‘Queen of all… mistress of death!’
Hannah, Queen of the Vampires is a 1973 Spanish-American horror film directed by Julio Salvador (co-writer of Love Brides of the Blood Mummy) with additional footage directed by Ray Danton.
Originally titled in Spain as La tumba de la isla maldita’ “The Tomb of the Cursed Island”, the film is also known as Young Hanna, Queen of the Vampires (with a comedic poster presumably intended to cash in on Young Frankenstein), Crypt of the Living Dead and Vampire Woman.
The movie stars Andrew Prine, Teresa Gimpera, Mark Damon and Patty Shepard.
Plot:
On Vampire Island, an old professor is killed while excavating the tomb of Hannah (Teresa Gimpera), wife of French King Louis VII, who was buried alive in 1269.
Arriving at the site to investigate the death of his father, the professor’s son uncovers the seven-hundred-year-old corpse of Hannah, still in perfect condition…
Reviews:
” …it takes more than an hour for the filmmakers to get around to Hannah’s awakening and remarkably brief reign of terror; the interim is wasted with a silly subplot involving a “Wild Man” […] The film’s atmosphere benefits from exotic locations…” AllMovie
“The feature is more about exploration and identification, with the lead character gradually understanding his mistake. Performances are fine for this type of low-budget endeavor, but Crypt of the Living Dead is more secure with stalking sequences, allowing creepiness to seep into the effort.” Blu-ray.com
” …it definitely can rate favorably on a “guilty pleasure” level and as far as the film’s look and feel, it certainly succeeds in the Euro horror category. The Turkish locations — acting as a desolate island — are rich in spooky ambiance, and Gimpera (wearing a tiara and white flowing gown) is poses a striking figure…” DVD Drive-In
” …it’s occasionally campy, often slow, and the structure is rather confusing at times. Yet, I was rather taken with it; the atmosphere was nice, it has some interesting story touches, the location footage from Turkey is interesting, and the final battle with the vampire is striking to say the least. No, it’s not a great movie, but I thought it worked well enough.” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
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” …when viewed properly as it is presented on this Blu-ray, actually proves to be a pretty atmospheric piece of low budget gothic horror. It’s not particularly quick in its pacing but it does manage to make excellent use of its oddball Turkish locations and build to a suitably memorable big finish.” Rock! Shock! Pop!
“Teresa Gimpera was effective as the vampire, not Christopher Lee good, but pretty decent and Andrew Prine along with Mark Damon were not too bad themselves. If they had better material to work with, the movie could have made for quite an effective horror, but such as it was, the film failed to deliver on the fright which was the main reason one would tune into a picture such as this.” The Telltale Mind
” …Prine (Terror Circus) is always kind of fun to watch. But that’s not enough to keep this one afloat. To make matters worse, handsome Damon overacts to the extreme, while Sheppard can’t quite figure out what movie she’s in. It’s not the worst thing out there, but aside from a moment of creepy inspiration during the fiery climax, Hannah commits the cardinal sin of being bland and unmemorable.” The Terror Trap
“The naturally eerie island atmosphere is augmented by occasionally quite pleasant cinematography […], a haunting tune played by the local villagers and some oddly Greek/Russian Orthodox style Catholic iconography both in the otherwise ruined church setting and among the superstitious locals. It’s hardly horror of the first order, but it’s oneiric enough to work…” The Third Eye
” …there’s a quite effective portrayal of an isolated, and insular, community at its heart. Indeed, with their reliance on pre-Christian beliefs and their complete alienation from the ‘civilised’ world, this secluded but self-sufficient community reminded me of that portrayed in The Wicker Man. Unfortunately, this aspect of the storyline is pushed out of the way once the monster is allowed into the action.” The Wild Eye
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