User Reviews

DVD title: Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires.

An archaeologist (Andrew Prine) visits Vampire Island to bury his father, who has died under mysterious circumstances. He ignores the warnings of a schoolteacher (Patty Shepard) and, prodded by an historical novelist (Mark Damon), he opens the tomb of the 13th-Century vampire Queen Hannah (Teresa Gimpera).

This routine but decent little import benefits from a colorful Mediterranean location, good photography and an engagingly casual performance by the slumming Prine. Despite a tedious midsection and poor dubbing of minor roles, the film has a mildly distinctive flavor, like a failed Euro-Trash Count Yorga, Vampire (1970).

Of the cast, Gimpera played the Crying Mother opposite Christopher Lee in Jesus Franco's El Conde Dracula/Count Dracula (1970), and Shepard (Spanish cinema's answer to horror star Barbara Steele) was Paul Naschy's co-star in the cult classic La Noche de Walpurgis/The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman/Werewolf's Shadow (1971). Damon (House of Usher, 1960) had faced vampires before in Il Plenilunio delle Vergine/The Devil's Wedding Night (1973) and in Mario Bava's I Tre Volti delle Paura/Black Sabbath (1963). (Today a Hollywood producer, Damon faces a different kind of vampire.)

Originally titled La Tumba de la Isla Maldita, the completed film (directed by Julio Salvador) was reworked for American release with new scenes shot by former actor Ray Danton, whose horror films as director include Deathmaster (1972) and Psychic Killer (1975).

It is more interesting to learn about such films than to dismiss them out of hand.

Crypt of the Living Dead was filmed in colour, but my copy—part of a dirt-cheap Mill Creek box-set of vampire movies—was presented in black and white (despite the packaging stating otherwise); amazingly, the lack of colour might actually work in the film's favour, lending a touch of much needed Gothic atmosphere to an otherwise rather tedious tale of vampirism in a remote island community.

The film sees archaeologist Chris Bolton (Andrew Prine) visiting the island to claim the body of his father, who was crushed to death under a stone sarcophagus while investigating an ancient burial site; when Chris attempts to lift the marble tomb, he accidentally releases 700-year-old vampire Hannah (Barbara Steele lookalike Teresa Gimpera) who begins to feed on the locals, aided in her task by a wild-man in a furry waistcoat and a member of the village who seeks immortality.

Slow moving and devoid of action for much of the time, the film will definitely prove hard going for many, but director Julio Salvador achieves just about enough effectively haunting moments to make it a worthwhile watch for vampire movie completists: the local fishermen's hostility towards Chris's arrival on the island immediately provokes an unsettling 'Wicker Man' vibe; Hannah's ability to turn into a cloud of mist or a wolf makes her all the more menacing; and the finalé manages to pick up the pace a tad (albeit a little late, perhaps) providing a few reasonable chills in the process.

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

Creepy as well as colorful terror movie with chills , thrills , scary events and being decently filmed . When Professor Bolton , an archaeologist doing research on Vampire Island , is murdered , his son Chris (Andrew Prine) comes to the island to bury his dad , something not easily done since the professor's body is pinned under several tons of tomb . There Chris is received by Peter (Mark Damon) a student doing research on the Crusades , and his sister Mary (Patty Sheppard) who is a teacher of the Island kiddies . As Chris , Peter and villagers dig come across a vampire burial ground and discover that a strange creature (Teresa Gimpera) are about to awaken and attack a nearby village with its inhabitants (Frank Braña , among others) . As the undead dies .. again .. again . .

This frightening movie deliberately told contains chills , suspense , colorful images and lots of blood , including obnoxious killings . Director Julio Salvador brings this ghastly and stylish story plagued with eerie intrigue , and depraved gore murders executed by a vampire who becomes a wolf . It is a straight horror film that features a supernatural intrigue , a Vampirism story plenty of mythology and historical events about Crusades . In fact , the tomb of the title belongs to Hannah, fiancé of King Louis VII , legend tells that , 700 years ago , Luis VII King of France goes out to conquest orient lands for Christendom but along the way happens a shipwrecked , they wash up at a weird island where his sweetheart Hannah became a vampire and that Louis sealed her alive in the tomb such that, should the tomb ever be opened before the return of Christ, Hannah would rise again . Evocative as well as colorful Cinematography by Juan Gelpí , being filmed on location in Turkey . Strange and atmospheric original musical score by Phillip Lambro .

This eerie picture was professional and stylistically directed by Julio Salvador though in the American version there are some new frames filmed by Ray Danton . Julio Salvador was a good professional who directed some nice films such as ¨Contraband in Spain¨ with Richard Greene and Anouk Aimee and in 1968 directed Ray Danton , co-filmmaker in this film , at the movie titled ¨Hello Glen Ward¨ . Julio Salvador made various pictures with his fetish actor Conrado San Martin such as ¨Sin Sonrisa De Dios¨, ¨Duda¨ , ¨Lo Que Nunca Muere¨ and his best film ¨Apartado Correos 1001¨. He also was writer , as he wrote "Love Brides of the Blood Mummy¨dealing with a Mummy rebirth and ¨The Mercenary¨ again with Ray Danton . Furthermore , he wrote this ¨Crypt of the Living Dead" also titled "Hannah, Queen of the Vampires" or "Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires . Rating : Acceptable and passable , 6,5/10 . An alright movie that will appeal to horror buffs .

Quite ridiculous yet somewhat engaging story about a young archaeologist, played with one dimension by Andrew Prine, coming to Vampire Island to see/investigate the death of his father. Somehow a huge crypt carrying the remains of a 700 year-old vampire woman has fallen on him and his son must convince the locals that vampires are absurd superstitions. Of course what might have been a mystery is destroyed in the opening sequence as we see who has killed the father, just leaving the not-too-hard-to-figure why out. The film doesn't have much of a budget but the bleak desolation of the island is convincing, the vampire queen is impressive(and beautiful), and some of the shots are very atmospheric. Prine is bland and Spanish horror queen Patty Shepard displays some histrionics. She looks subtle when compared to some of the so-called "quiet" locals who fear the return of the killing palindrome. Frank Brana, playing the crusty, old, sagacious blind sailor steals his scenes with no shame being not just a slice of ham but a whole butt roast! Listen to his dialog, it is so bad that it is so fun and easily for me at least the best part of this film. "She is smart...700 years smart" and other quotes about Hannah sticking her fangs into necks and the power of superstitions cascade from his lips in an almost monosyllabic manner which only accentuates his strange looks as he might be a cross between Bela Lugosi's Ygor in Son of Frankenstein and Carmen Ghia from The Producers(okay, I know it's an obscure reference). Nobody else in the film comes too close to being just plain eye-catching. Teresa Gimpera as Hannah comes close; however, for different reasons. She looks great after so long and can still turn into fog and a wolf with the best of them. Her death scene is something to behold unintentionally. While Crypt of the Living Dead is indeed a bad film, it is a very watchable one once things get going.

"Crypt of the Living Dead" is an extremely low-budgeted Spanish production that centers on the resurrection of a malicious vampire queen after being asleep on an island for nearly 7 whole centuries. Directors Julio Salvador and Ray Danton sure as hell did their best to make Hannah (quite a modern name for an ancient vampire) look like a 700-year-old! This supposedly "evil" lady walks around her territory even slower than my grandmother would walk down a flight of stairs, and she suffers from a severe hernia! On the other hand, Hannah sure has a prettier face than my grandma and I wouldn't mind her sinking her teeth into my neck... Hannah's resurrection is the fault of a young archaeologist who opened the tomb after his own father (accidentally?) got crushed in the tomb. Initially she's still too weak to kill by herself and so she sends out her pet werewolf to do the nasty and bring back the blood of superstitious villagers. Once she has a little more strength, she endangers the island-population herself, and the sexy school teacher in particular. Hannah's walking pace sort of illustrates the entire film: slow, boring and truly annoying. "Crypt of the Living Dead" isn't at all scary or atmospheric, and this despite all the potentially great decors and locations. The events take place on an island, yet you never experience that inescapable feeling. There's no sleaze or gore (or what did you think?), the acting performances are weak and the ending is lame. Most definitely one to skip.

"The Crypt of the Living Dead" is an odd, but run of the mill horror movie that will hold your interest but not leave anything memorable in it's wake. The acting is OK but the dialogue is pretty bad. There is an interesting assortment of strange characters but they are not shown in depth. A lot of the script just isn't realistic. What the characters do, how the act and react to circumstances just don't have the right feel to it. They had a chance of having some mystery in this film but two of the villains are revealed right at the start of the movie. The third, the vampire herself, is a given. For those looking for the horror aspect, there are some scary scenes and the locations have a Gothic feel. This movie was shot in Turkey and whatever spot they found, I have to give them credit. They found a good location. When all is said and done though, it's an OK movie but nothing special.

"An archaeologist visits a remote island to bury his late father and, despite the warnings from the local people, opens the tomb of the vampire queen, buried over 700 years ago. This foolish act by the archaeologist and his reporter friend places the entire island in danger, including the local schoolteacher… With the schoolteacher in danger of being a sacrifice to the vampire queen, the duo sets out to stop the vampires, rescue the teacher, and destroy the vampire queen," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Just so you know, the "schoolteacher" Patty Sheppard (Mary) is bad guy Mark Damon (Peter)'s sister. Andrew Prine (Chris) is the good guy. The film is atmospheric, and features an able cast - but, it takes an interminably long time for anything to happen. When it picks up, it isn't much. And, suddenly, after getting very long in the tooth, it flames out... How can a 1970s vampire film be so anemic?

*** Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (6/73) Ray Danton, Julio Salvador ~ Andrew Prine, Mark Damon, Patty Sheppard

Crypt of the living Dead seemed like a pretty decent vampire film to me. As I was reading the other commentaries which were fairly negative, I suddenly realized that my version of this film (which came from a Mill Creek entertainment box set-Chilling Classics) is in black and white whereas the film was actually made in color (at least according to IMDb). I have often thought that certain types of films (gothic horror, film noirs etc) are better in BW anyway. Settings can seem more ephemeral and eerie. Gore and blood looks more other-worldly. I do realize that watching a color film in BW is suboptimal in the sense that you are not viewing all aspects that the director intended (similar to watching colorized films, I suppose).

Nevertheless, I would suggest to viewers of this film that they at least try viewing it the way I have. It was a rather interesting experience. Perhaps Mill Creek also thought this film was better viewed this way.

Know it all Andrew Prine (whatever happened to him?) shows up on an island to deal with the body of his father. While there he stumbles into those superstitious movie people who, of course, know a lot more than he does. You need to ask yourself why they stay or don't seek help. But he, being the rational, twentieth century man, takes no stock in their beliefs. Of course, eventually he is pulled into the mystery and must act. He falls in love with a young schoolteacher who is in the middle of everything. There is a centuries' old vampiress who is haunting the island. The natives have tried to get rid of her but to no avail. It's very predictable and mostly dull, but there are a few scary moments and some great fangs. There is a tag added at the conclusion which everyone can see coming. Oh well. It's pretty common fair and not worth the time of most people.

Atmospheric, eerie little Spanish thriller starring Andrew Prine as a man who travels to a remote island off Turkey after his archaeologist father dies in an apparent accident after discovering an ancient tomb. Writer (Damon) and his sister (Shepard) who have also recently inhabited the island try to facilitate Prine's attempts to raise the heavy sarcophagus that covers his father's remains to affect a proper burial. But the locals are reluctant to assist, fearing that the crypt's occupant - Hannah (Gimpera) - will be resurrected to raise hell on the island.

Surprisingly effective, though it appears to be un-liked judging from other reviews, I found the English translation conversion by Ray Danton to be a genuinely scary and compelling tale beautifully shot in black & white, with a talented cast. Prine has the right pitch as the polite outsider who can't be convinced that his actions will awaken a dormant vampire, his attentions straying to the plight of Shepard, concerned for the welfare of her brother. Both the exotic Shepard and durable Damon are assured in their roles, enhancing the production and its overall quality. For her part, Gimpera as Hannah is a beguiling beauty, even if only appearing prominently toward the end of the picture and without any intelligible dialogue. Film buffs should also applaud Danton's assembly of B-movie talent - Edward Walsh and John Alderman in minor roles (Walsh has a great scene after an encounter with Hannah), while prolific Spanish actor Frank Brana has a key supporting role as the blind foreteller of doom.

The lighting and sound is exceptionally refined and the film overall is stylish; the beach and cliff-top scenery bathed in black & white is visually stunning, though admittedly some of the night scenes are obscure in the darkness. I read that Danton shot additional English-language footage which was conjoined with Julio Salvador's Spanish version; with no visible seams, it's a rare example of where footage grafts actually enhance the overall result. Builds the suspense gradually (potentially irksome for viewers with a need for constant gratification), the rousing finale is a tense encounter that elevates the pulse, while a curtain-dropping post script is a satisfying epitaph. Worth the effort.

There are not two archaeologists. They do not discover a burial ground of vampires. They do not believe vampires are about to break free and wreck havoc. The story is the death of an archaeologist brings the man's son to an island to free his body trapped under a crypt so he can bury it but in order to free the body, they have to open the crypt containing the body of Hannah, Queen of the Vampires.

Pretty terrible film about a vampire woman terrorizing a community. About the only saving merits are the always understated Prine and an interesting conclusion.

Andrew Prine's father is crushed by the marble tomb of a 700 year old vampire, and Prine goes to retrieve the body which is still under the 3 ton tomb. this is just a set up so he will open the tomb and release the beautiful female vampire. It is a very low budget movie filmed in Turkey of all places,is pretty slow, and some of the minor actors can't act. The film does have a good low key performance by Andrew Prine (I don't think he every turned in a bad performance), some good sets, some creepy atmosphere and s somewhat better ending that i expected. I would like to see the original version to see if it is better than our reworked and greatly shortened version. You can tell the original footage from the newer footage.

What's better than watching this? Watching Paint Dry Watching The Creeping Terror Watching a political debate I've watched a lot of bad movies in my life. In fact, if I could get the time back I've wasted on trash like this - I'd probably get another ten years. This (Also called Hannah Queen of the Vampires) is one of the dullest, most boring, poorly acted and written movies I've ever seen. Made in 1973, I'm actually surprised it's in black and white. This movie has ZERO going for it. NADA, ZIP, ZILCH. Not only is it boring, but the main villain - Hannah - is so slow, it makes me amazed that she was able to catch anyone! This make Billy the Kid vs Dracula look like an "A" film. I used to say an Academy Award winner, but since politics and morons have taken over the voting, I don't use them as a measuring stick any more. Do yourself a favor and avoid this at all costs.

You know when everyone hates something that you like, is that what you'd call a guilty pleasure? That's what this film is for me. The fact that most people think it's crap might be an indication that my opinion is not to be trusted.

The film takes place on the tranquil sounding Vampire Island, where Mark Damon and a crazy mountain man are worshipping someone called Hannah. A serious looking fellow with a gun and a lamp heads down into an underground crypt and is murdered by Damon, placed under a huge tomb, then trapped under it for the stupidest reason ever.

That reason is so that the dead guy's son, Andrew Prine, will be lured from the US to wherever vampire island is on the Mediterranean, because he is an architect or an engineer or something and the only one with the know how to move the four ton tomb that contains Vampire Queen, Hannah! Of course, this crazy plan also needs to be optimistic enough to have to foresight to know Prine would have to remove the lid of the tomb to free Hannah, but let's not think about it too much.

The locals hate Prine on sight but Damon, who is pretending to be just a normal guy and not a crazy vampire worshipping loony, tells him that the locals hate everybody and are a bit riled up because Prine's going to start messing with that tomb. Damon's sister Patty Shepherd is the local teacher so obviously that's the romance part sorted out (complete with incestuous sibling jealousy!). Best of all is Frank Bana's blind sailor, who is dubbed by a guy from the Bronx doing an impression of a guy from the Med.

Of course they get the lid off the bloody thing and Hannah's looking like she's just stepped out of a hair salon. First chance she's gets she turning into a wolf and chowing down on Frank Bana's guide dog (he shouts 'Bonny' over and over and over again, which is quite funny). "Put. Away. Dem…college books," Frank says, even though no one has any college books. "Hannah is smart…700 years smart." He advises they get some dogbane and garlic because "she won't get by dem, neither." That holds her at bay, but then there's still Mark Damon, the mountain man, and several bitten islanders to contend with…

No one is going to run down the street screaming about how great this film is, and even though it is bad in a way, I still like it. Mark Damon's hilarious over the top performance as the seemingly normal brother who is really an insane recovering drug addict is great, especially his speech about drugs: "I've taken uppers, downers, inners and outers. I've shot everything but aspirin and I blew my house down!" Andrew Prine's terrible clothes should have people choking on their seventies nostalgia, and then there's the weird patchiness of the film, which took two different directors to make, in two different aspect ratios.

It looks like the film was incomplete and someone (probably Ray Danton) was brought in to fill up the gaps, which is mainly the sub plot regarding the islanders being turned into vampires. At one point, to tie the footage together, they have someone impersonate Frank Bana – surely a first, and last, in Euro-horror?

Andrew Prine is typically solid in another of his starring roles in 1970s genre films. Here, he plays Chris Bolton, an archaeologist who comes to a Mediterranean island to investigate the death of his father (Mariano Garcia Rey). He finds out that his fathers' decapitated body lies underneath a coffin, so he's determined to raise the coffin to retrieve Dads' body and give him a proper burial. Unfortunately, by doing so, he puts into motion the means of resurrecting vampire queen Hannah (Teresa Gimpera), who has been perfectly preserved for over 700 years. Mark Damon plays Peter, an expatriate writer and friend of Chris', and the striking Patty Shepard, who resembles Euro-cult goddess Barbara Steele, plays his sister Mary, with whom Chris falls in love.

"Crypt of the Living Dead" is another example of the "cut and paste" formula used in genre fare of the 1960s by such filmmakers as Jerry Warren. Here, footage from a Spanish horror flick (directed by Julio Salvador) is mixed with newly shot footage directed by former actor Ray Danton. (Dantons' other genre credits during this decade include "Deathmaster" and "Psychic Killer".) It all comes together rather well, in an admittedly routine story but a very atmospheric presentation. Actually shot in Turkey, this little film has a great feel to it, from the production design to the location usage to the creepy music score by Phillip Lambro. There is some gore, but not an overwhelming amount of it, and a fair bit of sex appeal (both Gimpera and Shepard are very attractive). The acting is definitely a notch above what one might typically see in such films: Prine does a good job as a classic type of character who starts out as a born skeptic and must turn into a believer. Damon is likewise engaging, Shepard is appealing, and Gimpera manages to leave a decent impression. This is partly due to the fact that her screen time is limited, and her lack of dialogue makes her more enigmatic as a character. Genre buffs will note the presence of Edward Walsh (Brudah in the "Count Yorga" pictures) and Frank Brana (who can be seen in such classics as "Pieces" and "Slugs") in supporting roles.

"Crypt of the Living Dead" (known also as "Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires") can be awfully heavy on exposition at first, but it does offer rewards for patient viewers.

Seven out of 10.

The son of a recently deceased archaeologist travels to the remote island on which his father died in the hope of finding out how he met his end. Not as trashy as its title - Crypt of the Living Dead - suggests, but also not particularly interesting or scary. A film made in the Seventies which features villagers bearing torches that isn't a parody clearly isn't interested in exploring new ground. Co-directed by American actor Ray Danton.

This was a Spanish film, shot in Hungary, and it's such a blotchy mess you have to wonder if the original version featured the American actors at all. It's not the film has anything too annoying or lame, it's just bland. The good part of watching this movie is that you can start in as part of your own private Friday night horror fest, get up and make a sandwich and be sure you won't miss anything.

Andrew Prine is a really good guy I saw speak at the New Beverly in Los Angeles a couple of years back. I guess I can ask him next time what the deal was with this movie. Edward Walsh was in two excellent Hollywood Films ( "Hard Times" and "California Split" ) around the same time but you have to wonder if they would have flown him to Hungary for his role. Some of this was probably shot stateside.

Don't go out of your way, but like most people, if you get it in a cheap horror set with 200 other movies, go ahead and watch it.

Despite what we may sometimes wish, not every horror flick is made equal, not even those from the 70s or 80s. In the first several minutes here we're treated to extensive imagery of a burial ground (supposedly providing instant atmosphere), acts of violence, unfriendly locals (how novel), and one local playing a tune on an accordion which is actually very tasteful for a genre film but isn't necessarily used in an ideal way. As we approach the one-quarter mark we're given all the exposition we need to make sense of the proceedings, and while the picture asks us to take a lot on faith ("Vampire Island"), it's nice to have a greater sense of direction. Of course, it's hardly as if that one scene is the answer to what has so far proven to be scattered storytelling, and even as we pass the half-hour mark the most noteworthy element has been Patty Shepard's piercing gaze. Suffice to say that the writing here isn't the strongest, nor the sequencing, and the accordion enthusiast seems to only know a single song.

There were choices made here, and they were not all good ones. The filmmakers are at least making an earnest effort, however, and I see what is done well. The root story is solid, even if the characters, dialogue, and scenes are far less sure-footed or convincing. The filming locations and art direction are fantastic; while the stunts and effects fall on the more modest side of the spectrum, they're appreciable all the same. I cast no aspersions on the actors appearing here, and Phillip Lambro's music in and of itself is splendid. It just seems to me that all the constituent parts don't really fit together as they should. The storytelling tends to fall apart in the details, relying on atmosphere more than discrete events; the direction is weak and has a hard time conjuring that atmosphere with a lack of discrete events. The music isn't always used in ways that are meaningful; the sequencing chops up the whole in a manner that consistently robs the tale of much of its power. The cast do the best they can under these conditions.

I definitely don't think 'Crypt of the living dead' is altogether bad, and in fairness, the course of events picks up more in the last 20-25 minutes; in terms of the writing, direction, and all else, it seems evident that more care was poured into the production in the last stretch. There were terrific ideas here, and it's just that in various ways the specific construction is sapped of far, far too much of its possible strength. The resulting feature is only a portion of what it could and maybe should have been; through to the very end the weaknesses remain foremost. I don't especially blame any one person involved; I think this was just an unfortunate concatenation of circumstances where nothing came out entirely right. I'm glad for those who get more out of this 1973 movie than I do, but I think it's something best reserved for a quiet, lazy day, something fairly light that doesn't require (or inspire) active engagement.