d1senior Publish time 31-3-2021 04:40:12

Naff, wannabe-arty Euro shocker

Warning the other characters (and, presumably, the audience) that the seance in which they are about to take part could "provoke reactions of quite terrifying proportions," Christopher Plummer proves himself a less-than-reliable guide through this hideous mess.With pompous, over-cooked music blaring out of every scene, regardless of what is actually taking part on screen, and the kind of existential angst that would make a 14 year old goth blush, 'Vampire In Venice' lurches from one flaccid cliche to another.Gypsies dancing around a fire on the beach at night?Check! Street carnival with masks and silly frocks aplenty?Check!Vampires musing on the pain of spending eternity alone?Please, no more.

The 'horror' scenes appear to parody the entire genre.The film's running time - the video case claimed it was just over 90 minutes, an outright lie - stretches out into the black wastes of infinity, making the experience of watching it akin to sitting through one of Warhol's experiments in cinematic endurance.Klaus Kinski, so watchable in almost anything else, never seems sure whether he's the devil incarnate, or an aging rocker out of retirement for one last comeback gig.Even Donald Pleasance drifts by, unable to make a dent in the vast wall of boring, self-satisfied predictability.The horror of eternity was surely never supposed to be THIS bad.

score /10

d1senior 19 July 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0235963/35527
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