South America isn't best known for producing films; but there were a handful of decent horror films coming out of places like Mexico and Brazil in the fifties, sixties and seventies. Argentina is one of the less well known for producing horror; although they did deliver The Curious Dr. Humpp in 1971, and also this film in 1967. Blood of the Virgins (not to be confused with the probably superior Harald Reinl film from the same year) is not a great film by any means and I can certainly understand why it doesn't exactly have a strong fan base as it could have been a lot better, but it is at least a decent way to waste seventy five minutes. The film starts by focusing on two lovers; Ofelia and an eerie stranger named Gustavo. Ofelia is due to be married to a suitor and naturally her lover doesn't take too kindly to that so, being a vampire, he decides to kill the husband and turn Ofelia into a vampire so the pair can spend all eternity together. We then cut to 1960 where a bunch of dumb kids take shelter in an abandoned lodge after breaking down.
The start of the film actually seemed like the opening to a really interesting vampire movie; so it's a real shame that writer and director Emilio Vieyra got lazy and decided to go with the old 'bunch of kids' routine rather than focusing on the far more interesting story of Ofelia and her vampire lover. I guess he figured that the kids would sell better and that's a shame as the film becomes completely routine after the first fifteen minutes. The atmosphere is good at the start of the film too as the director keeps things nicely shrouded in mystery, but this too evaporates after the film moves into its second stage. Naturally, the acting is nothing to write home about and nobody particularly impresses for doing anything over than delivering a camp performance. There's a fair bit of gore, which is nice except for the fact that it all looks very cheap and fake. Overall, I probably would have better things to say about this film if the opening fifteen minutes were stretched out over the seventy five minute running time; but nevertheless, Blood of the Virgins is just about worth a look for horror fans.
The start of the film actually seemed like the opening to a really interesting vampire movie; so it's a real shame that writer and director Emilio Vieyra got lazy and decided to go with the old 'bunch of kids' routine rather than focusing on the far more interesting story of Ofelia and her vampire lover. I guess he figured that the kids would sell better and that's a shame as the film becomes completely routine after the first fifteen minutes. The atmosphere is good at the start of the film too as the director keeps things nicely shrouded in mystery, but this too evaporates after the film moves into its second stage. Naturally, the acting is nothing to write home about and nobody particularly impresses for doing anything over than delivering a camp performance. There's a fair bit of gore, which is nice except for the fact that it all looks very cheap and fake. Overall, I probably would have better things to say about this film if the opening fifteen minutes were stretched out over the seventy five minute running time; but nevertheless, Blood of the Virgins is just about worth a look for horror fans.