The Vampire is Capitalism

Random recommendation time! I was looking for something to watch last night from the gigantic pile of physical media sitting in front of my television and I saw Severin's Danza Macabre: Volume 2 box-set sitting there -- these sets contain gothic Italian horror films from the 1960s and 70s mainly, and that sounded like my mood to me. I landed on Corrado Farina's 1971 film They Have Changed Their Face (aka Hanno cambiato faccia) which I'd recalled sounding interesting when I bought the set; here is how Severin describes the movie:

"Though he made only two feature films, writer/director/novelist Corrado Farina (BABA YAGA) rocked the Italian horror genre with his “astounding” (Taliesin Meets The Vampires) and long out-of-print 1971 debut: A mid-level automotive company employee is summoned to the mountain villa of owner Giovanni Nosferatu (Adolfo Celi of THUNDERBALL and DANGER: DIABOLIK fame) only to discover a glossy netherworld where capitalism is the new vampirism, consumers are its unwitting victims and escape may be impossible. Giuliano Disperati (VIOLENT ROME) and Geraldine Hooper (DEEP RED) co-star in this startling reinvention of the Dracula mythos co-written by Giulio Berruti (KILLER NUN) and influenced by Farina’s earlier career as an advertising executive."

That description sort of does the movie justice, but it's way sillier and weider than you might even be picturing -- yes it's basically a re-telling of Dracula but the count is a middle-aged white-haired CEO of a company called Nosferatu that brands everything from laundry detergent to LSD (and see the video at the bottom of this post for a commercial for LSD in the movie that had me cackling). Plus the mansion's grounds are patrolled by a fleet of white European mini-sedans, and every piece of furtniture spits out advertisments through embedded speakers in the walls of the mansion whenever used. 

It is wildly and terrifically weird y'all, and that's before Farina starts inserting parodies of Bergman and Fellini movies in the last act. Anyway I don't know where this movie has been my entire life but now that it's introduced iutself to me I am obsessed, and I need to spread the gospel far and wide. What a treat! You can buy the Danza Macabre box-set at this link (volume two also includes 1964's stellar Castle of Blood with horror icon Barbara Steele; I haven't watched the other stuff on the set yet) or if that price puts you off (the set ain't cheap, even though I have found it worth every penny) you can rent THCTF on Amazon for 99 whole cents right here. Would I steer you wrong??? I haven't felt this enamored with a random old movie since the first time Messiah of Evil fell in my lap.

I mean, this movie is really something pic.twitter.com/RllBHsqMwf

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 24, 2024