Vampire in Venice [Nosferatu a Venezia] ** (1988, Klaus Kinski, Christopher Plummer, Donald Pleasence, Barbara De Rossi) – Classic Movie Review 3156

Klaus Kinski resurrects his role as the infamous vampire Nosferatu in writer-director Augusto Caminito’s visually impressive semi-sequel to Werner Herzog’s 1979 Nosferatu the Vampyre.

In the story by Alberto Alfieri and Leandro Lucchetti, a splendidly gruesome-looking Kinski spends his leisure hours vamping around the canals of Venice during the carnival of 1786. But valiant vampire stalker Professor Paris Catalano (Christopher Plummer) is soon investigating Nosferatu’s last known appearance and hot on the trail. Donald Pleasence plays Don Alvise.

Caminito’s Gothic Italian chiller has lots of eerie atmosphere and haunting Venice cinematography, but only a fraction of the style and intelligence of the original, and director-writer Caminito takes recourse to every stylistic art-horror cliché to little effect.

Unfortunately, there ends up being more in the way of unintentional laughs than intentional frights, but the star trio and support cast are more than worth a look, and Kinski is splendidly creepy as Nosferatu. Also in the cast are Anne Knecht as Maria Canins, Barbara De Rossi as Helietta Canins, Elvire Audray as Uta Barneval, Yorgo Voyagis as Dr Barneval, Giuseppe Mannajuolo, Clara Colosimo, Maria Cumani Quasimodo and Mickey Knox.

It was a troubled shoot. Producer Caminito fired original director Maurizio Lucidi after he shot a few crowd scenes in Venice, paying him his full salary. He then hired Pasquale Squitieri to write and direct the film, but his screenplay proved too expensive to shoot so Caminito paid him off on his full salary.

Caminito next hired a third director, B-movie veteran Mario Caiano, who was dismissed after Kinski got into an argument with him on his first day of filming and refused to work with him. Caiano agreed to leave the set after being paid his full salary. Caminito decided to direct the film himself to avoid paying a fourth director. Lacking directing experience, he was helped by assistant Luigi Cozzi and Kinski also directed some scenes.

Nosferatu doesn’t look anything like the original character with bald head, chalk-white skin and protruding teeth. Kinski was supposed to reprise his character from Nosferatu the Vampyre and wear the same make-up, but he arrived on the set with long hair and refused to undergo the lengthy make-up sessions again.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3156

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com