Reviews & Ratings for
The Vampire Lovers More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 7:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Index

61 reviews in total

---

33 out of 42 people found the following review useful:
Who wouldn't love these vampires???, 26 November 2004

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

Where would the horror field be if it weren't for the legendary Hammer Studios? With their constant creativity and new variations on the general topic of vampirism they delivered some of the most important genre-films ever. Roy Ward Baker's film the Vampire Lovers is one of the most essential movies Hammer ever released and it meant a landmark turning point for the sub-genre of bloodsuckers. Due to THIS film, vampirism afterwards always got immediately associated with eroticism and lust. The Vampire Lovers influenced notorious directors like Jess Franco (Vampyros Lesbos, Les Avaleuses) or Jean Rollin (Lips of Blood, The Living Dead Girl) who practically made an entire career out of lesbian vampire movies. But this is the real thing! A stunning screenplay, based on a classic tale by Sheridan Le Fanu, solid acting performances and an atmospheric – almost dreamlike – photography. Ingrid Pitt plays the best, most memorable role of her career as the gypsy vampire Carmilla. Her sensual character seduces attractive young girls at the homes of prominent men where she's at guest and turns them into weak, lifeless slaves. The worried men have to uncover the origin of this vampire wench in order to destroy her forever.

'The Vampire Lovers' offers a nearly perfect combination of atmosphere, beauty and tension. Mostly thanks to the female cast led by Ingrid Pitt, this is the most bewitching horror tale Hammer ever told. The ravishing naked bodies of Pitt, Madeline Smith (Theathre of Blood) and Kate O'Mara (Horror of Frankenstein) will give this film a spot in your memory forevermore. And that's not a sexist remark; it just needs to be said. Other than the charismatic female appearances, this production also depends a lot on the eerie set pieces and the nightmarishly dark images of graveyards, ruins and castles. Overall, a splendid horror film and a must see for all fans of Hammer, vampirism or gorgeous beauties.

---

22 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
The vampire legend get the sex treatment from Hammer Studios, 24 December 1999
Author: augiedog (ernspin@aol.com) from Philadelphia PA

Hammer Studios speeds up to the more sexually explicit times with Vampire Lovers, a sleek, beautifully filmed atmospheric filming of the vampire tale Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. This wonderfully done film combines the traditional vampire legend with the more permissive sexual standards of the 70's resulting in a sensual yet frightening version of this well crafted story. Ingrid Pitt is breathtakingly beautiful & sensual as the main character Carmilla. She is the human embodiment of a sexually charged feline, and Peter Cushing is appropriately sincere as her nemesis The General. This film singlehandedly established Ingrid Pitt as the reigning queen of vampirism in the 70's. Vampire Lovers is well worth the time for a viewing.

---

16 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Similar to all the other Hammer horrors, except that it has some surprising elements of eroticism., 1 October 2004
Author: Jonathon Dabell (barnaby.rudge@hotmail.co.uk) from Wakefield, England

Hammer studios, having more-or-less exhausted the Dracula franchise by 1970, decided to freshen up their tales of vampirism by bringing in a lesbian angle. The result was The Vampire Lovers, a decent horror flick taken from Sheridan Le Fanu's story "Carmilla". The film breaks no new ground in terms of horror, but in terms of eroticism it probably raised a few eyebrows back in 1970, with its frequent nudity and explicit lesbianism. There's more to it than just the erotic stuff though - Ingrid Pitt and Peter Cushing are in commanding form; Tudor Gates's screenplay is pretty good; and there are some gruesome moments - including several decapitations - to satisfy gore-hounds.

Elusive vampiress Carmilla (also known as Mircalla and Marcilla - and played by the luscious Ingrid Pitt) escapes death at the hands of an Austrian vampire hunter. Carmilla fakes an accident to win the sympathy of the Morton family - nearby aristocrats - and soon she has been taken into their noble household. One thing to which Carmilla is quite partial is the blood of female victims, and pretty soon she has befriended Emma Morton (Madeline Smith), whom she hopes to entice into a lesbian love affair before vampirising her. However, Emma's father Roger (George Cole) and his friend Von Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) realize that something isn't quite right and eventually uncover Carmilla's sinister secret.

The film is handsomely photographed and nicely directed by Hammer veteran Roy Ward Baker. There's not much here to distinguish this one from all the other Hammer horrors, other than the stronger-than-usual sexuality. However, fans of the Hammer style films will not mind that, as the "sameness" of the studio's films quite often adds to their charm. I can't really bring myself to recommend this film whole-heartedly. Let's just say that if you like Hammer's period horror films - or if you're a fan of Pitt or Cushing - you'll find plenty to enjoy here.

---

10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
A Hammer Classic, 7 August 2000
Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

This film gets a lot of ribbing for the casual nudity that bedecks it. Not fair. This film is in many ways another Hammer classic with its good solid acting, its lush photography and costuming, and general sense of horror. It is based in part on Sheridan Le Fanu's classic female vampire story Carmilla about a young girl that befriends other young girls only to vampirize them. Ingrid Pitt plays the toothy(and toothsome) vampire wench in all her busty splendour. She is magnificent on the screen and oozes sex appeal. Yes, she goes topless as do her female co-stars....but although one sees that these scenes feel forced...they do not detract from the film(and for me they enhanced it greatly). The rest of the cast is good with Peter Cushing as a general in a small role and Harvey Hall as a servant standing out. The best part of the film for me is the eerie graveyard of the Castle Karnstein that we are introduced to in the prologue and again visited to in the epilogue. It really sets the mood of the story and was a pretty inspired rendition of the Carmilla tale.

---

11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
The lesbian vampire movie as moonlit poetry, 26 September 1999

Author: Forester-2 from Glasgow, Scotland

An ocean of mist hangs above a grave. A figure enveloped in a white shroud swirls through that mist with balletic grace, then rakes a hand across a bloody mouth.* A man at his niece's deathbed calls for her missing friend. The call echoes through the empty chambers of the house and down the terrace outside, where the wind blows fallen leaves through the autumn night. The calls merge with older echoes in a cemetery beneath a ruined castle. A woman walks in those mists, clad in her nightgown. The mists dissolve her from sight. * "I want you - to love me - for all your life," pleads a beautiful vampire turning from the view through a moonlit window to clasp the girl she loves with desperate intimacy. * That same vampire woman stands on a terrace in the sunset, tears glinting in her eyes while she listens to the ancestral echoes that condemn her to her fate. *

Yes, this is pure Hammer Horror: a work conceived as sheerest exploitation which somehow transforms itself - in its greatest moments anyway - to an authentic romantic poetry. Yes, of course, a lesbian vampire movie made by men may seem the height of sexism, and at a conceptual level the movie may be open to those charges. But a female gothic artist was involved here: Ingrid Pitt, whose Carmilla is such a vivid presence as to render herself the character we root for and her patriachal enemies as the true pale-faced monsters (Has Peter Cushing ever come across as less loveable?). Other screen vampiresses are bimbos or boogeywomen or upmarket fashion plates by comparison: Pitt is tigerish, witty, tender, passionate, vulnerable, savage and tragic: Perhaps the only actor, male or female, who has brought to full life all the complexities of the vampire psyche. She's great and the other film-makers, at their best, rise to the challenge she sets. The movie is hardly unflawed but when its accidental poetry gels, few movies in its genre can surpass it.

---

11 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
The last good Hammer movie?, 27 February 2004

Author: funkyfry from Oakland CA

Certainly a movie one would use the word "good" for rather than "great", but this movie does contain flashes of the unique attributes that made Hammer such a winner in the first place but which had been largely forgotten by the company in its rush to replicate the success of "One Million Years B.C." with cheap imitations. Ingrid Pitt is probably the film's greatest asset, along with the very well done sets and art design in general.

Pitt plays a vampire lesbian who uses various forms of deception to seduce the daughters of England's upper crust. She comes off great in the role of seductress and is just barely convincing enough as the "innocent" her character pretends to be.

Cushing makes only 2 brief appearances, not making much of an impression (but he's given very little to work with here in a role that just about anyone could have played).

Memorable, not as good as Hammer's best vampire film "Dracula" (aka "Horror of Dracula", US) but definately one of its better, if not its best, films of the 70s.

---

10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
One of the Best Vampire films--Excellent Telling of the Carmilla Tale, 10 September 1999

Author: stuthehistoryguy from Omaha, Ne

_The Vampire Lovers_ is one of the most faithful adaptations of a story I have ever seen in a major production. Based on J. Sheridan LeFanu's _Carmilla_, Baker's film captures the essence of evil wrapped in feminine beauty. Ingrid Pitt plays Mircalla with great restraint; her character comes off cold and deceptive, but still driven by a need for love. The action is well timed and choreographed, and the nudity, though a bit gratutious at times, is photographed sensitively and with great appreciation for the actresses.

Yes, this is something of a guilty pleasure because of the leads' beauty, but if one looks beyond the titilation, the story, photography, and performances in _The Vampire Lovers_ hold up very well indeed! 8 out of 10.

---

9 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
a sapphic, graphic masterpiece, 2 June 2002
Author: akersbp from post-apocalyptic wasteland

I tend to like the classic horror films of Hammer, Universal, and American International, and "Vampire Lovers" is an esteemed favorite. There are many elements skillfully blended in this fine production, but the central appeal is Ingrid Pitt who breathes passionate, undead life into her role. Her impressive acting ability is matched by her smoldering screen presence and beauty. She is perfectly cast in this role. Wow, did the people who made this movie ever know what they were doing. The costumery, the lighting and photography, the staging, the acting and direction, all combine seamlessly for a stunning spectacle to be savored over and over again. This is the movie that single-handedly minted the "lesbian vampire" as a major cinematic motif, and set the standard for comparison that later entries in this genre would forever be judged by. I doubt we would ever have had such films as "Vampyres," "Vampyros Lesbos" or various Jean Rollin movies (not to mention Hammer's other Karnstein trilogy entries) without this film. And this movie could never have been as good without Ingrid Pitt. Her command of acting nuance is really something. Check out her facial expression when she's in the broken-down coach and Laura, all excited, tells her: "You're to stay with us!"

---

8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
More British Vampire Erotica, 27 January 2003
Author: Damon Foster (damonfoster@earthlink.net) from Bay Area, CA

Seeing the upper nudity in a Hammer film came as a small surprise, since all the other Hammer movies I had seen are the edited versions on American TV. Mind you, I'm NOT complaining about getting to view the breasts of Ingrid Pitt.

VAMPIRE LOVERS is pretty typical of Hammer's other erotic horror movies, and as such, is pretty good. It's not real scary despite a few sudden scenes, but generates enough atmosphere to be worthwhile. It was also strange to finally see Peter Cushing playing a vampire killer who's NOT Dr. Van Helsing.

As I understand it, there are other films in this series (all of which were based on the historically evil woman Carmella, rumored to have bathed in the blood of her victims because she thought it would keep her young), which might explain why at least one character (a villainous male vampire) is never destroyed. In fact, he's never really explained.

My only complaint is some of the young actresses, though pretty and willing to show some skin, all look alike. There faces are similar, as are their bodies. Minor complaint though.

---

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A Warm Embrace for The Vampire Lovers, 14 July 2010

Author: mikhail080 from the ruins beneath the Planet of the Apes

I've finally caught up with this erotic supernatural thriller, which is bundled with "Countess Dracula" on an Ingrid Pitt Double Feature DVD. Having heard about this film since I was a boy reading "Castle of Frankenstein" magazine, I was well aware that more adult themes are included in this film than in the average Hammer vampire movie. And it still does have the power to shock today's audiences. I still wonder whether the "lovers" of the title are vampires or the mortals who love them? The question remains unanswered in my mind.

It's not news that "The Vampire Lovers" was based on Sheridan Le Fanu's novella, Carmella, and expounded on his original undercurrents of lesbianism and the eroticism often connected to vampire folklore. So here we have ancient vampire Ingrid Pitt traversing the countryside with her mother/aunt Dawn Addams, who looks near her contemporary in age. Apparently plenty of English Aristocracy easily throw open their doors for the likes of lovely, if somewhat distant, mystery ladies who make themselves right at home. Then beautiful vampire Pitt ingratiates herself with any virginal young lady in the household in order to slowly drain the blood from her body by biting her on the breast.

This is all pretty standard Hammer fare, but now served with a steaming hot portion of female skin and eroticism. Lovely and iconic cult figure Ingrid Pitt dominates the film, and she's fascinating to watch. All the women concerned are lovely to look at, and the proceedings move along at a nice pace, aided by colorful and atmospheric sets and locales.

---

---

Page 1 of 7:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Add another review

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Plot synopsis	Ratings
External reviews	Parents Guide	Plot keywords
Main details	Your user reviews	Your vote history