Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Enter the World of ... LEPTIRICA!

This is a far-out looking 70s Yugoslavian Vampire epic which has shot to the top of my "must-see" list. Dig the crazy clip, brothers and sisters!:



Since we haven't seen it yet (though hopefully we'll have a copy on its way soon)we've decided to post up THE CINEHOUND's review from THE CINEHOUND FORUM here in order to pique your interest further. If you don't know, CINEHOUND is Miltos Kordas a longtime movie collector from Greece who is one of the world's foremost excavators in the field of obscure international exploito cinema. I listen to what he says and you should too. Here's his review, posted with his full permission:

LEPTIRICA
Yugoslavian vampire horror film
Directed by Djordje Kadijevic in 1973
Cast: Mirjana Nikolic, Petar Bozovic , Slobodan Perovic, Vasja Stankovic

This is a Yugoslavian female vampire horror film of the early 70s shot in the Serbian countryside and based on a novel. The film starts in a mill. The old miller listens strange bird voices and while he's sleeping the millstone suddenly stops working and a strange creature with black hands, long nails, angry eyes and long teeth bites his neck and drinks his blood. You don't manage to see the whole creature but you understand it's a human, not animal...

After the shocking start the film turns to a talky romance between a young miller and a shepherd's daughter with an angelic face and long blonde hair. Also we watch the comic arguements between his friends from the village. They're always drunk and a funny priest is between them. The young guy talks to his lover's father but he doesn't want to hear a word about their marriage.

Later the vampiric creature attacks to the young miller in his mill. The same elements again, strange voices from the birds and the millstone stops. The creature attacks. Another scary scene but now ends a bit funny as our hero falls into flour and saves himself.

The company goes to an ugly old witch for her advise. She shows them the place where the vampire has been buried and they nail down a huge stake through the closed coffin (they affraid to open it). A butterfly comes out of the bloody coffin (I'm not sure but maybe "Leptirica" means "butterfly" in Serbian?)

The young miller -with a little help by his friends - takes away his lover from her house. They go to the village and prepare their marriage. The night before the marriage he sneaks into her room to make love with her while she's asleep. But below her breast he discovers...a huge bloody hole !!

Yes, she's actually the vampire. She opens her eyes and suddenly transforms to a disgusting bloodthirsty creature. She climbs over his neck from behind while he's running like hell into the woods. Great slow motion here. This is the most powerful scene of the movie and I can tell you that this female vampire is the most creepy and frightful one in the film history !!

She leads him back to her grave. There he manage to get the stake out of the coffin and nail her again.
In the morning his body lies fainted on the ground with a butterfly on his hair...
Incredible end !!

Highly recommended by Cinehound!

We will post our own review sometime after it reaches our grubby, greedy, grasping paws!

Check out further info on this oddity here!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds right up my alley!

Jared said...

When I get it we shall watch it together!

Anonymous said...

Amazing!
Bruno

Anonymous said...

You have right!Leptirica means Female butterflay in Serbian language.
I'm from Belgrade,capital of Serbia and i recommend you another serbian horrors:
Sveto mesto(Holly place) by Djordje Kadijevic,Vec vidjeno(Deja vu),Devicanska svirka(Song of virgins),TT sindrom and Glava secera(Sugar head).
Leptirica show you our traditional believing in vampires.Every serbian village has its own vampire story,and Sava Savanovic is the most famous Serbian vampire ever.
There are lot of scary creatures in our tradition,and if we make horrors based on our tradition we will the best in whole world,i think.Greetings from Belgrade.
Nikola

Anonymous said...

And something more.It's very hard to find Leptirica on DVD and VHS even in Serbia.I don't know why.
And some trivia about the movie:one man died in cinema while he watched Leptirica.Cause of death-he was so scared!

Jared said...

Nikola, thanks for commenting!
I would love to see some of those Serbian horror films.
If you have copies and are up for a trade let me know and I'll send you a list of stuff I have.
What else can you tell us about Serbian/Yugoslavian popular cinema?

Anonymous said...

We are exellent in comedies.Great part of Europe like our comedies.Some of them are cult movies and we are capable to watch that movies again and again and again...I can recomend you Ko to tamo peva,Balkanski spijun,Maratonci trce pocasni krug,Sabirni centar,Munje,Mrtav ladan,Kad porastem bicu kengur etc.

Nikola

Anonymous said...

Our cinematography is full of war movies.I can recomend you Noz,Lepa sela lepo gore.
Action movies:Rane,Do koske,Apsolutnih sto,Mehanizam,Jaguarov skok,Bure baruta.
Our cinematography is poor of trillers i can recomend you just Lavirint...

Nikola.

Anonymous said...

I have copies of 3 serbian horrors.I finally found Leptirica,i have Sveto mesto(holly place) and Vec vidjeno(deja vu),but without english subtitles.How you think to send you this movies?

Nikola

Jared said...

Nikola -
Send your email address to jaredauner@yahoo.com and we'll work something out!
Thanks for all the info!

Anonymous said...

I have a dream.

Anonymous said...

Saved as a favorite, I really like your blog!

Stop by my blog post; cellulite treatment reviews