Upon its release, Stanley Kanfer of "Time" gave the film a middling review, praising Lampert's performance but dismissing the rest of the cast's, adding that "after the first reel, the vampires seem to have lost their bite." Roger Greenspun of "The New York Times" also praised Lampert's performance and lauded the film, calling it a "thinking man's vampire movie, probably a secret dream for at least half the world's young filmmakers." Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" remarked the "strong sense of atmosphere" in the film in addition to the four lead performances, who are "likable, believable people," but conceded: "There's no getting around the movie's poorly resolved script." "The San Francisco Examiner"s Stanley Eichelbaum also noted deficiencies in the screenplay, noting that the film "seems improvised and nothing could be worse for this kind of structured suspense thriller. Hancock's direction is ridiculously disjointed and inconsistent." This sentiment was echoed by Kevin Kelly of "The Boston Globe", who felt the film contained so many idiosyncrasies that "nothing rings true."