Vampir Cuadecuc

Spanish experimental filmmaker Pere Portabella’s Vampir Cuadecuc, which screens tonight at 7 p.m. in the UWM Union Theatre, is a parasitic horror film, a movie shot on the set of someone else’s movie. Portabella sat in on the set of Jesus Franco’s 1970 adaptation of Count Dracula and captured his own harshly shot footage, then pieced together a non-linear film that also works as both a vampire film and a documentary about making a vampire film. At every turn, Portabella undercuts Franco’s host film by depicting the behind-the-scenes levity that preceded Franco’s “scary” footage. Portabella films actors between takes as they joke around, smoke, flirt and apply makeup, neutering Franco’s film of much of its shock and magic, but creating its own creepy, subversive spell.