Bübchen

AKA's:

Kleine Vampir, Der / Little Vampire, The

Release date:

1968 West Germany

Running time:

85' (cover 86') - Source: VHS PAL

Rating:

Germ.: 16

Main Crew:

Director: Roland Klick (Lieb Vaterland, Magst Ruhig Sein 1976; Deadlock 1970)
Producer: Rob Houwer Film / Bayerischer Rundfunk
Score: Roland Klick
Writer: Roland Klick
Director of photography: Robert Van Ackeren

Cast:

Summary:

A strange case baffles the police and the citizens of a German small town. A two-year old girl has disappeared. There are suspects, innocents, guilty ones and a web of lies.
It's saturday afternoon, and Achim's parents are invited for a topping-out ceremony. The neighbour's daughter, Monika (Renate Roland), is the babysitter for Achim (Sascha Urchs) and his little sister Kathrin, but Monika doesn't take the job too serious. She'd rather go for a ride with her boyfriend. Through a unforeseen row of circumstances, Achim becomes the murderer of his sister, and hides the body in a wrecked car on the scrapyard.
When the parents return home, a frantic search for the little child begins. Only the father (Sieghardt Rupp) seems to know the truth...

Note:

- Director Roland Klick (who turned down an offer to helm "Christiane F. - We Children From Bahnhof Zoo") got the idea for his feature-length debut - originally planned as a black & white film - from a little note in the newspapers, and needed only 16 hours to write down the script. The film was released in 1968 and received some harsh reactions from the critics, so the company changed the title into "Der Kleine Vampir/The Little Vampire" for the movie's re-release in 1969, and the film finally received some recognition.

Our Ranking

short review:

Don't know why they named this movie "The Little vampire", when the original titel "Bübchen" (german for "little boy", sometimes used in a threatening or exhorting way) was fitting very well. The film has absolutely nothing to do with vampires, and that's the case why we rated it with only one "Kinski". Apart from the complete lack of any vampiric content, it's a decent movie about the real horror in real life, but as we're talking about vampire movies here...