blu-ray where it’s presented with the option of either 1.85 or 1.66 aspect ratios, presumably both getting new transfers taken from a 4K scan of the interpositive. For the purposes of this review, I’m basing the rating off of the 1.85 version as the other is an option under the special features sub-menu. As such, this looks great in high-def, detail is sharp and well defined while colors appear to be well balanced and natural for the time period. There were some minor specs that I noticed upon closer inspection, but doubtful many would notice in an otherwise excellent picture. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. As with most of these older releases, can’t say it’s anything spectacular, but dialogue does come through with nice clarity and there were no presence of any pops, hisses or any other ailments that would affect a nearly 60 year old film. |
OVERALL – 3.5/5 |
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Kiss of the Vampire isn’t anything special within the vampire horror subgenre, but still thought it was a lot of fun with a simple story and even simpler characters. This “Collector’s Edition” release from Shout Factory includes a good array of bonus features and impressive video and audio transfers. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.