A group of domestic servants has been hired by an agency to be employed at a large estate in a remote mountainous region. Their long and arduous bus journey is interrupted by an unforeseen event, and so they feel they cannot make it to their destination that day deciding instead to seek rest and shelter at a seemingly deserted village. A fatal decision…

This film is commonly known as *The Vampires Night Orgy* (without any apostrophe, apparently), or any other combination of “night”, “orgy”, and “vampire”. It is one among the endless supply of cheap European horror films of the ‘60s and ‘70s. You know, one of those co-productions that hire a D-list American actor and combine that hire with an “affordable” complementary cast in order to make money by selling the film to as many countries as possible, satiating the public’s hunger for mediocre horror flicks.

The American lead in this case is Jack Taylor, a US actor who churned out dozens of horror films in both Mexico and Europe. His female counterparts are Dyanik Zurakowska and Helga Liné, who – like Taylor – were no strangers to cheap horror productions. There is not much to be said about the acting by the rest of the cast as the actors are not given much to work with. But most of them have very unique, expressive faces, and that is of some value in this film. Not only do they look like “real” people instead of Hollywood people; but it also gives the characters to a certain degree the appearance of having “life and soul”, which is rather useful as the writers for their part did not bother to establish the characters very well.

There is also a little boy of 8 or 9 years in this film, and he looks appropriately creepy.

This Spanish-Italian co-production was written by Antonio Fos and Gabriel Burgos, and directed by León Klimovsky. It has a decent premise and very easily sets up the idea of people being stranded in an isolated place – a trope that is still used to this day in horror, especially slashers. The plot is neither here nor there – it is merely a natural extension of the premise. While the story has elements of cannibalism, the supernatural nature of the village is undeniable. You might debate whether the villains are vampires or ghouls, but their leader is definitely a vampire.

The locations in this film look very fitting for a horror film. Many but not all of the exterior scenes seem to have been shot near Madrid. Spain – like Italy – has a fair amount of deserted mountain villages that offer excellent background for such purposes.

The spooky atmosphere is augmented by day-for-night shots. But most of all it is the slow but relentless advancing ghouls that create the eery atmosphere of this film. With a limited but effective use of make-up, these actors and extras are given a demented and soulless look, and the many close-ups of their faces are essential for the building of the atmosphere.

Premise and locality are very reminiscent of the final segment of The Monster Club. But the latter is unmistakably filmed at a studio, and the location of La orgía nocturna de los vampiros looks far more natural. The same distinction could be made regarding the make-up and costumes. But both approaches work. The Monster Club clearly and deliberately went for a campy approach, while Klimovsky made his film look as close to the real world as possible.

But, as I said, the plot in this film is neither here nor there; and atmosphere is not enough to make a good film. The score music is a bit hit and miss. In many scenes it is pretty effective; in other scenes, some bizarre musical choices turn out to be distracting more than anything else. The very few fight scenes featuring the lead vampire are honestly rather pathetic; and the fact that the film mostly features slow-moving ghouls probably saves it from more embarrassment of this kind.

The writers could have shown a bot more TLC for their characters as well. Most of them seem to have been created by throwing just one or two characteristics on a piece of paper. These are not characters an audience cares about. The same goes for the villains, especially the lead vampire who seems an ill fit for this village.

Finally, the film is a bit of a hotch-potch of genre tropes. Vampires, ghouls, cannibalism – the way this story combines them does not always offer an internal logic.

La orgía nocturna de los vampiros has the same slow pace as Der Fluch der Grünen Augen. The latter seems the more lavish film, with more interesting characters and imagery, and with better acting. But the former has its advantages as well. It is very effective in its “ghoulishness”; and precisely because these productions tend to have a small scope and slow pace, the low-level eeriness and slow-moving ghouls fits the nature and the limited possibilities of these productions better than any more ambitious attempts.

I enjoyed this film less than the Der Fluch der Grünen Augen. But, for the reasons just listed, I would not necessarily say that it is a worse film. Given that this is a 1973 film, there is no doubt that you can argue that there were much better horror films made around this time. But if you don’t mind a slow pace, and if you enjoy eery locations and atmosphere, then you might get at least some enjoyment out of this (rather short) film.

Rating 3.5 to 4.0 out of 10