Review of The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) by Robert B — 17 May 2012

Eccentric Professor Ambronsius (MacGowran) travels to Transylvania with his assistant, Alfred (Polanksi) to try to end the plague of vampirism in the country. Along the way there, a stay at a hotel causes the two to have a run-in with the innkeeper's beautiful daughter Sarah (Tate)-- who suddenly is captured by the evil Count Von Krolock (Mayne).

The two follow them to his castle, but what originally was going to be just a simple little game of a vampire bloodbath just might turn into something a little bit stranger. "The Fearless Vampire Killers" was a gigantic disappointment to me.

I've been on a bit of a Roman Polanski high this past week, and I'm slowly becoming a fan. Because this is one of his first films, I was looking forward to seeing it-- especially because it's sandwiched in-between the hilarious "Cul-de-Sac" and the horror classic "Rosemary's Baby".

Unfortunately, this is probably my least favorite of all of Polanksi's movies. Don't get me wrong, this isn't by any means a bad film-- there's certain aspects of the film that are great-- the cinematography, the score, and well .

.. Sharon Tate. But does that make a good film? No. All that would make is a professional picture of Tate with music playing in the background. This film was aiming towards being a satire, but because Polanksi chooses to have limited dialogue, not much of it is funny-- mostly because when the characters DO get to speak for once, it still isn't funny.

None of the characters are interesting by any means, and the physical comedy that is supposed to be just so gosh-darn hilarious just makes the already failing film worse. Polanksi is a superb director-- this is just a slip-up, and every director has at least one.

"The Fearless Vampire Killers" has nothing on Polanki's other films, but for die-hard fans it's worth a look.