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DVD Daughters of Darkness
Art-movie goddess Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad) slinks through the plush Eurotrash settings as the deathless Elizabeth Bathory, Vampire Countess, in Harry Kümel's minor Dutch classic of lesbian erotic-gothic. Blood mingles with water during the languorous shower scenes. Set at an upper-crust seaside resort, the 1971 film recounts Bathory's plot to replace her current consort (Andrea Rau) with a fresher specimen, an abused newlywed whose brutal young husband is an inconvenience waiting to be eliminated. Although both the bi-sex and the neck-biting violence are tame by today's standards, the film has a graceful, gliding sense of pace that gets under your skin; something unspeakably kinky always seems to be just about to happen. It never quite does, but the mood lingers. See it with someone you love--or would like to. --David Chute
I'm delighted this will be available on DVD. I watched it on VHS a long, long time ago. I'd heard about it in various books on vampire films and haunted every video store I could find to locate a viewing copy. When I finally found it, I watched it with the enthrallment of the very young with the object of an obsession. Based loosely on the story of Elisabet Bathory, this "contempory" tale is of a young newly wed couple who are seduced by a mysterious woman whose interest in them is predatory.
Compared to current movie fare, this is extremely tame with it's allusions to S&M and chic debauchery, but the european elegance of the film will satisfy the die hard vampire film fan who enjoys the older movies that defined the genre in the late 60s and into the 70s. Not as openly sexual as the lush offerings of a Hammer film, it has it's own more subtle erotic charm.
A Guilty Pleasure
Let's face it: "Daughters of Darkness" is, at most, a guilty pleasure. Despite the cheesy music, overly dramatic dialogue, and uneven acting, this film is totally watchable. Delphine Seyrig is suitably seductive and enigmatic as the world-weary Countess Elisabeth Batori who in her search for blood and eternal life pounces upon a young couple in the Belgian coastal town of Ostend. Andrea Rau plays the countess's slave (and lover). John Karlen of "Dark Shadows" fame plays the husband who tries to save his wife from Batori's clutches.
Notorious when it was released theatrically in 1971 for its brief explicitness, this unexpurgated version is pure escapist Eurotrash and wonderfully watchable! It should appeal to both fans of camp classics as well as vampire movie buffs.
A Bewitching Vampire Tale...
Stefan, a British aristocrat with sadistic tendencies, and the beautiful Valerie, a simple girl, have eloped and are on their way home to break the news to Stefan's mother. However, Stefan is hesitant to bring his wife to see his mother as he delays the trip back to England on purpose by making up stories. The newlyweds decide to stay in an extravagant hotel on the seaside while Stefan attempts to buy some time. Stefan and Valerie are the only guests at the hotel besides the flamboyant Countess Bathory and her seductive secretary since it is off-season. During the stay the Countess Bathory has taken a liking to the couple and begins to seduce them both as she begins setting her wicked plan into action.
Daughters of Darkness is a vampire tale with a malevolently chilly and sexually tense atmosphere that haunts the mind with its subtle approach as Kümel avoids the popular approach of vampires. The vampires do not sleep in coffins nor attack the necks of their victims with sharpened elongated teeth. Instead Kümel disguises the threat of evil behind courteous behavior, alluring charm, and vivid gesticulations that become passionately seductive for the characters in the film. In addition, the mise-en-scene is strongly suggestive and vibrant colors are used in order to enhance the bewitching atmosphere that is viewed by the audience. This leaves the viewer with an uneasy, but artistic cinematic experience that selective audiences will appreciate.
"Naked girls and lots of blood, that's what Vampyres is about," says Joseph Larraz in the notes to the film. He rewrites the vampire myth to make his bloodsucking lovelies the restless ghosts of lesbian lovers murdered while making love in their shadowy castle. Reappearing nightly in the twilight forest, they lure men to their castle for blood feasts until the brunette vampire, Fran (Marianne Morris), falls for her latest victim (Murray Brown) and decides to keep him alive, a sex slave she slowly drains dry. "You're playing a dangerous game," warns blonde Miriam (Anulka), perhaps just a tad jealous. As the local cops watch a veritable wrecking yard of car crashes fill up the sleepy back roads (all with naked dead men behind the wheels), you have to wonder if anyone finds this a bit... More Info about this DVD Director(s): José Ramón Larraz DVD Release Date: Released the 27 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Polish-born actress Ingrid Pitt's erotically supercharged presence is the highlight of this double bill of vampire chills from Hammer Films. In Countess Dracula, Pitt stars as an aging noblewoman (inspired by the real-life Erzebeth Bathory) who discovers the secret to eternal youth in the veins of young virgins, while in The Vampire Lovers (based on J. Sheridan LeFanu's "Carmilla"), Pitt's sensuous bloodsucker seduces Hammer starlets Madeleine Smith and Kate O'Mara and incurs the vengeful wrath of Peter Cushing. Countess is the more sober of the two films, with Jeremy Paul's script and Peter Sadsy's direction playing out more like an Old Dark House mystery than Hammer horror, while Lovers' aims for comic-book thrills with plenty of nudity and violence (much of... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Peter Sasdy DVD Release Date: Released the 26 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A good enough film to watch, but why o why do people have to just take a name from a book ,and place a known char. in a completely unrelated story? Fritz lieber is spining in his grave, even though he probably did not invent Baba Yaga. She joins the sad list of Conan(I), The Dunwich Horror, most of the Dracula and Frankenstien, and Doc Savage; with the american Godzila thrown in. If you are going to change the story, charachters, motives, location and timeline; please go ahead and change the name as well. The movie would still be good, and there would not be so many hard feelings from those who read. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Corrado Farina DVD Release Date: Released the 27 May 2003 Usually ships within 2 to 3 days
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In the early 70s, some filmmakers did a lot more experimenting with sexuality and art than happens these days. Many of them combined the psychadelia movement of the time with the laissez-faire sexual attitude in their movie expression. You can see this in many of the "midnight movies" of the 70s.
Vampyros Lesbos certainly is a midnight movie, but unlike many midnight movies this one seems to click together a lot more. The scenes may be overpretentious at times but there are times when the film works, in its erotic-acid-trip imagination. Part of the reason for this is the tape-loop accented psychedelic-bachelor-pad score, which adds a lot to the mood and seperates this film from some of Jess Franco's other efforts.
I wouldn't call this a "good" film but it is a very effective "genre"... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Soledad Miranda - Dennis Price Director(s): Jesus Franco DVD Release Date: Released the 06 December 1999 THIS TITLE IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE. If you would like to purchase this title, we recommend that you occasionally check this page to see if it has become available.
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