An action-packed slog

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

In England vampire Algernon Ford (Gavin Read) realizes his bloodline is disappearing. With the help of his silent wife Alicia (Susan Heard), humpback Spool (Berwick Kaler) and three green-faced female vampires he abducts descendant Susan Ford (Jackie Skarvellis) to use her to breed more children. Her boyfriend Paul (Richmond Ross) come looking for her and they try to escape the vampires.For Andy Milligan this is actually well-made. I saw the restored version by Something Weird. The color is bright and strong, the picture clear and the audio can be heard. Still this doesn't make it a good movie! The plot is more than a little vague, the pacing is VERY slow (even at 82 minutes) and it all leads to really nothing much. To make things worse the makeup on the three female vampires changes from green to blue for no reason! Also there is totally inappropriate music in some scenes that destroy any power they might have had. The vampires don't have any fangs either! On the plus side is the strong color, the incredible dresses the female vampires wore and some pretty good acting (noticably by Skarvellis, Ross and Kaler). Also Ross and Skarvellis are introduced in a pretty lengthy nude sex sequence which is quite erotic. They're both good-looking with nice bodies so there's NO trouble watching it. It adds nothing to the movie but is still one of the best parts. Andy Milligan made all bad movies but this is (arguably) one of his best made. Still, it's just too dull to enjoy. I give it a 2.

Prissy priest Algernon Ford (an effectively smug and sinister portrayal by Gavin Reed) is really a vampire who's organizing a gala annual feast for his fellow bloodsuckers. Assisted by pathetic hunchback Spool (the pitiable Berwick Kaler) and a trio of grotesque green-skinned vampire women, Ford has grisly plans for two of his luckless lady relatives: pregnant Susan (comely Jackie Skarvellis) gets chosen to be a breeder for vampire babies while lovely Candace (ravishing redhead Emma Jones) will be used as a blood donor. Writer/director Andy Milligan, whose movies are usually hopelessly cheap, static and inept, here shows a surprisingly substantial amount of flair and finesse. The rough, grainy, but still fairly polished cinematography in particular is occasionally impressive. The neatly varied score alternates between lush orchestral film library music and wonky, droning, atonal synthesizer noises. The gloomy British countryside adds considerably to the spooky and decadent Gothic atmosphere. The solid acting from the competent cast rates as another sterling asset: Reed truly excels in the lead, with sturdy support from Skarvellis, Kaler, Jones, Richmond Ross as Susan's brave, likable boyfriend Paul Donati, Susan Heard as Algernon's fetching, reticent wife Alicia, Felicity Sentence as brassy maid Jessie, and Judith Head as fiery vampiress Elizabeth. In addition, this film takes some interesting liberties with the standard vampire lore: These bloodsuckers don't have fangs, can walk around in the sunlight, and take regular blood transfusions to keep themselves strong. The climactic vampires' ball is both pleasingly lavish and appropriately gruesome. Nice dark surprise ending, too. A nifty vampire horror picture.

Andy Milligan has firmly established himself in my mind as probably the worst horror director of all time. Despite making decent sexploitation flick 'Seeds' in 1968, Milligan has succeeded only in boring me to death with the rest of his crappy oeuvre since then, and this film is certainly no exception. I really don't understand this director at all; it seems like he's trying to make some sort of point as his films all have a similar style, but somehow nothing comes out of them but boredom. Take the plot pace of this film as an example; it's painfully slow and the dialogues are delivered by actors who sound like they're close to death. Quite how Milligan made this film and didn't realise how dull it was is anyone's guess...my only thought on the matter is that perhaps it was the director's intention to torture his audience? The plot supposedly revolves around vampires but for all I care they could have been clowns, postmen, FBI agents or French maids...it doesn't really matter. No film made with as little enthusiasm as this is ever going to be interesting, and after seeing five Milligan films; I doubt I'll be seeing another.

An odd one in Milligan's filmography, this was one of the few "real" movies he attempted. By "real" I mean less concerned with stagy, screaming, off-Broadway plots (let's face it, Milligan at his best, at least by the standards of his own movies). This is an eccentric vampire film unlike any other. Very similar to "Guru, the Mad Monk", it is one of the few Milligan films to feature a dominant performance by a lead actor (Gavin Reed, one of the more professional actors Milligan worked with) with no scheming, bitchy females in sight. Not quite as slow as some of Milligan's other British-era films, it moves along at a nice clip, and the final vampire/cannibal feast manages, at moments, to be atmospheric (though the annoying use of inappropriate stock music is a distraction). The internet is interesting, I first saw a Milligan movie when I was 12, "The Rats are Coming, the Werewolves Are Here", and have been, well, interested in Milligan ever since. While I'm sure the recent Millgan biography has introduced more people to him, thanks to the internet I now know that, judging by some of the reactions to his films, there are at least 25 other people on Earth who appreciate Milligan as I do. Kind of neat.