The 1970’s was the decade of the gothic lesbian vampire film. The exploitation efforts of Jean Rollin (LIPS OF BLOOD), Jess Franco (VAMPYROS LESBOS), and Hammer (LUST FOR A VAMPIRE) were enormously popular at the time. These films successfully combined the fear of death and eroticism, which struck a cord with male audiences. Many of the films merely hinted at the overt sexuality, and most never fully explored the sexual aspects of the genre’s premise. That all changed in 1974, when upstart Spanish director Jose Ramon Larrez (or Joe as he is called stateside) raised the bar with the ultimate depiction of sex and horror, VAMPYRES. Larrez teamed with producer Brian Smedley-Astin to film their adult vampire epic in England. By the time VAMPYRES was released there, the censors cut out most of the offensive scenes, castrating the power of this artsy exploitation picture. Luckily when the film played the Drive-In circuit in America (as DAUGHTERS OF DRACULA), we got to see what the British audience didn’t--powerful sex trysts and disturbing death scenes. Thanks to Larrez’s scripting and directing skills, VAMPYRES rose to top of its genre. Today, VAMPYRES is a highly regarded classic in Euro horror-circles, and rightly so. Mostly ignored by home video companies, the bold Anchor Bay Entertainment stepped forth in 2000 and gave this controversial film a special edition DVD release.

Larraz has several other genre titles to his credit including THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED, BLACK CANDLES, REST IN PIECES, and EDGE OF THE AXE. The brunette Marianne Morris is mesmerizing as the lusty creature of the night, Fran. Former Playboy model Anulka (LISZTOMANIA) Dziubinska portrays her colder companion, the blond Miriam. Murray Brown (who played Jonathan Harker in Dan Curtis’s 1973 version of DRACULA) is Ted, a man caught in Fran and Miriam’s web of deceit. Brian (GENESIS PROJECT) Deacon plays the disbelieving young camper, John. Sally (DEADLY FEMALES) Faulkner is his girlfriend, Harriet, who stumbles across the secret of the vampires. Karl (THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED) Lanchbury essays the role of the gullible victim, Rupert. Michael (THE MEDUSA TOUCH) Byrne cameos as a wine tasting connoisseur who falls victim to the charms of the sexy duo.

As the film begins, two beautiful young women, Fran (Morris) and Miriam (Anulka) are making love in a gothic chateau. An intruder interrupts and shoots them dead. Later, the two women are reborn as the undead (at this point the audience is unaware they are vampires). They prowl the regions surrounding the gothic manor they were killed in, and use their sexuality to lure horny male victims into their bloody death trap. A young couple, John (Deacon) and Harriet (Faulkner), are on vacation and camping in the English countryside. The couple drives by Fran and Miriam and notice them hitchhiking. Fran flags down a car driven by Ted (Brown), and asks for a ride. He gladly brings her to back to her home--that same gothic manor deep in the woods. Fran asks him to come inside, and what red-blooded male would refuse that invitation? She sweetly seduces him, and while Ted sleeps, she slashes his arm. Ted never fully recovers from this wound, as he is disoriented for the rest of the film. When he wakes up the next morning, Fran is gone.

A confused and groggy Ted stumbles out of the mansion and into the surrounding woods, where he meets up with the campers John and Harriet. She has been spying on the old dark house the entire time, and she feels something is dreadfully wrong with the people who reside within it. She tends to Ted’s wound, and he wishes them farewell. Ted cannot bring himself to leave however, and returns to the house for a second helping of Fran. At nightfall, Fran returns to the house with her "friend" Miriam and her "date" Rupert. The four of them begin partying, and Fran lures Ted back to her room to seduce him. When he passes out, Fran joins Miriam in murdering Rupert. They have sex with one another in the same bed as Rupert’s bloody body, and lick all the blood off him. After their feast is ended, they clean up the mess and stage a car crash on the nearby main road, to make it look like Rupert got into a bloody car wreck. Harriet curiously monitors the coming and goings of Fran and Miriam, and she realizes that the women are aware of her presence. Ted finally wakes up, and determining Fran’s true motives, tries to escape.But Fran uses poisoned wine to keep him within her grasp. Meanwhile, Harriet continues her private investigation. She enters the mansion during the day, and searches the basement where she discovers Fran sleeping soundly. She returns to inform John of the tale but he does not believe her. Which is too bad for him, because now Fran and Miriam have shifted their attention to John and Harriet. Ted struggles in vain to escape Fran’s influence while the two vampires stalk John and Harriet.

VAMPYRES is quite simply the greatest lesbian vampire movie ever made. This can all be attributed to director/screenwriter Joe Larraz, (who allowed his wife D. Daubeney to take credit for the screenplay he wrote). Larraz’s script tosses out the vampire cliches and these creatures of the night do not have sharp teeth, don’t turn into bats, don’t sleep in coffins, and don’t get staked through the heart. This is a fresh approach of vampirism, which is treated more like a disease. When these vampires attack, it is in an intensely gruesome manner. Like sharks kicked into a frenzy by the smell of blood, Fran and Miriam drink (and lick) the blood of their victims, then engage in sexual activities when their blood lust has subsided. They have sex in a bed, in the cellar, and in (my favorite) the shower.

Larraz imbues VAMPYRES with a genuine European flavor, including delicious photography. The film is full of gothic imagery, including the vampires dressed in black traversing through fog shrouded cemeteries in artfully composed shots. Like European art films, Larraz takes his time establishing a framework for the film, and patient viewers will be rewarded. In one scene where Fran and Miriam race through subterranean tunnels, Larraz keeps the camera angle low, emphasizing the crypt-like claustrophobia and shadowy catacombs. Furthermore, Larraz seems to be making some kind of twisted statement about feminism. In this film, women are the aggressors, seducing and killing male victims on a whim. The entire male cast is hugely overshadowed by the female characters. While Larraz’s screenplay makes an effort to differentiate VAMPYRES from similar genre pictures, he fumbles the ball with some plot complications (but hey, European art films never explain their logic). After killing their victims, Fran and Miriam clean up the mess and place the corpse inside the victims automobile then stage a traffic accident. Wouldn’t the police question a series of automobile catastrophes on the same stretch of highway? As in most British films, the police in VAMPYRES are depicted as incompetents. The unidentified intruder who shoots the lesbian lovers into the introductory sequence is never followed up. Also, Larraz never explains what type of vampires they are or the extent of their powers.

The reason why VAMPYRES succeeds is not on the strength of its male protagonists, but rather the performances of the female sexual predators, Marianne Morris and Anulka. Morris is charming and alluring, while Annulka is vicious and callous. These two actresses had no previous screen credits, and were chosen based solely on their looks and how they took direction. We can’t imagine anyone else in these roles. Their voices were dubbed by more dramatic actresses, but you can hardly tell. Still, they listened closely to Larraz’s instructions, and the physical performances these two ladies give are unrivalled in the history of vampire films. The male counterparts exist in this film merely to be playthings or nourishment for this deadly duo.

-  Phil Chandler

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