TheVampiresCoffin

The Vampire’s Coffin (1958)

A foolish doctor engages in a bit of grave robbing in the name of science. Unfortunately for him he resurrects a very angry vampire in the process. A vampire that will stop at nothing to reunite with his “bride”, a beautiful young patient named Marta. Only another doctor, Saldívar, can save her from the vampire and his minions. Saldívar, who loves Marta, tries to protect her but when she is kidnapped and taken back to the wax museum that serves as the vampire’s lair will he be too late? Even if he is on time can he defeat the power of the vampire?

Mexican horror gets a bad rap sometimes with everyone thinking that it is nothing more than masked wrestlers vs. some monster. While that may be the case with many of the movies, some of which I think are pretty good, that isn’t all that Mexico has to offer the horror fan. Well known actor Abel Salazar starred in and produced some really good old school horror movies in the 50s that are just now getting their due. Movies like Brainiac, The Man and the Monster, The Vampire, and this movie which is it’s sequel are quite entertaining. While not the best of those mentioned The Vampire’s Coffin is an entertaining but typical by the numbers vampire story with a few interesting characters thrown in. It does help if you have seen the previous movie, as several of the characters just sort of show up, but it isn’t necessary. One of the best bits about this movie is that it knows that in many ways it is sort of silly and cheesy, so there are some attempts at humor as well as the normal horror elements. Normally I would say something about the cast here. But like most of the Mexican horror movies, The Vampire’s Coffin was bought up by an American Producer and dubbed in English, sometimes badly. So it is next to impossible to make any sort of judgments about the actor’s and their performances.

Technically The Vampire’s Coffin is a mixed bag. Initially I thought the dubbed dialogue was bad, but after a while I realized that it was part of the fun. Many of the voices just don’t seem to match the characters, but again after a while I found that amusing. There is one particular scene where lighting is used to great effect when the vampire is stalking one of his victims. They also manage some old school transitions between man and bat as the vampire changes his shape. But once he is a bat we go back to the goofy looking rubber prop on a wire. If this weren’t silly enough for you the exciting final fight between the vampire and Dr. Saldívar involves him going mano y bato with the rubber prop!

I guess in the end this isn’t a great movie. But there is some fun that can be had with it if you don’t take things too seriously. Just don’t expect too much.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer