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Codex Atanicus
Codex Atanicus is a three story anthology by Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Before watching the movie I never heard of the guy, but the introduction video on the DVD by one of his regular actresses Arantxa Peña made me realize that I'm in for a hell of a ride. Experimental, bizarre, sick, strange - these are some of the words that describe the stories contained in Codex Atanicus. The anthology is opened by a 20 minute short from 1995 called Metaminds & Metabodies. I am really not into this kind of experimental videos, but I will try to summarize. It opens with a girl singing in the club. Everything looks ultra underground and the girl is connected with some wires to the walls. Strange people are watching her...
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Movie Review: Fearless Vampire Killers, The

Story
Professor Abronsius and his assistant Alfred goes to a village in Transylvania to look for vampires. They come across an old inn which is located nearby the castle of Count Krolock and decides to stay there for the night. At the inn Alfred falls in love with the inn keeper's daughter (played by Sharon Tate) but unfortunately she is taken away in the night by Count Krolock. So Alfred and the professor heads to the castle to rescue her and to kill some vampires.

Comments
This is a really cool horror comedy directed by and starring a very young Roman Polanski who together with a professor goes to Transylvania in the search for vampires. The movie was made as early as in 1967 which adds a lot of feeling to it when watching it today, so don't dismiss it because it's old, since that only makes it better.

Fearless is so not the right word here as Alfred and the professor are anything but fearless and that's one thing throughout the movie that makes it funny. Also the whole scenery and the inviroment of Transylvania is really cool and visually great. With snow-drenched landscapes, creepy forests, the fog and the overall dark night. The castle if visually great too and sure gives the movie a vampire feel.

The comedy is delivered in a great way and works really well and is often quite funny. The horror part of the movie works well but it's never scary since it's actually a comedy and the vampire theme just adds elements of horror to it.

The actors all do a great job and especially Polanski is fun to watch and it's impressive the he directed, wrote and also co-stared in the movie. The professor is a hoot to watch too since he's really scatterbrained and a confused old man, also referred to as "The Nut" by his colleagues.

Final Comments
This is actually a great comedy with a cool vampire theme to it and if you haven't seen it you should look it up and give it a try. Definitely recommended.

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Fearless Vampire Killers, The

ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Dance of the Vampires
The Fearless Vampire Killers or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck
MOVIE YEAR: 1967
DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski
WRITING CREDITS: Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: Roman Polanski, Jack MacGowran, Sharon Tate
COUNTRY: USA, UK
RUNTIME: 108 min

RATING: 8/10

Fearless Vampire Killers, The Website/IMDB Click here
Fearless Vampire Killers, The Trailer Click here

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