Horror Movie Review: Full Moon of the Virgins (1973)

Full Moon of the Virgins or The Devil’s Wedding Night is an Italian vampire horror movie that has had clear inspiration from the Hammer vampire series. Its gothic look, softcore sex scenes & Dracula inspired story has all the hallmarks of a Hammer vampire film.

The weakest part of the entire movie is its story. Karl Schiller (Mark Damon) heads off to Transylvania to search Castle Dracula for the legendary Ring of the Nibelungen. He arrives at a local village where his presence is less than welcome & he is warned away from going to the castle (original huh?). The innkeepers daughter instantly (and I mean instantly) falls for him & gives him an amulet that will protect him.

The next day Karl heads to the castle & finds that the sinister Contessa Dolingen De Vries (Rosalba Neri) owns the castle. It’s not long before she seduces him where we get an lengthy sex scene (the more graphic content having been cut).

It turns out though that, the Contessa has a secret. She’s a vampire who wants to resurrect her husband, Dracula in the body of Karl.

In the meantime Karl’s identical twin brother (also played by Mark Damon), has followed him to Transylvania to make sure he is ok & he is not so easily seduced.

I’ve tried to make it sound as coherent as possible because it does not make a whole lot of sense. At times it feels like different parts of several different films hurriedly put together. The first 30-odd minutes are a cheesy mess with some suspect English dubbing. However, once we meet the Contessa things pick up nicely with the pace increasing & the blood flowing.

While Full Moon of the Virgins shares a lot with Hammer in its story & visual style, where it differs is with an increase in blood & nudity. There is plenty of both here & most of it in context too. Although the finale is a bit ‘boobs overload’. It has a real ‘euro-sleaze’ vibe that was really present in horror in the 70s.

What makes it an enjoyable movie though is the gothic style & the acting from the leads. The former is built around great looking locations that have an eerie vibe while the latter is all about presence. Rosalba Neri commands the screen exuding seductive power. It’s no surprise that Karl falls for her. Mark Damon does brilliantly in both his roles with both having clear differences even though they look exactly the same.

Full Moon of the Virgins takes a little time to get going but once it does, it’s one of the better Hammer-inspired vampire horrors to come out of Europe.

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