The Blood Drinkers, also known on IMDb as Blood is the Color of Night, was the first Filipino horror film that used color, not color film, but color tinted scenes. The Blood Drinkers is about a vampire who wants to resurrect his dying lover and terrorizes a local village to execute his plan. Vampire lovers will enjoy The Blood Drinkers’ unique take on the vampire mythology though the movie’s story is flawed. I would caution potential viewers that the Blood Drinkers version that I saw was dubbed in English, which always detracts from the acting performance since these dubbers were probably not actors and convey little to no emotion in their reading.
The Blood Drinkers was filmed in the 1960s, but feels more Gothic and surreal and less dated than many movies from that era, not including the hair and the rubber bat. Not using color film may have been a financial decision, but it became a visually unique narrative device in The Blood Drinkers. When the film tint color is red, The Blood Drinkers is alerting the viewer to the presence of vampires. When the film color tint is blue, it signifies that night has fallen. This color code is not immediately apparent, but can be deduced as The Blood Drinkers unfolds. The Blood Drinkers incidentally reveals Spanish cultural influence on the Philippines. The weakest aspect of The Blood Drinkers is that I felt like there was a missing reel, and I entered the story long after the movie began and missed a bunch of important plot points.
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When the film begins, Marcos, the head vamp is trying to resuscitate the love of his life. So should I assume that she is not a vampire or is she a vampire, but not a different type of vampire from Marcos? I’m guessing the latter. Marcos never appears to need blood, only the ones that become victims during the film. He needs to sustain her with blood and conduct a heart transplant with her unknown twin sister as the unwilling donor. He has an entourage, which includes his lover’s mother. Why did the mother join him? Why did she only take one kid? She apparently was cool with him dating her daughter so I guess/hope the mother was never involved with the vampire. Why does she finally draw the line at killing the twin? Even though The Blood Drinkers never explicitly answers these questions, I felt like the filmmakers knew the answer to it, but neglected to show it, which is forgivable since The Blood Drinkers is an example of early Filipino cinema.
The most frustrating aspect of The Blood Drinkers’ story is when people keep going out after night when they know that people keep dropping dead. The coolest aspect of The Blood Drinkers’ story is the role of Catholicism in the battle against evil. In stark contrast to The Wailing, which is a recent South Korean horror film, this priest is a thing of the past-someone confident and knowledgeable in the battle against vampires. The Blood Drinkers even suggests the possibility that vampires can be redeemed through prayer though it does not last long. The Blood Drinkers adds an interesting weapon to the vampire hunter’s arsenal: flares!
Vampire lovers who appreciate history should definitely check out The Blood Drinkers.