Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (1973)

Crypt of the Living Dead AKA Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (1973)The copy I have seen of this film was in black & white and honestly I could not imagine seeing this in color. As someone said the B&W really added a Gothic touch this film was missing. I found it enhanced the film.The editing is pretty sloppy at times but the story is kinda good. It's a very slow moving story that starts out more as a drama than horror really but the ending does turn into a horror show.Others have mentioned that Hannah moves slow - that she does. How is her moving slow any different than Dracula or even Michael Myers? She's a vampire that can transform into mist and wolf form - she doesn't have to travel fast on foot. Add more mystery to her moving slowly.It's not the world's greatest vampire film - but it's not all that bad either. I enjoyed it.6/10

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.

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.

"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.