xnet95 I read all the reviews because I wanted to find out WHY Nai Bonet wanted to make this film. I didn't get an answer, so I'll speculate. I think poor Nai must've been going through some mid-life crisis. This was shot in 1978, and she looked to be around 25 years old in the 1965 episode of the Beverly Hillbillies "The Sheik", so that makes her a late 30's MILF. Don't get me wrong, she's a great looking MILF, but she's still a MILF! I think she saw her beauty and youth fading away, lost her marbles, and made this thing. It's too bad she didn't make it in 1965 - she was gorgeous! Also, how the hell did she manage to raise the $350,000 to make this film (wink,wink...nod,nod... say no more)?Anyway, this film is pretty bad and boring. Nai Bonet's acting is so stiff and wooden she makes a Sequoia look like a lump of play-dough. I was a teen when disco was popular and have NO desire to deal with that crap again. If you like Lynyrd Skynyrd, you will hate this movie. Thank God for the remote! The old fart that plays the werewolf is horrendous and really annoying. Who is he, Nai Bonet's biggest contributor? What are the things that make this watchable? Nai Bonet's nude bathroom scene definitely tops the list. She's a dancer and her body shows it. John Carradine's performance was delightful, especially the earlier scenes when we first see him. He definitely gives us the impression that he is a loving Grandfather that appreciates the way Nocturna cares for him. Yvonne DeCarlo was pretty good, but I wish she would've hammed it up a bit more, like she had done on the Munsters. Her performance was a bit too subdued for me.

Dean Harris "She'll get under your skin!" promised the ads. What the ads don't say is that you'll want to go straight to the pharmacy for something to get her off your skin after seeing this cinematic wonder."Nocturna" is awful, no doubt about it, but boy howdy, is it fun! The wooden Nai Benet, whose disco dancing is only slightly worse than her acting, stars as thegranddaughter of Dracula, a gal who has no interest in the local werewolf (no, seriously) and falls for a hot gay man from a local disco band (played by the late Antony Hamilton). She runs away from Transylvania to Manhattan with him but chooses to stay with friend of the family, Lily Munster -- I mean Yvonne de Carlo -- because the guy doesn't know she's a vampire. Oh yeah, Lily lives under the Brooklyn Bridge, on the Manhattan side, and leaves her front door unlocked.Next come several bad jokes and sight gags involving the Manhattan vampire gang.The young chemistry-free lovers then go to a disco where Nocturna twirls and twirls. and twirls. and twirls, because apparently that's all she knows how to do. After flinging off her shawl to reveal her stripper outfit, Nocturna does a bizarre chicken dance while the crowd watches lovingly. Full of bad writing, bad acting, bad dancing, terrific 1979 New York City street shots, a wocka-wocka disco/porn soundtrack, special effects that make "Land of the Lost" look like hard-core art, one completely gratuitous nude bathing sequence, and the least erotic sex scene I believe I've ever seen, I can't recommend this film highly enough -- that is, if you can find it.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Amazingly, Media Entertainment DID release NOCTURNA to home video one time in 1982 as a rental-only item: at the time the tape would have set a store back about $145 ... I found one for about fifty, but I collect these things like old men collect stamps & am a nut. There are some underground outlets that will have recordings of it for about $15 - $20, though do not expect surround sound quality audio, and yes there are probably people who would want this movie just for the musical angle: other than the soundtrack from the film some of these songs may be utterly unavailable, and one or two are performed live on camera.And I delightfully agree with all of the other commentors: this is a film that could easily be re-discovered & made into an instant Midnight Movies circuit hit. The soundtrack is a disco lovers dream come true, with some interesting jams you won't find on those Rhino Records CD sets with Disco Hits of the 70's; this stuff was pretty much made for the film, and as such is the reason why the film went out of print almost immediately: Royalty issues. There are acts from like three different record lables on the soundtrack and that leads to legality issues when re-releases are sought -- the copyrights for the songs may be unattainable for licensing, a problem with a number of favorites [LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH & TERROR TRAIN being the most well known examples] that are long overdue for re-examination by the culture which spawned them.Tis a shame: this is one of the few really watchable fangers from this period of time. VAMPIRE HOOKERS is what those schooled in the genre usually think of when you mention late 70's, and while his rheumatism may have gotten worse, the great John Carradine nicely makes up for his role in that debacle with his few scenes. Nai Bonei is of course a marvel to behold, and yes, her bathtub & subsequent scented oiling is reason in itself to seek this one out, though I am drawn to the color & lighting schemes, which have a very "NYC" look to them. Nai also smokes a joint, by the way, and it is odd how the way drug use in movies have changed since 1979: she is actually allowed to enjoy it. Imagne that!I dunno about the disco dancing segments though: I would have been all of 12 in 1979 and never "got" disco. Unlike the clubbing we know these days, disco was a whole subculture, more like the modern country movement, with specific choreography for specific dances or moves that of course look silly, but are presented with such a tunneled vision that the film becomes about 1979, not just made in 1979, and one of the things that I like to look for in Vampiralia is seeing the conventions & trappnigs of the genre re-defined, and if it took disco dancing vampires to do it for 1979 well whatever.NOCTURNA may be silly, but is FAR more watchable than that wretched DRACULA with Frank Langella, made the same year, or the excereble VAMPIRE HOOKERS with it's flatulence jokes, gay jokes, Filipino jokes and John Carradine in a white Ugly American silk suit. I'll take the bell bottomed vampires over that junk anyday. Hell some of them a brothers too, and soul food vampires sounds like a pretty cool idea, as long as we're remaking STARSKY & HUTCH and all. I wish more time had been spent on Nocturna's vampirism and less on her quest to find a really good party to dance at, but girls will be girls, and while narcissitic to say the least, Nai Bonei does appear to know how to have a good time, and I always liked girls who liked to party. Especially when they willingly strip down to their bikini's for an attention grabber.Expect whatever recording you find of NOCTURNA to have some wear just before & after Nai's bath scene; it really is somethin' else, and I've sat through a lot of this stuff. For something to evoke that kind of a reaction from a mind as rotted by filth as mine is remarkable. Worth every penny of my $50 bucks.*** out of a possible ****

G-Man-25 It's a shame this movie never made it to video. Hell, you never even see it on cable! I remember seeing it at a drive-in in the summer of '79 and thinking it was great cheesy fun. If they released it on video today, it would be seen as a lost campy relic of the disco/drive-in age. It's hampered somewhat by an extremely low budget (check out those groovy cartoon transformation effects) and a few dry stretches here and there, but there's plenty of gratuitous nudity and sex (Nai Bonet may not be a great actress but she is NOT shy about showing off her terrific body!) and the script is occasionally inspired, with some great one-liners. John Carradine as an aging Dracula is a particular hoot! Worthy of cult status.