Vampyres (1974)
(Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness)
Country: GB/SP
Technical: col 87m
Director: Joseph (José Ramón) Larraz
Cast: Marianne Morris, Anulka Dziubinska, Murray Brown, Brian Deacon, Michael Byrne
Synopsis:
A gothic mansion of well-stocked wine cellars is the preserve of a pair of nubile vampires, who lure motorists to their doom via gobletfuls of Carpathian claret. A framing device hints at a curse which may be the cause of everything we have seen.
Review:
A successful attempt to out-Rollin Jean Rollin, or likewise Jesús Franco, this sexploitation horror flick may be cursed with some clunky dialogue ('This is too good to be true', marvels Michael Byrne as he uncorks another bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in between feasting off the lips of Fran and Miriam), but Harry Waxman's cinematography is a thoroughgoing professional job, working at winter light levels. The presence of a couple in a caravan imposes some sort of structure on what might otherwise be a succession of oneiric encounters with the vampires, with lashings of flesh and blood on display. The pretext-free logic of a porno all but obtains, therefore, and indeed the film is frankly erotic, with simulated grinding and darting tongues a-plenty (and intimations of cunnilingus in the licking of the gash in Ted's arm). All of this was excised by the BBFC on its first release, which must have made for a pretty desultory experience, as the picture has nothing else to offer. Curiously, Bessie Love appears in a cameo at the end (she was active in the business for nearly seventy years).
(Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness)
Country: GB/SP
Technical: col 87m
Director: Joseph (José Ramón) Larraz
Cast: Marianne Morris, Anulka Dziubinska, Murray Brown, Brian Deacon, Michael Byrne
Synopsis:
A gothic mansion of well-stocked wine cellars is the preserve of a pair of nubile vampires, who lure motorists to their doom via gobletfuls of Carpathian claret. A framing device hints at a curse which may be the cause of everything we have seen.
Review:
A successful attempt to out-Rollin Jean Rollin, or likewise Jesús Franco, this sexploitation horror flick may be cursed with some clunky dialogue ('This is too good to be true', marvels Michael Byrne as he uncorks another bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in between feasting off the lips of Fran and Miriam), but Harry Waxman's cinematography is a thoroughgoing professional job, working at winter light levels. The presence of a couple in a caravan imposes some sort of structure on what might otherwise be a succession of oneiric encounters with the vampires, with lashings of flesh and blood on display. The pretext-free logic of a porno all but obtains, therefore, and indeed the film is frankly erotic, with simulated grinding and darting tongues a-plenty (and intimations of cunnilingus in the licking of the gash in Ted's arm). All of this was excised by the BBFC on its first release, which must have made for a pretty desultory experience, as the picture has nothing else to offer. Curiously, Bessie Love appears in a cameo at the end (she was active in the business for nearly seventy years).
(Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness)
Country: GB/SP
Technical: col 87m
Director: Joseph (José Ramón) Larraz
Cast: Marianne Morris, Anulka Dziubinska, Murray Brown, Brian Deacon, Michael Byrne
Synopsis:
A gothic mansion of well-stocked wine cellars is the preserve of a pair of nubile vampires, who lure motorists to their doom via gobletfuls of Carpathian claret. A framing device hints at a curse which may be the cause of everything we have seen.
Review:
A successful attempt to out-Rollin Jean Rollin, or likewise Jesús Franco, this sexploitation horror flick may be cursed with some clunky dialogue ('This is too good to be true', marvels Michael Byrne as he uncorks another bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in between feasting off the lips of Fran and Miriam), but Harry Waxman's cinematography is a thoroughgoing professional job, working at winter light levels. The presence of a couple in a caravan imposes some sort of structure on what might otherwise be a succession of oneiric encounters with the vampires, with lashings of flesh and blood on display. The pretext-free logic of a porno all but obtains, therefore, and indeed the film is frankly erotic, with simulated grinding and darting tongues a-plenty (and intimations of cunnilingus in the licking of the gash in Ted's arm). All of this was excised by the BBFC on its first release, which must have made for a pretty desultory experience, as the picture has nothing else to offer. Curiously, Bessie Love appears in a cameo at the end (she was active in the business for nearly seventy years).