Hey Everybody! Jacki here and I will be kicking off our month long Amazon movie reviews! Tonight we start with...
Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (*aka Crypt of the Living Dead)
This 1973 film stars Andrew Pine as Chris, a man who goes to a foreign county after the death of his father to give him a proper burial. Once there, he is shunned by the locals but befriended by an American brother and sister who live and work on the island. When Chris views his father's body, it is still half crushed under a tomb. We learn that the tomb belongs to a woman named Hannah. Legend states she was buried there by King Louis VII 700 years ago and she is entombed as the living dead that will feast upon the men and women of the island if released! Chris insist that the heavy tomb is moved so his father's body can be removed and buried and in doing so, he opens Hannah's tomb. Way to go, Chris. Now a very hungry, 700 year old vampire is set loose on the island. You let her out, now you have to defeat her.
......
So this movie was not terrible. Based on some of the other movies I've had to watch, at no point did I want to turn this off. Yes, it was kind of cheesy with the obvious love interest between Chris and the school teacher and the special effects were not fantastic (if you were set on fire, more than just your face would be burnt, ya know), but it was also 1973. That being said, my love for practical special effects make up will always hold my interest in these older movies. The plot was generic but it was not the worst vampire movie I've ever seen. With an overly dramatic death scene at the end, that in my opinion was robbed of an Oscar, I give this movie 3 "crazy occult priest" out of 5.
*This film is titled 'Hannah, Queen of the Vampires' on Amazon Instant Video. It is titled 'Crypt of the Living Dead' on IMDB. It has also been released as 'Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires'.