This film essentially begins in France with a vampire by the name of "Count Sinistre" (Hubert Noel) rising from his grave and then using a magic talisman to claim a gypsy maiden named "Tania" (Carole Gray) to be his wife. The scene then shifts to that same place with a couple of young men named "Keith" (Geoffrey Kenion) and "Dave" (Rod McLennan) deciding to explore a nearby cave. Upon doing so, "Keith" accidentally stumbles into the area inhabited by the two vampires--and is immediately killed because of it. Hearing his screams, Dave rushes in to help but, having arrived too late, is left with nothing else to do but to bring his dead friend's body back to the surface. However, when he does that this immediately causes a great deal of commotion among the gypsies who have apparently surmised what has just happened. At the same time, fearing that something is amiss, Keith's sister "Anne Forest" (Rona Anderson) and her friend "Paul Baxter" (William Sylvester) hurry to see what is going on and when they get there one of the gypsies tell Anne that an evil has been let loose and that she has been marked for death. Sure enough, she dies not long afterward but--as it so happens--Paul finds a mysterious talisman in the same area where Anne was killed. His suspicions are further increased when her coffin disappears on its way to England. That being said, what he doesn't count on is both Count Sinistre and Tania following him there with the intent upon retrieving the talisman--at all costs. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie bore a strong resemblance to the Hammer films of that time but suffered to some degree because its rather low budget. Also not helping matters was the fact that Hubert Noel didn't quite seem to convey the same malevolent presence typically found in the vampires of Hammer films. It just wasn't there. However, for what it's worth, having two attractive ladies like Tracy Reed (as "Karen Steele") and Carole Gray certainly didn't hurt. Be that as it may, while this certainly wasn't an outstanding horror film by any means, it managed to pass the time well enough and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
Review of Devils of Darkness
