Giulia (Barbara Hawards) has a nightmare where she is chased by a vampire. When she wakes up she is afraid but safe with all her friends around. Giulia is a dancer in a dance troupe. Her boyfriend Sandro (Marco Mariani) is the director of the troupe. He is looking for a place where they can perform. He believes the found what he is looking for, an old theater that hasn’t been used in years but has everything he needs for his troupe. He calls them and tells them to come check it out. At the theater is an old man who says he is Achille (Alberto Archetti). Achille tells Sandro that he must leave at once because the theater is evil.
The troupe arrives and begins cleaning the theater while Achille continues to tell everyone to leave. When Julia sees Achille she freaks out. She knows she’s seen him before but can’t remember where. To try out the stage they do a dance number. Afterwards they hear the applause of someone in the back of the theater. Up in one of the boxes stands a man in a tuxedo. He approaches the stage and goes up to Giulia. He is Stefano (Giuseppe Addobbati). When Rossana (Vittoria Prada) doesn’t see Stefano’s reflection in her hand mirror she screams.
Julia again freaks out and takes off. Eventually she runs into Stefano. Stefano bites her on the neck and transports her to a castle crypt where there are women chained to the wall. Julia begins to remember a previous life where she was once named Laura and was Stefano’s lover. Stefano says that Laura told him to meet her one night. When Stefano got there Achille showed up instead and buried him alive. Stefano was cursed and turned into a vampire. Achille was also cursed and was forced to serve Stefano. Stefano vowed that he would one day take his revenge on Laura. Now that he has found Julia and believes she is Laura he is ready to torture Julia and extract his revenge.
“The Vampire of the Opera” AKA “Il mostro dell'opera” AKA “Monster of the Opera” AKA “L'orgie des Vampires” was released in 1964 and was directed by Renato Polselli. It is an Italian horror film with gothic touches. Some consider it as part of a quasi-trilogy with “The Vampire and the Ballerina” 1960 and “The Playgirls and the Vampire” 1960. Others go as far as calling it part of a quadrilogy with “Slaughter of the Vampires” 1962.
The beginning of the film where Julia is being chased by Stefano is probably the highlight of the film. There’s no blood, no gore, and no nudity. Just a lot of scantily dressed women. There is some lesbian talk but even that goes no further. What there is, is a lot of dancing. I would classify the movie as part “Mexican horror” and part “Andy Hardy Let’s Put on a Show” format.
It was a little reminiscent of Mexican horror movies but not nearly as entertaining. Mexican filmmakers aren’t the only ones that have rubber bats, Italy does too. The rubber bats were the second best part of the film.
I found the film to be rather boring and quite melodramatic. To call it anything close to erotic is just a marketing ploy. It may have tried to touch the surface of it but all that was accomplished was some skimpy outfits and talk about friendship between women being purer to the silky notes of a slow trumpet and double base. I kept waiting for the vampire to start biting people but it takes almost an hour before that happens. Even then there’s no blood and no marks on anyone’s neck.