204) Vampire in Venice (1988)

Son of Halloween 2024's spectacular and not random vampire movie review extravaganza! (Part Eight)

"Nosferatu is a supreme lord of evil, second only to the devil himself."

Directors
Augusto Caminito
Klaus Kinski

Cast

Klaus Kinski - Nosferatu
Christopher Plummer - Prof. Paris Catalano
Donald Pleasence - Don Alvise
Barbara De Rossi - Helietta Canins
Yorgo Voyagis - Dr. Barneval
Anne Knecht - Maria Canins
Elvire Audray - Uta Barneval
Clara Colosimo - Medium
Maria Cumani Quasimodo - Princess

Decade by decade, the vampire movies become more and more abundant. It's hard to pick just one. 

When it comes to the 1980s, there's a respectable handful of popular vampire movies, "Fright Night," "The Lost Boys," "Near Dark," "Vamp," to drop a few titles. 

For this slot, I wanted to pick something not too common but stands in some way or another. 

I went vampire movie by vampire movie on a few different streaming apps, including one app called "Cinema Box" which has a fantastic list of classic and hard to come by films for free. 

I found the 1988 Italian horror movie "Vampire in Venice" on the Tubi streaming app. 

Also known as "Prince of the Night" and "Nosferatu in Venice" the film definitely has some notable details about it. 

For instance, it stars Acadamy Award-winning actor Christopher Plummer.

In this movie, Plummer plays an Abraham Van Helsing-like character named Prof. Paris Catalano. Incidentally, in the movie "Dracula 2000," Plummer plays Abraham Van Helsing, which is worth mentioning. 

Also, in this movie Klaus Kinski plays a vampire called "Nosferatu." As I previously mentioned elsewhere on this blog, Klaus Kinski plays Nosferatu in the 1979 movie "Nosferatu the Vampyre" - a remake of F. W. Murnau's 1922 silent film which I reviewed earlier this month. 

And Donald Pleasance, who famously plays James Bond villain Blofeld in the 007 movie, "You Only Live Twice" as well as Dr. Loomis in several of the "Halloween" movies, stars in this flick. 

Klaus Kinski as Nosferatu in "Vampire in Venice."

"Vampire in Venice" is a real oddity.

This flick starts with Prof. Paris Catalano (Christopher Plummer) traveling from the U.K. to Venice, Italy in search of the infamous vampire Nosferatu (Klaus Kinski).

He believes the remains of the vampire is indeed in Venice. The last time anyone ever saw Nosferatu was back in 1786 at some carnival. This makes me wonder if this vampire has been out-of-sight all that time, why bother looking for him? 

I guess the answer lies in the fact that Princess Helietta Canins (Barbara De Rossi) asked Catalano to Venice because she thinks Nosferatu's tomb is in the basement of her family estate. 

For some reason, even though Nosferatu must still be in his tomb after all these decades, Helietta believes the old vampire wants to end his immortal life and enter into eternal life although he'll probably end up in Hell. 

When Catalano shows up, he can't help but notice how much Helietta looks like Nosferatu's old love interest, Letizia. That seems to be a running trope in a lot of these vampire movies. 

So, that night Helietta and her family, along with Catalano hold a séance for reasons that aren't explained. It's like they want Nosferatu to awaken after 200 years. Even the local Catholic priest, Don Alvise (Donald Pleasence) warns them how stupid such a demonic act is, and shouldn't be performed for the sake of their souls. 

The Catholic Church, represented by the priest, is the only figure of sanity and right mindedness. 

But obviously they're not a bright group considering they're tempting fate. So, they hold their little séance which causes Nosferatu to awaken and flea his tomb. 

Now Nosferatu is out prowling around Venice! 

In no time, he finds Helietta's mother, Princess Catalano (Maria Cumani Quasimodo) where he forces her onto a balcony and pushes her over. She lands on an iron fence and is impaled. 

During the funeral, Catalano tells Helietta that Nosferatu can actually be stopped by love, which seems like lazy and cliché writing to me. 

This movie appears to make up its story as it moves along. And why Catalano wants to kill Nosferatu before he kills himself is beyond me. 

If there's one thing this movie loves, its the image of Christopher Plummer standing in all his Christopher Plummer glory on a gondola with a look of power on his face. The movie has several shots of people floating down gondolas along the streets of Venice. Venice is a beautiful city but too much of a good thing can easily become mundane and repetitive. 

Still, I am eager to find out more about "Vampire in Venice." Why was it made? What was the motivation behind it? What was it like on set during filming, especially with Klaus Kinski on board? Movies with Klaus Kinski often have quite a

Christopher Plummer as Prof. Paris Catalano.

fireworks show of stories. Just check out my review of the 1986 horror movie "Crawlspace" which also stars Kinski. I wonder what Christopher Plummer thought about Klaus Kinski while working alongside him. 

Considering that Kinski stars in the lead role and has a reputation of having been a difficult and explosive actor to work with - notorious for not liking directors - my curiosity needs answers. His performance is nothing more than glaring with an evil glare, and that's about it. It's unimpressive. His presences is so egotistical in this movie. It spews right out of the screen with all the shots of himself standing in front of the camera over and over again as if he's reminding the audience, "I am Klaus Kinski, and you are not." 

This film tries to be a serious horror movie with depth and impact.  It's loaded with more air of artistry instead of the much needed trepidation and fear any audience would expect from a vampire movie. By the ends, it's just a pretentious and tawdry spectacle that takes itself way too seriously.

Still, the movie has some beautiful shots of Venice aside from all the characters floating down Venice streets. 

Any inclusion of haunting nightmarish scenes feels more like an after thought. And with its over extravagant soundtrack that makes me chuckle though it doesn't want me to, it takes the bite out of its horror (no pun intended). 

Anyways, the soundtrack is horrible! It starts off eerily enough, and then keeps going into an overly synthetized style that irritates my nerves. 

And the cutaways seem as though someone forgot to make the final edits to the movie. It's like the entire movie was released haphazardly. 

I get the impression the movie takes inspiration from Pope Benedict XIV's (1740 - 1758) statement that vampires are nothing but human fantasies. 

He's referenced in the movie. In one seen, Catalano is asked, "What's the Church's attitude towards vampires?"

Boy, that's got to be difficult question. Surely, there's more to it than the Church's official teaching that vampires suck. No pun intended. 

"Vampirism is one of the thousand ways in which evil manifests itself. It was Pope Benedict XIV who decreed that," Catalano replies. 

Going back to Klaus Kinski, everything I've ever seen him in, he always strikes me as insane. For Kinski, it's in the eyes. This movie is no exception. He's not frightening. He's just insane. In fact, it solidifies my impression. I can't help having the impression that he enjoyed all the worst scenes involving Nosferatu's female victims too much.

All in all, there's no real climax in this movie. It feebly fades in, and then as mysteriously as it arrived, it ends. If there's one thing I've learned about Kinski's acting style just by watching this one movie, its that he sure loves himself.