Cuadecuc, vampir

Christopher Lee gives us a reading

Pere Portabella's Cuadecuc, vampir (Worm's Tail Vampire) is an arresting oddity. Ostensibly a behind the scenes documentary of schlockmeister Jess Franco's 1970 release Count Dracula, the film stands as a deconstructed iteration of that film and Bram Stoker's source novel. Count Dracula is a color film, but Cuadecuc, vampir uses footage from it reprinted into high contrast black and white. This Portabella mixes with behind the scenes footage of the cast and crew of Count Dracula, also in black and white. Cuadecuc, vampir has an interestingly discordant score by Carlos Santos, the sound of pneumatic drills at one point highlight that the film is a construction, but the film is devoid of dialogue. The exception to this is a short scene in which Count Dracula's lead Christopher Lee reads the description of Dracula's destruction from the novel; a fitting finale.

Because it is silent and in black and white, Cuadecuc, vampir calls to mind such old horror pictures as Nosferatu and Vampyr. It is certainly as disjunctive and dream like as those two classics. Belying its avant-garde leanings, Portabella is closer to Stan Brakhage as a director than to Jess Franco, Cuadecuc, vampir hews closely to Stoker's narrative. The only significant omission is Klaus Kinski's rendition of Renfield. That said, the lack of dialogue from Count Dracula is a definite plus. Cuadecuc, vampir unspools like a dimly grasped nightmare in a scant 69 minutes.     

Cuadecuc, vampir received a festival release in 1971, but languished in obscurity for years. I saw the film on the Severin Films Count Dracula disc that was released a decade ago. For the record, Count Dracula itself is barely watchable. Lee, Kinski, and Herbert Lom do yeoman's work, but most of the other performances are execrable. Franco ping-pongs zooms at us to irritating effect. Like all of Franco's films, Count Dracula appears hastily and clumsily made. The Severin disc includes enough special features to please any vampire lover including a recording of Mr. Lee reading the complete Stoker novel. Cuadecuc, vampir is also available to stream on Hoopla.