BA_Harrison 'What can we do to end all this nonsense?' asks one character in Fangs of the Living Dead. Well, there's always the stop button, but I'm made of sterner stuff than that. Besides, this silly Gothic horror from Amando de Ossorio, director of the Blind Dead series, mightn't be all that great, but it does offer up several very attractive Euro-babes who, although they don't get naked, do look extremely ravishing throughout, revealing about as much cleavage as a slip of a dress possibly can. And hot babes always make the going a lot easier.Anita Ekberg is the leading lady in this silly vampire romp about an heiress, Sylvia Morel, discovering that her new castle is home to bloodsuckers, but she is easily eclipsed by buxom brunette Adriana Ambesi as sexy vamp Blinka, and Diana Lorys and Rosanna Yanni as beautiful barmaid sisters Bertha and Freya Zemis. Together, this trio of tasty totty ensured that, although the plot was unremarkable and the direction uninspired, I was able to see Fangs to the very end, which, while I'm on the subject, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (at least in the version I saw): after revealing that the whole vampire thing is a ruse cooked up by Sylvia's uncle, Count Walbrooke (Julián Ugarte), to have his niece committed, the count turns out to be a vampire after all (he disintegrates in flames), after which Max (César Benet), comedy sidekick of Sylvia's fiancé Piero (Gianni Medici), also sprouts a pair of fangs. Confusing, to say the least.

gridoon2018 I can only speak about the "Fangs Of The Living Dead" version (which is the one more readily available on DVD), not the longer "Malenka" version: avoid it. Not only is the picture quality poor for a 1969 film, but this version features virtually no blood or nudity, making it a PG horror film. The head vampire in it is extremely weak - he can't even break through a wooden door, and at the end he is defeated by a single punch! About 90% of the movie (no exaggeration!) is taken up by discussions about whether vampires are real, as if the title (which sounds suspiciously similar to the previous year's hit "Night of....") wasn't enough of a clue. Anita Ekberg's justifiably famous cleavage is on brief display, and in the last 3 minutes there is a short but sweet catfight between Diana Lorys and Adriana Ambesi. But those are the only parts of the film worth seeing. I suppose the castle itself is an atmospheric location, but the film lacks atmosphere. *1/2 out of 4.

BloodTheTelepathicDog Before director Amando De Ossorio made his classic blind dead films he helmed this interesting tale of vampirism. The movie centers around Anita Ekberg who has inherited wealth from her long lost mother. She has always despised her father for taking her away from her ancestral estate and raising her in Rome, but her old man had a reason: he had married into a family of witches, warlocks and vampires.Engaged to be married to a doctor (John Hamilton), Ekberg tells her betrothed that she is going to her home country to retrieve her inheritance and will be back in time for the wedding. Her plans change however as her nefarious uncle (Julian Ugarte) convinces her that her destiny rests in her family's castle. She sends a letter to her husband-to-be, breaking off their marriage, but he doesn't take the rejection lying down and heads off to bring Ekberg back to Rome. The good doctor is exposed to a superstitious people and tries to reason the odd occurrences through science with the help of his chum that he brings along for laughs.STORY: $$ (The story is typical. We have a young woman forced to adhere to her past, one that is steeped in black magic and vampirism. Her fiancé is a man of science who bad-mouths the old ways even when the legends of witchcraft and vampires are the only logical answer to the plague. This film injects too much "comedy" into the script with the doctor's squeamish sidekick who is only moderately funny at best).ACTING: $$$ (The acting is okay. Anita Ekberg does a fine job as the damsel in distress. It is quite clear that her performance is hindered greatly in dubbing. Julian Ugarte is effectively creepy as her uncle and John Hamilton does a good job as her fiancé. Diana Lorys of BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL and Rosanna Yanni of DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE have co-starring roles as managers of the local inn. Diana Lorys does an amazing job transforming herself from mild-mannered innkeeper to seductive vampiress while Rosanna shines as her concerned sister).NUDITY: None. However, there is more cleavage here than in an Hammer Horror film. Diana Lorys is an extremely sexy woman and Adriana Ambesi's lowcut dress can hardly contain her chest.

Vomitron_G You know… I really was looking forward to seeing this movie, by only having read the synopsis. It's about this woman, Sylvia, who inherits a family castle in Italy. The other thing I knew, was that it was a (horror) movie from 1969. I didn't even know it was directed by Amando de Ossorio, the director who also was responsible for the infamous BLIND DEAD "quadrilogy". If I had known this, I might have looked forward to it even more. But anyway, given the premise and the year this movie was made in, I was expecting an atmospheric Gothic Horror movie with at least a bit of gruesome or scary material in it. Well, I wasn't even halfway right. This is indeed a pathetic attempt at Gothic Horror, but the atmosphere isn't as effective as it should be and the story is uneventful and very predictable. I mean, yeah, there are a couple of scenes with red and blue lighting in some tombs underneath the castle that, when watched from a distance, vaguely look like something Mario Bava might have cooked up while he was drunk. But that's about it, as far as mood and atmosphere goes.I just don't get people that say "It's a Euro-Horror classic" and slap it with, for instance, 8/10. Yeah, it's an old horror movie. Yeah, it's from Europe. Does that make it automatically a decent genre-classic? If you want the answer to that, I'll just advice you to take Mario Bava's OPERAZIONE PAURA (aka KILL, BABY, KILL), and put it next to Ossorio's MALENKA and then tell me which one is the good movie and which the bad. Okay, yeah, I'm getting a bit carried away here, probably because I was disappointed after seeing this Ossorio snooze-fest. FANGS OF THE LIVING DEAD is not completely without merits. Let's see… The castle setting is (always) great, even if it just features people walking around in it. There's a couple of busty ladies showing cleavage. One even gets some whoopee from a whip, while chained in a dungeon. The rest of the movie has Sylvia's boyfriend discussing with the town's doctor whether or not vampires do exist. And yes, we do get to see more than a couple of fake white fangs, but no blood really. No scares, no action (and by "action" I don't mean stunts or fights, but just something eventful or a couple of good moments). The little background story about the great-grandma (when she was young and quite attractive) being a witch and experimenting with alchemy was about the most interesting thing about the whole plot. Someone on here even pointed out that this was a comedy of some sorts. Well sure, the version I've seen was a pretty bad movie, but I wouldn't exactly call it a comedy. Except for that final, idiotic running-over-the-bridge gag. Man, that was so misplaced… So, I guess most of the movie's humor was lost on me. Apparently, there are different versions of this movie out there. Mine was about real vampires, had a stupid joke at the end, and only ran 74 minutes. And that, for me, was long enough.I say FANGS OF THE LIVING DEAD is strictly for avid Euro Horror fans. Bad movie-lovers won't even have fun with it, because it's just not bad enough (although the acting was pretty much laughter-stirring all the time). I'm not even mad I wasted my time on it, as it was part of a 9-movie box-set (called THE LIVING DEAD), and some of the other movies were more than worth it. So I'm not complaining. Oh well, after all there was a witch burning at a stake and a wooden stick got driven through a vampire's heart, so if you please, you can think up an extra point just for that. But the gag at the end still remains dumb.