It's sad to say, whenever people ask me for a good vampire movie, one I do recommend is The Fearless Vampire Killers, they always look at me and ask "What's that?". But the 3 people I've shown it too loved it and I think that has got to say something about this great vampire classic. Writer, director and co-star Roman Polanski made the first real vampire spoof and what a great movie! If you think about today's spoofs, everything is always a reference to something that's in pop culture. This movie is just pure comedy, taking what was so typical at the time of the weary travelers who happen upon a creepy castle with the even creepier host, yet act completely oblivious when strange things happen. Instead, how about we have two vampire slayers, one who is calm and experienced vs. the inexperienced and nervous? While we're at it, why not add a ball into the mix? Dancing vampires, it just doesn't get any better than this.

In the heart of Transylvania Professor Abronsius and his apprentice Alfred are on the hunt for vampires. Abronsius is old and withering and barely able to survive the cold ride through the wintry forests, while Alfred is bumbling and introverted. The two hunters come to a small Eastern European town seemingly at the end of a long search for signs of vampires. The two stay at a local inn, full of angst-ridden townspeople who perform strange rituals to fend off an unseen evil. Whilst staying at the inn, Alfred develops a fondness for Sarah, the daughter of the tavern keeper Yoine Shagal. After witnessing Sarah being kidnapped by the local vampire lord, Count von Krolock, the two follow his snow trail, leading them to Krolock's ominous castle in the snow-blanketed hills nearby. They break into the castle, but are trapped by the Count's hunchback servant, Koukol. Despite misgivings, Abronsius and Alfred accept the Count's invitation to stay in his ramshackle Gothic castle, where Alfred spends the night fitfully. After finding Sarah the next day, they come up with a plan to destroy the count and save Sarah, but with a midnight ball in the mix of vampires, the plans might be a bit harder than they realized.

I think one of the funniest scenes in film history is when Roman Polanski is being chased by Count Krolock's feminine vampire son, Herbert. The seduction scene before that was too funny, but let's add Roman running around in a circle oblivious that he did just go around in a circle and runs right back into Herbert! The comedic timing was just gold! Sharon Tate is also in this film and she is just beautiful, you could see how Roman would fall in love with her on and off screen so easily. It's really sad that we lost her so young and so tragically, you see the talent that could have been. I also love Jack MacGowran, he's calm exterior to Roman's scaredy cat routine was the perfect balance the film needed. I nearly die laughing each time I see the scene where they are in the Count's bedroom about to stake him, but Jack gets stuck in the window and Roman chickens out on killing the count. He has to go around the castle to pull Jack out but gets distracted by Sharon Tate and when he finally realizes that he left Jack in the same room with blood sucking vampires, he just reeks with the "Oops!" face. The ballroom scene is so memorable, again, the comedic timing is great. Another thing about this film is that it also has some great scares in it too, some great make up effects with the Count. I highly recommend this film; I've been watching it since I was a little girl, I still love watching it all these years later and can't wait to show it to others as well.

10/10

Uh-oh, truth in advertising - bait and switch - let the viewer beware! There are no dead vampires in this flick, and our fearless vampire killers are rather incompetent. Maybe that was the point, the film is supposed to be a horror comedy, but you really have to force yourself to come to that conclusion. At least for me, the story was sooooo long, with interminable scenes stretching the distance from one point to another the way horse chase scenes did in 'B' Westerns from the Thirties and Forties.

Not that it was a total waste of time, I rather enjoyed the expertly choreographed minuet of the vampires, and Sharon Tate herself was lovely. In his introduction to the film on Turner Classics, host Robert Osborne stated that director Polanski had Jill St. John in mind for the role of Sarah, but when she wasn't available, was intrigued by the way Tate looked in the red wig. Good for him, he got a wife out of the deal, but tragically, she became a victim of the Manson gang just a couple of years later.

Ferdy Mayne, cool name, had a great look as Count von Krolock; with his extensive list of film credits I'm surprised I haven't seen him before. Or maybe I have and just don't realize it. Seems to me he could have been right up there with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing with the right career breaks.

Upon initial release, MGM chopped nineteen minutes out of the movie at which point Polanski demanded he be removed from the credits list. MGM refused, but fortunately for cable viewers, TCM aired it the other night in it's original version. For my part, I couldn't tell if that was good or bad.

This is a milestone film for Roman Polanski: one, it is his first film in color (and to the best of my knowledge he never went back). And two, he met actress Sharon Tate during the making of this film... they would soon be married and she would become pregnant.

The film, overall, was somewhat lacking for me. There is a minimum level of horror here, despite being a movie full of vampires. And the comedy is subtle, probably too subtle. If anything, maybe this film inspired Mel Brooks to make "Young Frankenstein", but I sincerely doubt that.

Polanski works well with psychological thrillers and horrors, but I think he misses the mark with his comedies. This one, along with "Cul-de-Sac", has not quite enough humor to really make it a "classic". Had anyone but Polanski (or some other "name") made it, I suspect it would have been long forgotten.