Directed by #lamberto bava.
Written by Lamberto Bava, Luciano Martino and Dardano Sacchetti.
Dinner with a Vampire is one of four films that constituted an Italian TV series in the 80s called Brivido Giallo. All were directed by Lamberto Bava. The other films in the series were Graveyard Disturbance (1987), Until Death (1987) and The Ogre (1988).
Four people: Monica (Yvonne Sciò), Rita (Patrizia Pellegrino), Sasha (Valeria Milillo) and Johnny (Riccardo Rossi): who audition for a part in a horror film are brought to a castle, the home of the director Jurek (George Hilton).
They are met at the door by weird hunchback Gilles (Daniele Aldrovandi) and are shown one of Jurek’s creepy old vampire films by a man called Matthew (Stefano Sabelli). They also meet a woman (Isabel Russinova) who resides there. One of them, Rita, faints during the film and is taken upstairs. She then goes wandering around the castle until she meets Gilles in the family crypt who returns her to the rest.
Jurek returns home and meets his guests and they have dinner where Johnny notices Jurek has no reflection. Jurek freely admits he’s a vampire from Mesopotamia. Jurek tells them he wants them to kill him before dawn otherwise he’ll have to drink their blood and turn them into vampires. They’re not entirely convinced so Matthew shows them the crypt where Jurek sleeps which contains some of Jurek’s previous victims.
Trapped in the castle, the four chosen must find a way of killing Jurek before he kills them.
This lighthearted horror film is great. It’s totally Scooby Doo and the story is fun as are the 80s effects. Jurek is the most stereotypical vampire possible, straight out of a fancy dress party, but that fits in well with the tone of the film. Isabel Russinova’s character is equally loopy. Our four ‘chosen’ have no more depth. It’s mad, silly fun but it’s very entertaining, or at least I think so.
With legendary writer Dardano Sacchetti on board who has worked with Mario Bava, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci on some of the biggest Italian horrors of all time, Simon Boswell (and Mario Tagliaferri) doing the music and Sergio Stivaletti on special visual effects, there’s some major talent involved. I’ve now seen three out of the four Brivido Giallo films (can’t find Until Death) and I’ve enjoyed them. I am a big fan of Lamberto Bava and will review some of his other films in the future. Remember, Dinner with a Vampire is a TV movie from the 80s and it is lighthearted, it won’t appeal to everyone, I would recommend it first to fans of Italian horror and particularly Lamberto Bava but would say not to expect Demons or anything.
Also stars Letizia Ziaco as Nadia and Igor Zalewsky as Ale.
That was a bit out of left field I admit, in my next review I’ll be looking at notorious ‘video nasty’ House on the Edge of the Park (1980) directed by Ruggero Deodato. Until then…
Other films directed by Lamberto Bava:
Macabre (1980)
A Blade in the Dark (1983)
Demons (1985)
Graveyard Disturbance (1987)
Until Death (1987)
The Ogre (1988)
Body Puzzle (1992)
