Rating: 2/5
Hooptober 4.0 | 27/31 | people eating people (non-zombie) 3/3
A black carriage kidnaps a barmaid on her way home. It brings her to the Karnstein castle, vacant for the past 40 years. There, a woman in a black cloak and a poor imitation of Christopher Lee perform a ritual, draining blood from the barmaid and pouring it over a long-dead corpse. With an incantation to Satan, the body glows and returns to life, once more human.
Meanwhile, the author, Lestrange, is out for some strange, flirting with every barmaid and farm girl he sees. The barkeep warns him that the Karnsteins are to return, as they do every 40 years. Lestrange calls bullshit and goes to the castle.
There, he meets a schoolteacher and three girls from a nearby finishing school. They lead Karstein to the school, where he connives to become the new English teacher. While Karnstein tries to get laid, the audience tries to figure out the mystery of the disappearing girls.
This movie is the second in a loose trilogy. I saw the first one long enough ago that my scant review did not refresh my memory.
I did not know (or perhaps forgot) that Hammer made movies as horny as this one. So many topless women for no particular reason. Women make eye contact with the camera and go in for kisses, skinny dip, and make out with each other.
There is a scene where the song Strange Love plays, and Yutte Stensgaard makes an ahegao face as Michael Johnson kisses somewhere on her person. I laughed.
Despite this, the film succeeds in some Gothic atmosphere. The third act is when everything picks up. The journey there isn’t awful, but the film believes the occasional boobs will suffice where the plot lacks.