I love this movie so much

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

As I watched this film on Netflix, I was given the Redemption version with eight minutes of terrible introduction before the film even began. I would strongly encourage anyone who watches this to skip ahead to the film... (the DVD is probably the same, and there is no excuse for that).Critic Robert Firsching said, "In the hands of a better filmmaker, it might have been an interesting pastiche, or even played as a clever spoof, but Rizzo appears to have made the whole thing up as he went along." That may be fair, as it seems to have very little plot and revolve around getting different characters in bed with each other.Fans of Mario Bava might recognize a few faces: we have Giacomo Rossi-Stuart ("Kill, Baby, Kill") and Luciano Pigozzi ("Blood and Black Lace"). Those looking for horror will be disappointed, though. Despite the title claiming there is a "bloodsucker", this is not a horror film or a giallo in any real sense. It is an Italian sex comedy, and little more.Alfredo Rizzo directed only eight films, but appeared as an actor in 97. He was certainly a better actor than a director.

La Sanguisuga Conduce la Danza, or The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance as I believe is it's common English title, is set on 'Ireland' in '1902' where the mysterious Count Richard Marnack (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) invites soon-to-be out of work theatre actress Evelyn (Patrizia Webley as Patrizia De Rossi) & three more of her fellow soon-to-be out of work actress friends Cora (Krista Nell), Penny (Lidia Olizzi) & Rosalind (Marzia Damon as Caterina Chiani) to his castle situated on a small island just off the coast. At first Evelyn is reluctant but is persuaded when it is agreed stage hand Samuel (Leo Valeriano) goes along as well. Once there Count Marnack tells his guests that his Father & Grandfather both cut the heads off their cheating wives using a ceremonial knife & there's a feeling of unease when it turns out that Evelyn looks EXACTLY the same as the current Count's wife who ran away not too long ago... Along with having to worry about weirdo servants it turns out that someone wants to use the knife themselves to chop a few heads off...This Italian production was written & directed by Alfredo Rizzo & is total, complete & utter crap from start to finish. First things first lets start the criticism with the title The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance, lets examine that title because when I do I feel somewhat cheated that there aren't any Vampires or any form of bloodsucking whatsoever, no-one 'leads' anything at anytime & there most certainly isn't any dance or dancing so don't expect any of these things. What you should expect though is a tedious, dull, boring pointless little 'giallo' that takes over an hour before anyone is killed & any sort of murder mystery starts to take shape, the first hour of La Sanguisuga Conduce la Danza is as plot less & uninteresting as anything out there. The best way to imagine it is to think of the most boring soft-core porn film you've ever seen, then cut most of the soft-core porn out & that just leaves bad actors, bad dubbing, bad dialogue, a tiny bit of soft-core sex & lesbianism & absolutely nothing else. Yep, it really is that bad. The mystery elements are crap, people do illogical things for no apparent reason & the overly complicated 'twist' ending is as bad as the rest of it, The Sixth Sense (1999) this ain't!Director Rozzi does an OK job & La Sanguisga Conduce la Danza actually has a nice look & feel to it despite it's obvious low budget, I mean there are scenes where he shows a 'storm' raging outside the castle however the stock footage used is in black & white! So the film jumps from bright colour to black & white whenever it cuts to the storm & back to colour again! There is one absolutely hilarious scene where a maid & her friend discuss her breasts & she lets her friend feel them who is then full of compliments, this scene is so funny & just so unnatural that it's priceless & easily the films best moment even if a bad 70's porno would be embarrassed by the dialogue! There is minimal nudity & the sex/lesbian scenes are very tame. Forget about any blood or gore as there isn't any apart from a decapitated head.Technically the films pretty good, the period setting & production design are actually quite impressive although it's not massive in scope it does the job effectively enough. The film has a nice sense of colour & the cinematography is fine. The film is dubbed so it's hard to give an opinion on the original performances but the voice actors are terrible & the dialogue is even worse than usual.La Sanguisuga Conduce la Danza is a terrible film, it makes no sense, it has virtually no story for over an hour, it has possibly the most misleading title ever & is really dull & boring with a confused stupid 'twist' ending. As far as Euro horror fans go there are plenty of much better films than this so please don't waste your time, as for anyone else this is definitely one to avoid. Trivia Note: the notorious (& banned in the UK) Nazi exploitation/horror film Horrifying Experiments of the S.S Last Days (1977) AKA SS Hell Camp & The Beast in Heat was directed by Luigi Batzella & he has a fairly substantial role as a police detective in La Sanguisuga Conduce la Danza.

You know something? It amazes me just how much that some film-makers get away with. 'Bloodsucker leads the dance' is billed as a vampire movie, yet it turns out to be anything but!! It's little more thana cheesy soft-porn 'whodunnit' murder-mystery thrillerAtrocious dubbing and misleading synopsis aside, this film does havea few things going for it. Firstly, the music score is quite airy and atmospheric, and the period costumes are quite nice, and the sets are quite elaborate (even though quite a few of them can be seen in the film, 'Nude for Satan')Mind you, some of the set do like as if they're made out of Cardboard.There are also some convincingly grisly scenes of severed heads to spice things up a little.At the risk of giving too much away, what I noticed about this film is the way in which it plays around with the viewer's suspicions and makes you think at first that the creepy butler was behind the murders. I shan't reveal who the real killer is, though!All in all, this film won't win any Oscars, but if you happen to be into Italian 'Giallo' cinema, then you can't go wrong with little number.

The packaging for this film is quite misleading, which may account for all the ill will towards it: first the title itself implies this is a vampire movie (it's not) and the cover picture shows an actress (Krista Nell?) with a vaguely Bride-of-Frankenstein-esque hairstyle, which also gives a misleading impression of the subject of this film. And it must be acknowledged at the outset that "Bloodsucker Leads the Dance" is a trifle, more of an excuse to get its actresses naked than a serious attempt at filmmaking.That said, however, I don't think the film is entirely without redeeming characteristics, especially for fans of giallo (Italian thrillers), the major characteristics of which this film displays in its plot (a murderer with supernatural overtones is stalking a bevy of sexy houseguests at the remote country mansion of a count) and its gothic setting. If you take it for what it is (a flimsy giallo made on a shoestring budget) and not high art, you notice a few fun things about this production while viewing it: a cool soundtrack, nice costumes and sets, a perverse view of human nature and of course lots of female skin. It can be a fun movie to watch if you approach it in the right spirit. Probably not for those not already "hooked" on giallo, though.