El Vampiro de la Autopista (1971)

(AKA:The Vampire of the Freeway, and The Horrible Sexy Vampire) This Spanish vampire film features a blood sucker who resembles an eighties slasher more than your standard vampire. The creature serves to simply knock off one hapless victim after another - with a special ability to turn invisible.

Regina (Ada Tauler) and her husband stop in at a lonely hotel along a dark deserted road.

They notice that a window in their room is flapping open. The husband goes to secure the latch.

The wife gets undressed.

"Run my bath for me, darling." The husband dutifully responds, "Yes, your highness."

Later, Regina's husband is killed in the shower. When she gets up to investigate what's taking him so long, she's killed as well. But we don't see the murderer as it is an invisible vampire.

A medical examiner shows the inspector Regina's marking on her neck.

Later, he hands the inspector Bram Stoker's Dracula and tells him that he suspects the killer is a vampire. Every twenty-eight years since the 1800s victims have died in a similar manner. He suspects the killer is Count Winneger who supposedly died long ago. 

They inspect Count Winneger's tomb. They find bones in the caskets. So, hee seems to be safely dead; nothing to be worried about.

But it seems Count Winneger is actually alive and well. Or rather, undead and unwell. He murders them both for "violating the peace of the dead."

Count Winneger's heir has come to Germany to claim his ancestral estate.

Count Oblensky (Wal Davis) is Count Winneger's grandson. He rents a car and arrives at his ancestral estate.

Marianne (Patricia Loran) returns to her apartment building.

Marianne gets undressed and takes a shower.

Marianne hears the door buzzer and gets out of the shower to answer it. But she finds there's no one there.

She returns to her darkened apartment where Count Winneger is waiting for her.

He strangles Marianne to death and she falls to the floor.

Count Oblensky notes a painting of Count Winneger in his newly inherited estate.

A detective (Barta Barri) and his assistant (José Marco) have a few questions for Oblensky. There's been a few murders in town, and they suspuciously coincide with Oblensky's arrival.

A waitress at a local bar is about ready to end her shift.

Her boyfriend shows up and she tells the Bartender she's leaving for the night.

At her apartment, the waitress gets undressed.

As she undresses, we see the invisible vampire is entering her apartment.

The waitress puts on a red sheer nightie and panties in preparation for being with her boyfriend.

The waitress sees someone approach. Thankfully it's just her boyfriend.

They have sex. The waitress brushes her hair in the bathroom while the boyfriend goes out the backway and is murdered by the invisible vampire.

Unaware the vampire is in the apartment, the waitress returns to the bedroom and is attacked.

The detectives are bothing Oblensky again. This time they have a warrant to inspect the coffins in the basement. But there's nothing but bones in them.

Susan (Susan Carvasal), Oblensky's girlfriend, shows up at the mansion. After a tour of the grounds, he asks her, "Do you think there's such thing as supernatural beings?" She says she doesn't.

Susan goes to bed and Winneger appears to Oblensky. The vampire asks that he put a stake through his heart in order to end his miserable curse. But the task will not be easy.

That evening, Susan strolls into Oblesky's room and opens her nightgown, wearing only sheer panties underneath.

Oblesky and Susan have sex.

Elsewhere in town, a maid (Mary Trovar) is at work.

She sees her boyfriend at the window beckoning her. She tells him she'll be finished shortly.

She finishes up. She sees her boyfriend has gone, so she goes in search of him.

The girl finds her boyfriend dead. She screams then is strangled by Winneger who carries her onto a table.

The vampire pulls down the maid's skirt then rips off her panties.

Oblesky tries to convince Susan to leave since she's in danger. She refuses, saying he needs her now more than ever.

She takes a bubble bath. Winneger is approaching her invisible.

She looks on in horror as Oblesky rushes into the room with a stake yelling, "Run Susan! You can't see him but he's here! Find a room where the door can be locked!"

Wearing a snake skin jacket, Oblesky chases Winneger to his coffin where he rams a stake through his heart. "Rest in peace Baron von Winneger!"

Now Oblesky and Susan can live happily together, vampire-free. THE END

VZ6 SCORECARD

As mentioned, this felt more like a giallo or even a slasher more than a vampire movie.  The reason being the numerous deaths from the killer's POV - "Jason style".  Aside from the boring vampire backstory, this really is just about killing undressed women.  You can really see the straight line from giallo to slasher, and this is right in that same trajectory. And just like the giallos, the police procedural part is often boring padding - just fluff to fill the space between kills. In particular, the first quarter of the film - after the hotel murder at the start until Oblesky arrives at the estate, this film is so boring it's almost impossible to watch. But once the murders resume, we're back in business.

They packed this film with counte-em three bath/shower scenes. Ada Tauler takes a bath at the start, then Patricia Loran goes for a shower, then Susan Carvasal takes a bubble bath.  Say what you will about this film, the actresses are very clean.  Patricia Loran delivers a scene as she prepares for a shower. She was in ten film from 1965 to 1974, including a good Spaghetti Western.

Unfortunately, no idea who the actresses is who played the waitress.  She delivers an amazing shot where she's wearing sheer, almost completely transparent panties.  She also gets into another sheer outfit before delivering a topless scene before she's killed.  Needless to say, this unknown actress packs a lot into a brief screen appearance.

The most graphic nudity is provided by Mary Trovar when she's laid on the table unconscious and has her panties ripped off by the vampire.  But you'll have to be quick with the pause button.  As soon as they're ripped off, it cuts to the next scene.  This is the only IMDb credit for Mary Trovar.

From where I sit, the top nude scene in this film has to go to Susan Carvasal. It's pretty unexpected; out of nowhere she strolls into the room and opens up her nightgown.  Technically not a FFN scene, but the panties are so sheer, it might as well be.  Carvasal is a stone cold fox, but this appears to be her only IMDb credit.

A healthy amount of nudity, a fairly fun story, and an ahead of its time slasher POV, it's worth a look.  But you may not make it through the incredibly boring police work and vampire backstory filling up time between murders.

☆☆☆☆☆☆ 6/10