Slaughter of the Vampires (1962) (Italy)

aka Curse of the Blood Ghouls 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

A terrific pre-credits scene finds a vampire and his undead mate fleeing on foot from some pissed off townsfolk looking to avenge the death of some young women. The vampiress stumbles and is slain as the cowardly vampire leaves her behind. We then pick up things with a frantic carriage ride as the vampire shouts about making it to the castle before daybreak to his driver. I’m not sure how much time has passed but they arrive the castle, remove a coffin and the vampire is relieved to have made it in time. Within the castle, a newlywed couple (the stunning Louise (gorgeous Graziella Granata) and her nobleman husband Wolfgang) have cleaned things up and are hosting a party. The bloodsucker (who I think made his home in the wine cellar after the events of the opening and has been there for some time) wakes up and joins the party, taking an immediate shine to Louise (can’t blame him there). Louise feels strange upon seeing his Carnival-of-Souls-lookin’ ass and joins him for a dance. He puts the seduction gaze on her and gets to feeding. Louise’s health fails but she claims to be fine, her husband knows something is wrong and his doctor friend is stumped by her condition. Of course, it’s hard to get better when the parasitic vampire is paying you nightly visits. The caped creeper continues with his shenanigans and the man of science who calls Wolfgang his friend admits that he’s useless. He sends him to Vienna to find a man who may be better-suited to step in and save his wife’s life from whatever supernatural awfulness is plaguing her. He convinces the doctor to join him to help his wife but finds out she passed away in his absence. The body vanishes, the doctor assures Wolfgang they must find her and destroy her and the vampire starts prowling for more brides. It’s a lot like every vampire flick you’ve seen before the 80s shook things up but there is plenty of eye candy and some fine abuse of the theremin to add to the recommendation if you got a craving for some old school blood-sucking thrills.