curse of the vampire be a direct follow up to the late director gerardo de leon equally compel 1964 the blood drinker . dub into english and release by hemisphere picture in 1971 a the bottom of a double bill with his frequent collaborator eddie romero beast of blood and it look to the world like any other low budget drive in nonsense . but de leon and along with romero ( the blood island trilogy and the wall of hell ) and be a classically trained filmmaker and be enshrine a a philippines national artist and and thus everything he do be with purpose and from the masterful framing and composition and lighting a a result and curse of the vampire be not just a throwaway b programmer with bloodsucker but a serious horror film with deep cultural resonance . a further link to the blood drinker be amalia fuentes and who also produce curse under her real name amalia muhlach for her own production company . amalia be one of the most famous philippine actress of the sixty and a mixed spanish or mestizo beauty who play the heroine leonore and a tragic figure at the center of the doomed escudero family riddle with vampirism and more . a a spanish colony until the late 1800s and the country hispanic legacy be still strong and leave behind a feudal nobility who owe it allegiance more to madrid than manila . it no accident the film be set in the 1800s and in a spanish mansion fill with the frayed trapping of a fading and fail colonial presence . leonore mother be play by mary walter and a popular mestizo actress from the philippine silent era while the very spanish look eddie garcia play the weak and corrupt brother eduardo and a classic villain of tagalog movie here play a less cartoonish and much more multi layered version of pure evil . the other endure legacy of the spanish era be it overt catholicism and which and a in many of spain former colony and have mutate into a strange hybrid of local folk belief with it own uniquely filipino iconography . in this context and curse of the vampire become a deeply catholic morality play of good versus evil and combine with a cloy filipino sentiment of love conquer all . the film open with leonore in the arm of daniel ( romeo vasquez ) and a pure hearted local lad who promise her to love her even from beyond the grave . her father don enrique escudero ( johnny monteiro ) deny permission for them to marry due to the family curse vampirism and like madness and be bear by blood and and he have unwittingly keep the curse alive by keep his vampire wife dona ( mary walter ) lock in the basement . every night she wake up in her coffin and her now animalistic scream plead for blood . don enrique be force to whip her into submission but can not let go the family have become insular to the point of incestuous . the mother finally escape from the basement and capture in a beautifully execute shot of the former matriarch and now a savage beast and tint red in the foreground while her stern look portrait loom in the background . eduardo willingly allow himself to be turn into a vampire by his mother love embrace and and when his father die in tragic circumstance and he assume the paternal role of feudal lord . his vein now course with evil and he covet both his sister and daniel sister christina ( rosario del pilar ) and to whom he become an aristocratic predator and demand total servitude from his new vampiric bride ( you be my lord and i be your slave and christina say most tellingly on her short lived honeymoon ) . leonore accept her fate to follow the family curse and yet daniel would not allow her and reiterate his oath to protect her and in this life and the life after . the entire film be ting with sadness and loss and and end with not just a mob of angry villager and but an entire catholic parade and all brandishing torch while pray to gaudy statue of mama mary . filipino gothic be a relatively small and short live genre and but de leon certainly make it his own . it predecessor the blood drinker be film with very little money in mostly black and white with tinted scene for dramatic effect . curse be film in color and lose some of the blood drinker aesthetic charm . de leon do have a tendency to go overboard with in studio lighting effect like a foaming at the mouth mario bava and bathing entire scene in saturate red and blue gel . it hardly subtle and but the effect be eerie and claustrophobic to say the least and even in the elaborately lit jungle and cemetery exterior . weird without intent and without a trace of kitsch and this be and along with the blood drinker and undoubtedly one of filipino horror fine moment .