Vampyres (1974)

Director:

José Ramón Larraz

Writers:

D. Daubeney (writer)
Thomas Owen (story)

Release Date:

January 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

They shared the pleasures of the flesh, and the horrors of the grave!

Plot:

A lesbian vampire couple waylay and abduct various passer-byes, both male and female, to hold them captive at their rural manor in the English countryside in order to kill and feed on them to satisfy their insatiable thirst for blood.

Plot Keywords:

Blood | Vampire | Lesbian | Lesbian Vampire | Hitchhiking

Cast

Marianne Morris	...	Fran
Anulka Dziubinska	...	Miriam (as Anulka)
Murray Brown	...	Ted
Brian Deacon	...	John
Sally Faulkner	...	Harriet
Michael Byrne	...	Playboy
Karl Lanchbury	...	Rupert
Margaret Heald	...	Receptionist
Gerald Case	...	Estate Agent
Bessie Love	...	American Lady
Elliott Sullivan	...	American Man

Also Known As:

Blood Hunger
Daughters of Dracula (USA) (reissue title)
Satan's Daughters
Vampyres, Daughters of Dracula
Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness (USA)

Runtime:

87 min | Australia:92 min | France:81 min | Portugal:88 min | UK:84 min (heavily cut)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (2003) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) | USA:X (original rating) | Australia:R (DVD rating) (2007) | Portugal:M/18 | UK:18 (video rating) (1989) (cut) | UK:18 (video rating) (2003) (uncut) | UK:X (original rating) (cut) | USA:R (cut)

Filming Locations:

Oakley Court, Windsor Road, Oakley Green, Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Lurco Films

Trivia:

Rumors abound about a missing scene in which Fran and Miriam are seen inside the caravan of John and Harriet. This rumor is borne out by production stills and a vague recollection by producer Brian Smedley-Aston that it was, indeed, shot.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Stephen King's World of Horror (1986) (TV)

These girls crave more than just a good time!

Some unknown intruder shoots two beautiful lesbian lovers dead one night, but they aren't dead for long, as they've returned as vampires. Where they roam the vacant countryside and lure passing motorists in giving them a lift back to their pad, where they tempt their victims with their beauty and passionately sexual advances that turn into uncontrollable lust for blood. While, this is occurring a couple is camping on the grounds and the young lady suspects that there's something strange is going, but her partner believes it's none of their business.

Ooh-la-la! It would be one almighty task to resist these vivid beauties. Though, I'll be damn if you can make any sense of what just happen here. 'Vampyres' might not make a lick of sense, but that doesn't stop it from being one intriguingly, titillating horror flick. What we see is basically - sex, nudity, more nudity, blood splatter, wild sex, even more gratuitous nudity, blood soaked goodness… I think you catch my drift. With it being infested with those traits, some might call it sleazy exploitation, but I found the sexual hunger of the two girls were rather tastefully done and the constant erotic activity between the pair and their victims fitted into the overall mood that director José Ramon Larraz was trying to achieve in this profile on obsessive sexual power. There's no doubt that it's a simple-minded Gothic piece that was filmed with a rather miniature budget, but noway does any of that hamper the elegant looking production. The straightforward plot and casually vague script offers no sort of any explanation to what's really going on here and there are many things that are brought up in the dialogues, never to be mentioned about again. Which could be frustrating for sure, but saying that the film has a trance like state that you could easily forgive it for those slip ups because it's hard to resist this picturesque dream (or nightmare). Yep, the downbeat atmosphere is laid on broadly with a luscious-looking countryside that paints an unwary tone and the exterior of the rundown mansion has a chillingly grandeur appearance.

While, there might not be much in the way of plot and some scenes don't entirely tie together, but gladly clichés or predictably don't have a big say in where this film heads. Yep that's right, it steers clear away from traditional vampire customs you see in other horror tales. Vampires are seen as sexual predators with the seductive suggestiveness and allegories usually associated with these mythological creatures, but here that's replaced with a relentlessly raw pleasure within the girls' raunchy acts of desire, flesh and lust. Where the ghastly violence and steamy sex become one ultimate fulfilment. When they dine on their victims it isn't graceful, but rather messy and immensely rough in nature. Those moments really take you by force on how unsparingly, intense these blood feasts really are. When they're in that mindset their sexual intentions becomes unstably feral and film's climax provides that terrifyingly unpleasant manner superbly. Larraz's isn't particularly trying to scare you or clutter the film with action, but to sprinkle an unnerving anxiety that's sustained by its underlying eeriness and sexually charged tension of the situation these innocent victims have got themselves into. Since the dialogue was rather sparse too there were many silent moments that helped create such increasing alienation with its sweepingly, strained sound effects.

The production might've been cheap, but the well-mounted cinematography was professionally crafted in capturing the booming surroundings with such memorable images and the tantalizing (if sometimes funky) score builds an alarming cloud of mystery where you can sense something is not right. The film's pacing is laid-back with many slow stretches and repetitive occurrences breaking through, but I never found it a dull viewing because of it. The performances were good all round, though nothing hugely spectacular because the characters aren't reasonably well defined and therefore there's a lack of emotional involvement towards them. Marianne Morris and Anulka Dziubinska play the two bombshell vampires Fran and Miriam who are voluptuously delightful in presence and they provoke a mysterious awe that's seamlessly hangs off the story. Then you got the victims, which were played by Murray Brown, Brian Deacon and Sally Faulkner. The latter two play the young couple that sometimes feel like after-thought within the story.

Maybe the plot ponders about and the cheap foundation shows, but they worked around it neatly enough to create a compellingly, stunning erotica that will definitely feed your hunger.