Lust for a Vampire (1971)

At a finishing school for girls in 1830 Austria, one of the students goes missing; the administration is in a quandary, not knowing that another beauty from the village was recently murdered and her virginal blood was used to reincarnate Carmilla, a female vampire of the devilish Karnstein family, who arrives at the school under the guise of a new student. Screenwriter Tudor Gates (again mining Joseph Sheridan Le Fanuand's novella "Carmilla" for inspiration) and producers Michael Style and Harry Fine all return from 1970's adequate Hammer horror "The Vampire Lovers", but results are tepid this time. With new restraints handed down by the British censors, the team has scaled back on the lesbian overtures predominant in their previous film. Worse, the bloodsucker action also seems toned down in favor of a corny star-crossed romance between the vampire-heroine and a handsome human, an author and Royal heir who falls hard for the blonde beauty (they have sex in a grassy field to the strains of a pop love ballad!). Under these conditions, crack horror director Jimmy Sangster (filling in at the eleventh hour for an ailing Terence Fisher) might be excused for his flaccid handling--and yet, amazingly, there is not one drop of suspense in this scenario. Sangster is probably responsible for the picture's strongest sequence, with smitten school co-founder Ralph Bates groveling at the feet of the new Carmilla/Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard), though this scene, too, finishes poorly. Strong-jawed Michael Johnson positively eats his heart out after making love with the girl and finding himself rebuffed the next day, while a police inspector is killed while sniffing around and nothing is mentioned of him again. The writer and producers tried their luck a third time later the same year with "Twins of Evil", the final chapter of the Karnstein Trilogy. * from ****

For it to succeed as a sensual erotic horror, Lust For A Vampire requires a far more nuanced approach than an inexperienced director like Jimmy Sangster is able to give (his only previous directorial effort being the less-than-subtle semi-comedic The Horror of Frankenstein). Sangster's approach is basic to say the least, ladling on the Gothic silliness in the opening scenes, relying on the frequent female nudity to distract viewers from the script's sillier aspects, and cribbing his visual flair from the continental horror directors of the day.But although, as a work of art, the film is seriously lacking, as a silly, fun vampiric romp with plenty of quality T&A, it certainly delivers the goods. Set in a finishing school exclusively for attractive, pillow-chested babes, the film offers viewers non-stop titillation, with delicious Yutte Stensgaard as buxom Carmilla Karnstein frequently stripping off and getting raunchy with both her sapphic plaything Susan (Pippa Steel) and womanising author Richard Lestrange (Michael Johnson).Furthermore, Ralph Bates puts in a memorable turn as creepy professor Giles Barton, unintentional laughs are provided by Radio 1 DJ Mike Raven as Count Karnstein, who sports a wicked widow's peak and smartly clipped goatee, and is strangely dubbed to sound like Christopher Lee, and the film also features a hilariously inappropriate love song (Strange Love by Tracy) during a sex scene between Johnson and Stensgaard.In a suitably clichéd finalé, a rampaging mob of angry villagers, complete with flaming torches and pitchforks, set fire to Castle Karnstein, causing a beam to collapse and pierce the heart of the lovely Mircalla/Carmilla/Marcilla/Clamlair/Lilacram/whatever-the-hell-her name-is (which results in her turning into a flaming rubber dummy!).

This R-rated vampire film made me laugh. After all, a vampire who died over a hundred years earlier (Countess Carmilla) has been revived and she matriculates at a nearby girls school. While this idea is silly, it's even sillier since the school apparently is only for hot ladies ages 18-25! And, during much of their free time, they spend it dressing and undressing and kissing each other! It was all meant to be very sexy and at times it was, but I also laughed a lot since it was so contrived and clichéd. After all, they sure seemed to come up with so many excuses to get naked! However, despite this silly plot, the film actually was pretty good in many ways. Much of it was, I am sure, due to it being made by Hammer Films--a studio that had already made a bazillion horror films and knew how to get the look right. While it's far from the studio's best, it was pretty good--and a lot better than some of their other 1970s vampire films (such as "The Satanic Rites of Dracula"). And, if you are looking for boobies, then this film should do the trick.By the way, don't you think the guy vampire looked an awful lot like General Zod from "Superman II"?! And, although not a bad film, get a look at the silly way they killed off Carmilla! Pretty dumb and pretty convenient!!

The title sounds like a sleazy porn film, but Lust for a vampire is actually a (flawed) Hammer classic. It is 1830 in Styria, and Mircalla Karnstein is biting men and women in a classy girl-school. The well-lit colour photography looks more natural than the jewel-like Gone with the wind colours of 1950s Jack Asher period, but it is still beautiful, and the Gothic sets and suitably melodramatic score are wonderful. So is Miss Mircalla, who has truly striking, sensuous presence, and the breast-baring and heavy-breathing lipstick lesbianism is actually very tame. What comes to Mircalla's walking in the sunlight - well, you poor illiterates, Dracula and Carmilla and all the vampires before the silent Nosferatu could happily do that, thank you. The only problem in this enjoyable, if silly film is some truly horrible acting from Ralph Bates and the gay caricature in the tavern.