As Sete Vampiras

The Seven Vampires

Brazil 1986
produced by
Antonio Avilez, Ivan Cardoso, Flávio Holanda, Cláudio Klabin, Mauro Taubman for Embrafilme, Skylight, Super 8 Producoes Cinematográficas
directed by Ivan Cardoso
starring Nicole Puzzi, Nuno Leal Maia, Andrea Beltrao, Simone Carvalho, Leo Jaime, Ariel Coelho, Colé Santana, Zezé Macedo, Ivon Cury, Bene Nunes, Wilson Grey, Felipe Falcao, Susan Matos, Danielle Daumerie, Alvamar Taddei, Dedina Bernardelli, Pedro Cardoso, Lucélia Sandos, Carlo Mossy, John Herbert, Tania Boscoli
story by Ivan Cardoso, Rubens Francisco Luchetti, screenplay by Rubens Francisco Luchetti, music by Leo Jaime, Bene Nunez

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Botanist Fred Rossi (Ariel Coelho) receives a strange plant from Africa - a flesh-eating plant it seems, and once bitten, one turns into ... something. There is an antidote but it only works if applied in regular doses. Of course, Rossi is bitten, and when his wife Silvia (Nicole Puzzi) returns home, she only finds his dead body - but is bitten herself, but manages to take the antidote just in time. However, that experience changes her ...

A few months later, the city is terrorized by murders eventually dubbed the Vampire Murders. At the same time, Silvia, who has lived like a recluse in the meantime, returns to the limelight and puts on a nightclub act, The Seven Vampire Girls, at Rogerio's (John Herbert) nightclub. The act is a sensational success, and she and Rogerio soon become inseperable - but then she learns he has an affair with one of the act's dancers, Ivete (Simone Carvalho) ... and that night, Rogerio becomes the Vampire's latest victim.

Ivete fears for her wife, so he hires bumbling private detective Marlou (Nuno Leal Maia) ... but he can't save her from being killed. This hurts Marlou's professional pride though, so he gets his secretary Maria (Andrea Beltrao) a job at the nightclub, and soon enough, they got a lead on the vampire ... but bumbling police inspector Pacheco (Colé Santana) soon gets a line on them, which before long leads to utter chaos - but after much to and fro, Marlou and Maria find themselves at the mercy of the Vampire - whom until now everybody has suspected to be Silvia -, who is all of a sudden shot ... by Silvia. The Vampire actually turns out to be Silvia's husband Rossi, who wasn't quite dead after all, only horribly mutilated, but he could only survive on human blood. But when he dies, he shows remorse, and once she has shot him, Silvia dies, too, because he's the only one who could provide her with the antidote. And everybody else on scene breaks out in tears ...

Quite frankly, this film isn't too well written: Characters seem to pop into and out of the story rather at random and often lack proper set-up or motivation, the narrative buildup is somewhat lacking, and everything seems unnecessarily convoluted considering the film's clichéed story ... and yet, the film is wonderful, an amazingly insightful hommage to pulps, comicbooks and horror films (especially Eurohorrors) from past decades, with almost no chliché left untouched and all put together in such a loving and non-deprecating way that a fan of the films, books and comicstrips of old can't help but fall in love with this one.

Beautiful!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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