Vampyres

If you're thinking about working the midnight oil, don't. Showcasing the "femme fatale" category comes this European cult classic, and I'm glad to find it better than most....as long as it's not an action-adventure feature filled with lurid junk. Sex and eroticism aside, the feminist vampire idea actually works and does deliver extensive chills to make it worth the late-night shift. As horrifying as it sounds, it is effectively bloody and doesn't keep you away from the occuring eroticism. While we have the sensation of being in the dark and shivering in our seats, the movie sometimes doesn't know where to turn. A lot of wandering around creates confusion and lessens the full feeling of eeriness. I'm not sure if you've seen the Hammer movies, and neither have I, but there's enough in VAMPYRES to satisfy your blood-curled taste for fear. I'd be dead wrong to hate movies that have loads of sex. This one counts, and because it has the right type of atmosphere. Good for its kind.

Disjointed narrative traces the frolicking of two nubile female vampires. They waft along English country roads near their castle, dressed in shawls and other flowing garments like Stevie Nicks, and lure passersby back to their mansion with promises of sex. They then bite them and lap up their blood. Yes, true believers, it could happen to you (and no doubt, some of you wish it would).

Probably better than any of the slipshod Jess Franco/Jean Rollin pictures, this one is based on the viewer's desire to see its lead vampire vixens in the nude and rolling around with each other, as well as third parties who don't stay warm for very long. Other than this, there is very little plot at all, save for an unfortunate American couple who happen to be camping on the grounds of the vampyres' estate. Soon enough they are targeted by the vamps, and .... well, SOMETHING happens, and that's the end. Told you there wasn't much plot.

Some startling violence and an overall feel of the old Hammer Films productions make this interesting viewing for those who aren't easily offended by sex and violence. Otherwise, you'd better be into lots of lesbian softcore porn, or you'll be bored stiff.

Okay...this film's not for everyone. It's filled with 70's-style Euro-trash lesbian and hetero sex, loads of gore, and was shot in three weeks on a rather, ahem...modest budget, by a director who could barely speak English. The script was probably 30 pages long. But there's something afoot here. It's not un-artful, it has flashes of real chills, and it's dripping in subtext, something today's Jason/Freddy/et.al. films sorely lack. The relationship between the male protagonist, who suspects the woman making love to him is a vampire, and the vampire herself, who chooses to slowly drain him of blood rather than kill him outright like her other victims, is bizarrely moving (and kinky) on a few levels. This film won't make you forget, say, the Christopher Lee Hammer films...but it will be hard to forget in and of itself and for its own hard-earned merits.

The American Cinemateque gave a hundred or so lucky viewers the opportunity to watch what is likely to be the only surviving 35MM print of this film. Having seen dozens and dozens of Vampire-themed pictures, VAMPYRES certainly rates as one of the better little-seen titles in the sub-genre. Erotic, atmospheric and genuinely creepy, this film deserves fuller treatment in genre cinema studies. It is certainly the most 'oral' of all vampire pictures (you'll fully comprehend what I mean when you see it). A perfect double bill with the similarly themed (and even better) DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS.

In 1974 director José Ramón Larraz released this blood-soaked erotic film called Vampyres , which told the story of a lesbian vampire couple who would waylay and kidnap various passers-by, both male and female, to take them captive at their luxurious rural manor . British terror movie about two Vampyre women who cause dreadful murders , being originally directed by the Spanish craftsman Jose Ramon Larraz . This horror as well as semi-exploitation movie deals with a lesbian vampire couple (Marianne Morris , Anulka) abducts motorists and drivers , (Murray Brown , Brian Deacon , Michael Byrne) , to hold them at their large mansion in the English countryside in order to kill and feed on them to satisfy their insatiable thirst for chew their blood . Their starving wishes seem to carry out terrible deaths , which are impossible to stop . As they feed them wine, have passionate sex, and then stab them to death while drinking their blood . The alluring female Vampyres shared the pleasures of the flesh , bloody hungry , and the horrors of the grave . They unleash their fantastic skills and become even more violent and sadistic . A couple that has not yet found a place to park their camper attempts to find out the rare events leading to an old mansion in bloody results which end in death .

This frightening movie deliberately told contains thrills , chills , suspense , sleazy images and lots of violence and gore , including obnoxious killings . Jose Ramon Larraz master of arty gore and soft-core , brings this ghastly and stylish story plagued with eerie intrigue , nudism and depraved gore murders executed in a luxury mansion ; in fact , the house is Oakley Court, used for exteriors in several Hammer films , and for The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) , it was later turned into a resort hotel . It is a straight horror film that features gallons of sleaze upon sleaze and a lot of sexualised violence . The screenplay is credited to Diana Daubeney, director José Ramón Larraz's wife Diana ; according to Larraz and producer Brian Smedley-Aston , she didn't actually write a word of it . She was credited because, as a British citizen, she filled a UK production quota . This is an English exploitation from Hammer Vampyres vein , as Jose Larraz takes here and there from ¨The Vampire Lovers" , ¨Carmilla¨, ¨Countess Dracula¨, and ¨Twins of Evil¨ , among others . Sometimes weak screenplay is added to well-staged murders and some gory special effects . Furthermore , a scary and thrilling musical score creates a real terror . Colorful cinematography in Hammer style with glimmer as well as lurid colors .

This much-loved 70s shocker was professional and stylistically directed by Jose Ramon Larraz . The recently deceased (2013) Larraz started in cinema world by casual way when he meets the famous director Josef Von Stenberg running a cinematographic course in Brussels . Larraz was a director of horror and erotic films and former comic book illustrator and fashion photographer . Worked in England as Joseph Larraz, and in Spain, using the pseudonym Joseph Braunstein . Larraz subsequently shot horror classics , cult obscurities, euro-trash , and even some sexploitation . As he filmed his first movies in England , plenty of terror , suspense and sex , such as ¨Whirlpool¨ (1970) , ¨Deviation¨(1971) , ¨La Muerte Incierta¨(1972) , ¨Scream or die¨(1973) and ¨Symptoms¨ with Angela Pleasence and Peter Vaughan . He also shot soft-cores and then Jose Ramon returns Spain filming horror and semi-exploitative movies such as ¨Estigma¨ , ¨Ritos Sexuales Del Diablo¨, ¨Al Filo del Hacha¨ and ¨Descanse en Piezas¨ , imitating the American Slashers of the 70s and 80s . His most successful film is this ¨Vampyres¨ about bloodsuckers who get victims to pull over hitchhiking , played by Playboy young models with sexy bodies , blending arty house , horror and erotic situations .¨Vampyres¨ rating : Acceptable and passable terror movie . Most hardcore Euro horror fans will appreciate the kinkiness of this film as that is what gives it its distinctive flavour .