Every 28 years there is a gruesome series of murders around the Oblensky castle near Stuttgart. The police are at a loss and suspect Adolf Oblensky, who has recently arrived from London and inherited the castle. He himself tries to track down the culprit and has apparitions of the deceased head of the family, who asks him to release him from the vampire's curse. But can Adolf trust the apparitions or is he the culprit himself?

 

In theory, The Horrible Sexy Vampire contains everything that makes a genre-conforming vampire film: an old castle that houses a dark family secret, a bloodthirsty vampire, and plenty of pretty women who change or undress in complete self-indulgence. However, the spark doesn't quite want to jump over, which is on the one hand due to the more than sluggish staging and on the other hand to the rather boring rattling off of common vampire clichés. Tension hardly arises and despite some good approaches, the film is surprisingly lacking in surprises. At least the snowy locations in and around Stuttgart are nicely staged. By the way, in Germany, the film was released under the lurid title "The Vampire of Castle Frankenstein" (English translation). Of course you won't find Frankenstein in the film.

 

In the U.S., the film got the title The Horrible Sexy Vampire and ended up as public domain, which is almost equivalent to a DVD of Mill Creek. It is included in the Undead: The Vampire Collection with a moderate quality transfer. It lacks color and sharpness and there is an occasional thin horizontal bar throughout the film. At least the version is in widescreen and has only a few inconsequential missing bits.

 

The US Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro is a real revelation, presumably using a theatrical print as its source. The picture quality is very, very good and in addition to the English, Spanish audio is also available with optional English subtitles. Apparently the transfer had a short missing scene. Towards the end of the film, after Oblensky's coffin is closed, there is a cut to Susanne. For this, a poorer picture source was used.

 

 

Apart from that, there is little to complain about. Those who want to watch the film should therefore get the US Blu-ray.

 

US-DVD (Mill Creek):