Great Film overall

best movie i've ever seen.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Christopher Lee is struggling with the usual dilemmas facing a single parent. His daughter is acting up and getting all goth on him, dreaming she's a vampire that's killing distant relatives, indulging in strange ceremonies with the housekeeper, listening to Cannibal Corpse, all that sort of stuff. Lee's also having a bit of an affair with his maid, who resents Lee's daughter as she sees her as an obstacle regarding getting hitched to Lee. It's the usual modern day problems, but set in a huge brooding castle next to a ruined village of course. Lee hires a guy to find out what his ancient ancestor looks like to prove to his daughter that she's not her reincarnation, and the guy immediately gets a thing for Lee's daughter. That's a pity, however, as she's kind of taken with a young, mysterious girl who's staying at the castle for a few days while her carriage is getting fixed at the local Kwik Fit, in yet another Italian Goth Horror where suspected vampirism increases your chances of a homosexual experience. Usually of a Sapphic nature.I quite enjoyed this one, which is your usual Gothic horror with some really grotesque imagery thrown in for good measure, including the housekeeper using a severed hand as a candle holder, a giallo-style killing, and the reveal of why the church bell keeps ringing in the ruined village is a doozy! There's a bit of a mystery about the whole thing too as the young guy keeps digging, trying to find the image of Christopher Lee's ancestor, and who can't like a film that has a hunchbacked soothsayer in it?The lesbian isn't played up too much of course considering the year this was made, but it ticks all the Gothic Horror boxes for me. I think I've seen them all now, but who knows what waiting out there?

One thing I could immediately appreciate about "Crypt of the Vampire" were the masterfully atmospheric opening sequences of a young girl, wandering around the woods by herself at night, and approaching an eerie and seemingly abandoned carriage. She spots something, dies instantly and we the viewers only witness the door of the coach slowly closing again. This was a wondrous mood-setter for an obscure and late 60's European horror gem with the inexhaustible Christopher Lee and directed by a random Italian dude who wanted to be as successful as Mario Bava ("Black Sunday") or Antonio Margheriti ("The Virgin of Nuremberg"). The heavenly beautiful Laura Karnstein, daughter of the honorable Count Ludwig played by Lee, witnesses the aforementioned opening sequence in a dream. Since she suffers from this kind of nightmares quite regularly, her concerned father seeks the help of the acclaimed Friedrich Klauss, who professionally restores manuscripts. Hopefully he can find a link between Laura and a notorious ancestor of the Karnsteins; a countess who reputedly kidnapped and killed young girls for the purpose of witchcraft. Is Laura really the reincarnation of her wicked ancestor, like the family curse states, or is the Count's young mistress Annette simply trying to drive the righteous heiress towards insanity? "Crypt of the Vampire" nearly isn't on par with some other contemporary European Gothic horror movies, but it's nevertheless a compelling and definitely worthwhile film. The script is full of obvious and slightly less obvious twists and occasionally even dares to touch certain taboo subjects, like subtle hints towards lesbianism. The Karnstein Castle is always shown from the same perspective, from beneath a hillside, but the interior filming locations are nice and gloomy. All the obligatory goth-horror elements are well represented, including thunderstorms, spontaneously dying candles, secret passageways, hidden vaults, etc. There are also a handful of uniquely grisly and genuinely horrific images in the film like the sight of a hunchback hanging dead from a chiming church bell, a corpse emerging from a coffin and pointing out who murdered her and voodoo practicing housemaids. Christopher Lee doesn't exactly give away his greatest performance ever, but even as a mediocre player he's still worth admiring. Luckily, in this case he also receives excellent support from the ravishing female cast members Adriana Ambesi and Véra Valmont.

Christopher Lee receives top billing in this Gothic Italian horror film. However, despite this, you really don't see that much of him and he seems much more like a supporting player. Lee fans will no doubt be disappointed in this one--even if the ending is fairly good!The story is about his daughter, Laura, who may or may not be the reincarnation of a long-dead Satan worshiper. There's a bit more to it than that, including a strange young visitor that comes to the manor and a researcher who is trying to either prove or disprove that Laura is this reincarnation, but it all never really seemed very compelling. THE CRYPT OF HORROR ("La Cripta e L'incubo") is an incredibly frustrating movie to watch. Again and again, it appears as if something genuinely scary is about to occur as the music swells....then nothing. Interestingly for a 1960s movie, the same occurs again and again in scenes where the two female leads appear to be headed towards some scene of overt lesbianism....and then nothing. Because of this, the audience's expectations are piqued again and again...but the scenes are allowed to fall flat--not a recipe for a successful film. The movie did create wonderful moods but the payoff never seemed to materialize. So, as a result, the film not only frustrates but never provides any sort of chills--just a rather lifeless film.By the way, the copy I watched from "Graveyard Theater" on DVD was amazingly bad--rather blurry and obviously degraded over time. I hope that better copies are available if you do decide to see it--there was a loud hum throughout the film as well.

While I usually like Christopher Lee, he couldn't win 'em all. "La cripta e l'incubo" (AKA "Terror in the Crypt") loosely centers on a family in which the daughter may or may not be a reincarnation of an executed relative who may or may not have been a witch. As I understand it, this movie was based on a story called "Carmilla"; well, hopefully someone will one day make a clearer version (or has there already been one?).Yes, there are some really hot women in this movie, but that's about it; in most of these kinds of movies, hot women and a cool plot complement each other. It's far from the worst movie ever, but it might have come out better with the presence of Barbara Steele and/or Ingrid Pitt.