4. The Blood Spattered Bride (1972)The Blood Spattered Bride is one unique gem of a movie, visually stunning, narratively surprising and truly erotic. Alexandra Bastedo (from TV's The Champions) stars in this Spanish production by Vicente Aranda as yet another Karnstein lady who appears in bridal gown in front of newly wed Susan (Maribel Martin) and encourages her to top off her forever-nameless but utterly sadistic husband (Simon Andreu).
This can easily be read as a feminist pamphlet, yet sympathies with the characters gradually change; though the husband is portrayed as utterly despicable right from the start, we also end up feeling for him towards the end, when he becomes a deeply flawed character chased by mysterious forces beyond his control.
This film is quite often Lynchian in its assortment of scratching-your-head-what-on-Earth-is-going-on-moments, yet - as with David Lynch - Aranda manages to create a unique and compelling universe that works, despite often making little "sense" in the traditional meaning. Watch this movie and tell me your jaw didn't drop when Bastedo's character is seen buried in the sand revealing only her breasts and a weirdly out of place diver's mask! And two girls in one coffin? Works for me!
3. The Hunger (1983)Most of the movies in this Top 10 are European. For some reason lesbian vampire movies don't seem to have made a tremendous impact on Hollywood. There may be a message in this somewhere that I have yet to find. So it is little surprise that one of the very few American entries in this sub-genre still has a very strong European presence, with English director Tony Scott at the helm and stars Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie only leaving room for one American, Susan Sarandon, as a main contributor.
The American influence of Whitley Streiber's source novel, on the other hand, guarantees that for a change we have a movie outside of the usual Olde Worlde Karnstein league. The Hunger features modern day New York and a then-hip soundtrack that includes Bauhaus, amongst others. The vampires in this film are also far removed from the usual Eastern European kind, and are instead creatures feeding on the human lifeforce in general.
This is a highly original movie, and criticising its emphasis on style over substance is hardly valid for a sub-genre so often dominated by stylish imagery masking a poorer story. A lot of the scenes are no longer as hip as the director intended, but embarrassingly naff reminders of the decade that was really abandoned by the style police. Still, none of that can detract from the class that The Hunger oozes.
2. Daughters of Darkness (1971)Harry Kumel's Daughters of Darkness has the honour of being Belgium's first - if not only - true horror film. The country not known for producing anything else, ahem, Stella other than beer has come up with a truly outstanding entry. Daughters is loosely based on the Bathory saga, and features Delphine Seyrig as the immortal Countess travelling with a beautiful female companion (Andrea Rau) to a deserted off-season hotel in Ostend.
Here they meet two newlyweds (John Karlen and Daniele Ouimet). Both couples are emotionally damaged: one of them has to face the wrath of a domineering and, errr, unusual groom's mother; the other has to deal with the prospect of having one immortal member in constant need of new and ever-changing companionship.
In a lot of ways the two vampires even appear more caring and human than the conventionally married ones, if it wasn't for the fact that they're also currently embarking on a killing spree through the local girls.
While the film ignores some of the classic vampire clichés (no sign of fangs anywhere), it also playfully acknowledges the classic lore: As vampires are generally allergic to running water, a visit to a shower proves to have a tragic outcome. (Not a problem that the Vampyres ladies seem to share.) Similar to The Shining, the elegant, but empty hotel adds tremendous value to the painfully beautiful atmosphere.
1. The Vampire Lovers (1970)Hammer's The Vampire Lovers is an absolutely outstanding production on every level, featuring a pleasantly straightforward storyline that never descends to the forced plot-twists plaguing other entries in the sub-genre. Aside from expert direction and cinematography, Vampire Lovers boasts the best assortment of actors ever to be found in these movies.
A lot of care was taken in finding suitably attractive female leads in other lesbian vampire productions, but they often fell flat when it came to casting their male counterparts. Not so here, where fine actors like Peter Cushing, Ferdy Mayne, Douglas Wilmer, Jon Finch and John Forbes-Robertson complement the glamour on hand from the female stars.
Lovers features Ingrid Pitt, Kate O'Mara, Madeline Smith, Dawn Addams, Pippa Steele and Kirsten Lindholm (who ended up having minor parts in all three Hammer 'Karnstein' movies). Ingrid Pitt is quite simply the quintessential Carmilla Karnstein.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012