Really Awful Movies: Ep 469 – Vampire in Venice

Who knew Werner Herzog's Nosferatu had an unofficial sequel? Well, the production-plagued Klaus Kinski starrer, Vampire in Venice, aka Nosferatu in Venice, is a weird one - and while not as good as its predecessor, is nonetheless an oddly compelling, lovely film. I mean, it can't help but be - lensed in the gorgeous city of Venice. Tune in, as we tap the immortal undead. And don't forget, subscribe to the Really Awful Movies Podcast.  

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I like my vampire movies out of left
field.
I'm partial to stuff like Captain Cro Vampire
Hunter,
planet of the vampires, a near dark
kiss of the vampire.
If you're in this camp, I think you'll
really dig vampire in Venice, which mar 2
wonderful worlds
the legend inspired by the prince of darkness
of Vlad Imp himself and that's stunning beautiful

(00:22):
Lagoon city of V, Italy. On with the
show,
Up of the news this evening is speculation
concerning the real facts
behind at prop have health announcement about a
radioactive
spill
supposed to have occurred yesterday at the state
nuclear plant.
You will die. Only to live again in

(00:44):
a younger body,
then you can tell me if the operation
was a success
now.
But I'm determined to have your brain
You're listening to the really awful movies podcast,
the celebration of genre cinema.

(01:07):
From our downtown toronto headquarters Sears episode 4
69
of the really awful movies podcast,
Vampire
in Venice.
It's...
Anyone's guess really who portrays the best vampire
on film.
The obvious choices are, of course, Be Lug
and Christopher Leave.

(01:28):
It's almost like anything else really, a a
matter of taste.
And if your preferences lean toward the
suave deb error and sophisticated
incarnation of the vampire character,
then those 2 gents are obviously prime exe
employers. However,
for fans of the more gnarly sort an
account
part the pond them myself among them. I

(01:50):
really like the the snuggle tooth players, your
Max sr and of course, you're klaus kin.
I hold of Webinar Her in the highest
regard, and I really really like the 19
79 effort, and Forgot to the vampire. I
think it's easily 1 of the best vampire
films ever made.
Certainly very underrated a La martin by Romero.

(02:10):
It's definitely in the top 5 if I
had to really narrow it down. I haven't
thought about it too too much of late
since the last vampire vehicle I podcast, but
So when I got wind that,
vampire and Venice was a kind of a
d facto sequel to not spread to the
Vampire which not too many people actually talk
about or seemingly know about,

(02:32):
I left out of my dedicated
crypt to check it out.
Especially when I found out it was set
in Venice,
which is truly a magical setting that had
the pleasure visiting
for a day way back when. I was
on a Italy trip to Bo and elsewhere.
And
the the city was also the setting for

(02:53):
what has become
1 of my
favorite
goofy Italian horror efforts of Pagan who by
a Luigi C.
Super fun ridiculous movie. Anyway, vampire Venice goes
by,
No V, and Italian it is known very
by a multi simplicity of names. You got
your prince of the night Nas to in

(03:14):
Venice.
III knew it as In Venice, but apparently,
it's more well known as Vampire and Venice,
but whatever I think maybe a tit
or Amazon,
a situation or shutter or what have you.
And we are introduced to the iconic
Italian, look lagoon city setting through Christopher Plumber.

(03:35):
I'm standing on a boat and floating.
Majestic through the bay. I mean, it's just
really awesome stuff. It really will conjure up
that kind of hammer horror element, which is
weird because it it really is strange and
bizarre that this isn't actually a 19 88
film. Like it feels like 19 73.

(03:57):
It is really, really behind the times. But
I think you could say in the best
possible way. And
plumber, mister Von Trap himself and also starve
of a film that scared the be jesus
out of me when I was a little
kid,
the Jack, the ripper period horror murdered by
decree. He plays this, I guess, Vampire,
historian experts named a professor Cat,

(04:20):
Cat is a vampire hunter who's on the
trail of the last
known appearance of Nas
the second
most evil figure after the devil as the
film's voice over health in tones. I thought
that was, there it's
professor Catalan.
You know, finds himself in the port city
as he's brought there by a young princess

(04:41):
who thinks
that there's a vampire buried
30 meters under the canal and is actually
inter in a sealed tomb bet t other
members of her family. The plot thickens are
hard.
Cat notices
that the princess bears a strange resemblance to
1 of the counts,
long lost loves for foreshadowing alert, and they

(05:04):
decide to hold of sail on, and there's
a pretty neat scene where I think 6
7 of the world chatting and there's this
pre am about how Cat became interested in
va anthropology and have kind of facility it
is. And it it is but it's super
fun. Now
the Ce has held against the wishes of
a priest played incredibly by a Halloween

(05:25):
icon
himself
Donald pleasant who who's really, like, chewing up
the scenery, but in a really good way
here, really having a lot of fun and
sticking his teeth as it were into the
role of this Harris priest. We're really good,
really super fun. Adds a lot of half
and g.
Now we... It's soon.
Is revealed that No what's been vi, I

(05:47):
guess, hanging out at Venetian Carnival in the
eighteenth century.
Rocking, of course, 1 of those eyes wide
shut masks and just making a menace of
them himself. And this is a film that
various goes back in time and does so
quite effectively as of any... Venice quite a
timeless city and you can do that there
because it really hasn't changed for hundreds and
hundreds of years. And so we you see

(06:09):
these
excerpts of that kind of of fun that
they were having at the time and and
it's and it's wild. But as luck would
have it, this S disrupts this guy's 200
year old slumber and soon No
is is rumbling. Now,
needless to say of Vampire Venice is all
very kind of
fusing in a way. It it is really

(06:31):
kind of odd.
But,
the beautiful venetian setting is a backdrop. I
mean, you can't go wrong with that. It
really is a magical place. Saint Mark's place
when you go there, despite all the hundreds
of pigeons. It just... It it's
while, especially if you get lost in some
of the the back
canals and bridges away from the tourists. If

(06:51):
you still can. I mean, it's overrun with
tourists. But
This is a film that also has, like
in addition to to sump,
beautiful,
lush visuals it has people falling out of
or rather being
and more accurately onto fence spikes
and the absolutely terrifying presence of Kin ski.

(07:11):
And that... That's... What really propel this film
forward. And
apparently, actually, real life Kin was demonic well,
and that should probably come as a no
surprise. But,
according to, I guess the second unit director
Luigi C. And he's a he's a Da
Collaborator and you'll know him from the aforementioned
excellent pa horror, but also the Hilarious alien

(07:33):
knock off
contamination and the very silly star crash.
He, accounts
gives a recount of Kin behavior on onset
that it was really erratic, and it it
was really ridiculous. Like he would assist on
basically showcasing
himself
in in the best possible light. I mean,
literally, like when with the sun coming up,

(07:55):
So the the production be damned. He just
wanted to see... I mean, the guy seems
to be a complete Ego Man act, but
he wanted to see himself with the sunrise.
And that's about it, and he was not
exactly the most professional person to say the
least.
I mean, if you wanna go a little
bit darker, this was actually corroborate by Costa
Barbara Du rossi, who, according to the book,

(08:17):
Klaus Kin beast of Cinema
actually
assaulted her on set. It's it's just gross.
And there's actually a scene in here, which
is quite... I mean, surprising, shall we say,
in terms of the sexuality.
Ko says that
the guy's behavior was so bad, the crew
basically walked out on him and would not
return until he apologized.

(08:38):
Now back to the movie,
Mil, I guess, Nas is,
again, or after being,
awakened from his, you know,
200 year old sleep, and then he begins
attacking everyone in the immediate vicinity, including the
donald Pleasant character's wife. So this is the
father El visa,
everyone else who gets in his way. And

(09:00):
of course, as a is part of the
the the course for
Empire films of all of all stripes really,
it's
the heroes who have to try and, you
know,
keep them at Bay and repel him with
the holy cross as the folks who want
to do.
No, we're in a segue into things we've
learned here. Well,
a virgin woman that turns out, has to

(09:21):
give herself to No and love him un
and unconditionally,
great for, like, the family pet, but a
tough sell for the Va creepy teeth alone,
like, It's pretty gross.
Also, I mean,
for a film about the second most evil
person after the devil. I guess it's most
kind of fitting that

(09:42):
this is
production help. A number of directors were tied
to Vampire and Venice production. From what I've
read from different accounts, there were 2 in
the director's chair who were actually paid off
before August gust Ka,
who
did the the bulk of the proceedings.
And he actually quit leaving Kin to clean

(10:02):
up the mess of all things. And as
we've learned, I I think Kin has an
un accredited director to or credit, but
If you can be un credit and credited.
But if by all accounts, he actually directed
and you you would think with him being
such an Ego Man act that's not out
of his a wheelhouse.
As we've learned, I guess with few exceptions,

(10:23):
say, like, good night mommy your American Mary,
horror films with a 2 headed monster,
the director helm tend to suffer. However, However,
however,
a big bot here
Vampire and Venice is kind of weirdly like
touching and kind of affecting. And has moments
of the dare beauty and and, really, I

(10:43):
really dig the heavy gothic tonality.
The critic Ken Newman whose books I have
on my shelf is quite good at the
for the for the most part. He said
it best saying the film was it was
a a strangely beautiful mess,
but an oddly poetic take on Va prism.
I think that's pretty accurate.
Another thing I learned was that Kin wall,
I mean, his

(11:04):
behavior was boo across the board, but he
also refused to shave his head for the
role So he's basically rocking a weird 90
era Bon Jo Bob, which is which is
odd. But I think everything is mostly
held together by just the
grounded ness and,
leading presence of Christopher Plum, who's just dynamite
here in the in the role of professor

(11:26):
Catalan. He's so good. Just capturing the environment
and giving it a real, like, a sense
of,
getting in grounding and presence and seriousness,
and you know, it may be a little,
slow moving to some, but I really like
the the dark prints and the dark waters
and in the venetian canals and the palaces

(11:48):
and the protracted over the top port lines
and I really, really thought Kin really gave
it all in the role as well much
like he did in Proud the vampire by
Her. He's dynamite here. This is a dynamite
film, and I think very under the radar
and very underappreciated because, yes, a number of
people have called it to muddled and mud

(12:10):
and silly and difficult to follow, which, undoubtedly
is, but it's also quite just spectacular and
has its moments.
And it makes you wonder how things would
fared if a more conventional director was in
the chair and not the people who are
tasked to do this 1. But I'm gonna
give this a solid 3 and a half
out of 5. It's definitely in the upper
third tier of a vampire film. So I

(12:32):
think you'll enjoy it too. I hope you
enjoy this sort of shorter version of the
show so we're gonna get back to things
next week to a little longer form, and
we'll talk you soon. Take care.