Crypt of the Living Dead (1973)

Finally, I go through disk 2 of Undead: The Vampire Collection. The last movie on that disk was Crypt of the Living Dead, another film I had not seen before but one that I actually found enjoyable to watch.

Plot/ This movie has a great entry point and an extremely interesting storyline. It begins with an archaeologist exploring a 700-year-old crypt, coming across the tomb of Hannah, an ancient vampire. He does not get far before two people come along and kill him, stuffing him under the tomb and breaking the tomb's legs. Flash forward a few days, and the archeologist's son arrives on the island to deal with his father's death. After being shown where his father died, he is told that the tomb is far too heavy to be moved. He then arranges to have the tomb taken apart, so that they may remove his father's body and give him a proper burial.

Unfortunately, the father had the misfortune to be buried under a tomb that most of the locals knew was occupied by a horrible, yet extremely sexy, vampire queen, and he has a great deal of difficulty getting assistance in taking the tomb apart. Although he doesn't believe in the vampire legend, once they crack open the coffin and the 700-year-old woman looks closer to her mid-twenties, he gets involved in the action to stop her. She does get an opportunity to terrorize the island a little bit, but her movement rate is far too slow and she has to rely upon her sheer sexiness to draw any victims near.

As with many of the older movies that end up on these collections, this one does have its problems, the script lacks depth or reality with shaky dialogue, and for the most part it is a run of the mill movie that will not leave a lasting impression. However, this odd film has decent acting and some great characters that could have been developed into something special, plus, it boasts some great scenery with a nice gothic feel (not to mention a very interesting and enjoyable death scene). In all, I would definitely watch this film again (and it helps my motivation to move on to the next DVD).

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