Angel of the Night

After seeing Shaky Gonzales low budget vampire flick at the Dead by Dawn festival I was thrilled to hear Fangoria magazine were releasing it on DVD.

The story involves a young girl who inherits her grannys spooky old gothic mansion which with the help of an old book containing her family history she unfolds her descendants murky past. She quickly uncovers all sorts of vampiric shenanigans were the order of the day with her great grandfather Rico - vampire supreme.

A rollicking rollercoaster of a ride, Angel of the Night is a great little movie that doesn't let its low budget origins constrain its big movie ideas. A classy production it is too which truly captures the atmosphere of its many set pieces, which vary from the Hammer vampire movies of old to the modern spaghetti shoot outs ala El Mariachi.

The tongue is firmly in the cheek with some great laughs and many a tip of the hat to the aforemenioned genre faves that will please long time fans of the vampire movie scene.

The disc itself has the movie in its original widescreen format with english dubbing (which is reminiscent of the dubbing jobs done on Italian horror films of the eighties) and sadly a couple of the gags are lost in the dubbing process. Hopefully though in time a European release will follow with the original soundtrack with English subtitles. Another small annoyance though is Fangoria's lack of budget for this mastering shows on the dreadfully poor retitlings that stick out like a sore thumb on occasions (a shame considering the Menu screen is nicely done). There's also the obligatory trailer, photo gallery and a strange quiz that's not unlike Troma's Intelligence Test quizzes.

That said though, Angel of the Night is an absolute gem of a movie that's really worth checking out, especially all you old vampire buffs!