By Melissa Antoinette Garza
On a scale from 1-10, this movie is rated yummy! VAMPYRES (1974) opens with two gorgeous naked women, Fran (Marianne Morris) and Miriam (Anulka Dziubinska), sharing some wonderful experiences in bed together. An unseen man, let’s call him Van Killjoy, comes in and blows them away. Those lovely ladies weren’t hurting anyone. They were just playing! Let them play! I want to watch them play!
When Fran and Miriam reemerge, it’s clear they are now vampires. They take to the streets. Fran briefly stops a car and gets inside while young couple, John (Brian Deacon) and Harriet (Sally Faulkner) watch on from their trailer. They are out camping and Harriet is instantly suspicious. She saw Miriam hiding in a tree and wonders why she didn’t approach the car with Fran. John believes his wife to be paranoid. Still, it becomes clear that not only are the women strange, but they are staying in a huge castle visible from their trailer.
The next day, Harriet watches while Fran and Miriam go into the woods together. When Fran returns with a man, Harriet’s concerns come back. She tells John who once again dismisses her. I loved how 1970s horror made the common sense logic of males characters always fail against women intuition. It’s a subtle celebration of feminism that I miss and don’t quite see anymore.
Fran has a night of passion with Ted (Murray Brown) an attractive boy-toy that she picked up. Afterward, he awakes dizzy and disoriented. He notices fresh wounds on his arm as cold sweat pours down his face. Fran is nowhere to be seen and in a truly unsettling scene, he walks down an empty, dark hallway yelling for her. No music plays which adds to the tension. It’s the simplicity of the scene that makes it so jarring. You’re waiting for the noise, any noise; but other than the rustling of his clothing and his soft footsteps, we hear nothing. It’s superbly smooth and transparent. When the music does start playing it’s only a few short chords and done at just the right moment.
When Ted leaves, he runs into Harriet and John who take him inside their trailer. Harriet puts antiseptic on his cuts and tries to get some info about the castle’s residents. He says nothing, but the couple does find it odd that he goes back to the house.
Fran finds Ted waiting in the car for her and she apologizes for taking off. She introduces him to Miriam and Miriam’s date Rupert (Karl Lanchbury). The four drink wine together and are having a nice time when the couples separate to go have fun on their own.
Fran makes love to Ted again. When he falls asleep, she feeds on his arm. Meanwhile, Miriam fed off Rupert so much that he’s a bloody mess. When Fran sees how messy Rupert is she can’t help but join in on the feed. It’s a crazy, gory wild scene followed by a sexy lesbian shower romp. It is fantastic!
The vamps run into Harriet and Fran reveals there’s more at play than coincidence with them all meeting. Back at home, Ted questions the women about the death of Rupert. In a glorious scene, Fran without emotion talks of how terrible Rupert’s demise is. It’s wickedly hilarious. I love Fran!
Fran controls Ted easily. She’s strong, confident and incredibly bad. It is smoldering! When Miriam gets involved it’s all the better. The chemistry between the women is near tangible in its effects.
VAMPYRES is one of the all time greats! It has fantastic pace, a solid plot, great characters, amazing leads, a strong cast and a dark sinister tone which pays off marvelously. The love scenes are some of the hottest ever put to screen. I enjoy them immensely. The ones between Dziubinska and Morris are particularly rousing.
Currently, this baby is on AMAZON PRIME so if you don’t own it, enjoy it there.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8.5/10
