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The "lesbian vampire" type of flick has been a busy and profitable subgenre for horror film producers, one that manages to push the viewer's buttons in several ways we won't mention here. But such films do seem to have a certain sameness about them ...except the specimen we're about to examine, one that takes some great liberties with the vampire motif and pushes the envelope on sexual explicitness pretty hard. In fact, you could call this film...
By HARVEY F. CHARTRAND This erotic shocker is not about traditional vampires, but creatures that are more akin to blood-drinking ghosts. The Vampyres in question do not sprout fangs when they feast on the blood of their victims; nor do they shy away from wandering about in broad daylight (although they do sleep in a windowless cellar for at least part of the day, perhaps due to their being late-night party animals with a taste for sex, red wine and blood).
Wearing dark cloaks, these vampyres are apt to turn up at mid-day in weedy cemeteries or by the side of lonely country roads, luring hikers and motorists to their doom. Vampyres’ story begins with a double murder: two naked, nubile nymphs are getting it on in a king-sized bed, when a shadowy male figure enters the bedroom and shoots them dead. Next scene: Ted, a handsome middle-aged businessman (Murray Brown) takes a room at an inn. The desk clerk recognizes him, but Ted somewhat defensively denies ever having visited the area. In the final scene, Ted is found dead drunk in a motor vehicle parked outside a crumbling mansion; it seems he is drawn back to the scene of the double murder he committed, helplessly in thrall to the spirit of a bisexual vampire (although the word "vampire" is never actually spoken in the picture.)
The story, told in flashback, thus comes full circle. While driving through the autumnal English countryside, Ted picks up two sexy hitchhikers — the sultry brunette Fran (Marianne Morris) and the "innocent" blonde Miriam (Anulka). Ted is immediately attracted to Fran, and they spend a wild night together in the shabby Victorian bedroom of the ruined mansion. At this point, the carnality of the film becomes quite evident. Vampyres does not cheat the viewer when it comes to showing acres of flesh. The camera does not pull away discreetly but stays on the couple as they gyrate in the throes of sexual passion, with plenty of close-ups of deep kissing inserted in the montage.
No wonder Vampyres (filmed in 1973 and released in 1974) was cut to ribbons upon its release. Thirty years later, Blue Underground has painstakingly restored this daring horror film to its original pristine condition and 92-minute running time. When Ted awakens, he is physically drained and has a nasty wound on his arm, which he thinks was caused by a broken wine glass. Fran is nowhere to be found. Ted staggers over to a nearby campground, where he seeks first aid from a young couple.
Camper Harriet is curious about the strange lights and noises emanating from the old, supposedly abandoned house. Ted is evasive, still not aware that the gorgeous women he has picked up are "undead," posing as hitchhikers and luring men back to the old dark house to feed upon them. The naughty girls cover up their murderous deeds by disguising the dead as road accident victims in fake automobile smash-ups. For whatever reason, Fran has taken a shine to the smitten Ted, and decides to keep him around for a while, although Ted’s vitality continues to ebb after repeated feedings.
In between snacks, Fran has several lesbian encounters with Miriam; the most sexually charged scene takes place in a shower, as Miriam licks the blood off Fran’s body after a feeding frenzy. The two lovely but lethal nosferatu lure a hapless hippie (Karl Lanchbury) and a smug wine connoisseur (Michael Byrne) to their deaths. The violence of their demises — in which the blood flows in copious quantities — is shocking in its savagery and suddenness.
The girls use a dagger to slice up their victims, while lapping up the jets of blood, fastening their lips hungrily on the fresh and gushing wounds, as the half-drunk young men thrash in agony and thwarted ferocity. These killings are surprisingly brutal, due to the utter single-minded rapaciousness of Fran and Miriam in their animalistic bloodlust. Fran tells Harriet (caught snooping around the house) that she sports a "sign" foretelling her destiny as a chosen one. Yes, chosen to be dragged into the cellar of the manor house, stripped naked, throat-slashed and fed upon by the comely vampires — a fusion of erotica and horror that leaves the viewer somewhat confused. For as the erotic imagery in Vampyres is genuinely titillating, it often overlaps with sickening horror as Fran and Miriam stop at nothing to "get their licks in."
Barely able to walk, Ted makes a superhuman effort of will to escape from the evil house, and returns later (presumably) to murder the undead. However, his lust and longing for Fran prompt him to again return to the house years later, drowning his sorrows in the car parked outside the now truly abandoned haunt. Vampyres is considered the crowning cinematic achievement of its director José Ramón Larraz, who was never able to scale these heights again in subsequent horror pictures. I must admit to being unfamiliar with Larraz’s work, but his later output consists of sexy horror near-misses — notably Scream…And Die! (1973) and Symptoms (1974), both shot in the United Kingdom — and slasher film retreads such as Edge Of The Axe (1988) and Deadly Manor (1990), made in Spain.
After starring as Jonathan Harker in Dan Curtis’ Dracula (1973), Murray Brown seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Pity, for he delivered an excellent performance as the spellbound Ted in Vampyres. The only actor who went on to greater fame was Michael Byrne, perhaps best known for villainous roles in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Braveheart and Tomorrow Never Dies. As for the two gorgeous leads, they still look great in their fifties, remarkably well-preserved, as is clearly evident in Return of the Vampyres, a 14-minute interview featurette on the Blue Underground DVD. Marianne Morris and Anulka Dziubinska are obviously proud of their participation in Vampyres, marking it as the high point of their film careers, although both ladies still resent the fact that "professional" actresses dubbed their voices.
Sadly, neither lady had much of a career in movies after Vampyres. Morris—who had the looks, talent and charisma to be a big star—quit show business when the only roles being offered to her were in blue movies. She started a successful home refurbishing business and never looked back. Capitalizing on her appearance as the May 1973 Playboy Playmate of the Month, Anulka had a cameo as circus performer Lola Montes in Ken Russell’s extravagant rock fantasy Lisztomania (1976). Anulka made a few more undistinguished pictures and eventually drifted into the rock scene.
Vampyres is far bolder than the Hammer "lesbian vampire" product of the day (such as The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula, both starring the alluring Ingrid Pitt and offering only brief flashes of nudity and sadism). With Harry Kümel’s Daughters of Darkness (1971), Vampyres towers above the many erotic vampire films that have been made over the years (it is, for example, much more satisfying than The Hunger). In its restored form, Vampyres is notably bloodier and more sexually explicit than anything similar being produced today.
A note to our readers: Vampyres was produced by Brian Smedley-Aston (Exposé, Deadly Manor) for Lurco Films. The screenplay is based on a story by famed Belgian horror writer Thomas Owen. It was released under five other titles: Blood Hunger; Daughters of Dracula; Satan's Daughters; Vampyres, Daughters of Dracula; and Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness. (Harvey F. Chartrand is a writer based in Ottawa, Canada. His interview with actor Edmund Purdom ("International Man of Cinema") appears in the Spring-Summer 2004 edition of Shock Cinema magazine, while his analysis of actor Timothy Carey’s parallel career as a film director ("The World’s Greatest Director") is featured in the April-June 2004 edition of FilmfaxPlus magazine.) Thanks, Harv. This flick really pushed both the boundaries for non-porn horror erotica and what exactly constitutes a vampire. As a result, it can still pack a punch when viewed today. No doubt about it, the producers out-Hammered Hammer in its final years and did so with a certain style. This film isn't for the kiddies, but grownups should give it a viewing. Article copyright © Harvey F. Chartrand |
