A low-budget Brazilian horror-comedy about a botanist (Ariel Coelho) who obtains a carnivorous plant but finds himself unable to handle it safely. After his demise his wife Silvia (Nicole Puzzi) takes up managing a nightclub and creates a successful dance number called "The Seven Vampires" but soon people start falling victim to a mysterious masked murderer, nicknamed "the vampire killer". Investigating the crime spree are a private eye named Marlou (Nuno Leal Maia) and an inept cop named Pacheco (Colé Santana).
The movie makes many references to famous horror films by using music from them, notably Psycho and The Shining, and there's even a short clip of Alfred Hitchcock "presenting" the film to us. Otherwise the story is not very creative after all and the plot gets repetitive after a while. The colourful lighting and design are somewhat good-looking though and the flesh-eating plant looks awesome and hilarious – a great shame they don't show more of it! To go with the sleazy style, there are also rather poor gore effects and plenty of female nudity. One scene deserving a special mention is the catchy pop song by Bob Rider (Leo Jaime), but over all I don't think The Seven Vampires is quite crazy enough to truly work as a fun schlocky comedy. Of the four Ivan Cardoso films I've seen so far, I prefer The Secret of the Mummy.
The movie makes many references to famous horror films by using music from them, notably Psycho and The Shining, and there's even a short clip of Alfred Hitchcock "presenting" the film to us. Otherwise the story is not very creative after all and the plot gets repetitive after a while. The colourful lighting and design are somewhat good-looking though and the flesh-eating plant looks awesome and hilarious – a great shame they don't show more of it! To go with the sleazy style, there are also rather poor gore effects and plenty of female nudity. One scene deserving a special mention is the catchy pop song by Bob Rider (Leo Jaime), but over all I don't think The Seven Vampires is quite crazy enough to truly work as a fun schlocky comedy. Of the four Ivan Cardoso films I've seen so far, I prefer The Secret of the Mummy.
