A Woman’s Bite: Sexy Vampire Movies

Sex has always been an undercurrent in vampire movies.  When Christopher Lee (as Dracula) chowed down on a new victim on screen there was always a hint of orgasmic pleasure. And when censorship relaxed, filmmakers exploited the breasts and blood angle with wicked abandon. The Quad Cinema (34 W. 13^th St.) is running two consecutive film series on sexy fang-bangers. Tre Outre: The Sinister Visions Of Jean Rollin ((Oct. 18-23) a retrospective of the wonderfully surreal films of French director Jean Rollin, whose career lasted over 50 years and who died in 2010. It wasn’t until the 80’s and 90’s, when a whole new generation began discovering Rollin on home video, that the director was finally respected and revered. His movies are singularly unique experiences, and the opportunity to see them projected in a theater is a dream come true. A Woman’s Bite: Cinema’s Sapphic Vampires (Oct. 26, Nov. 1) is really how influential Sheridan le Fanu’s Carmilla was, and how it was used as an excuse to sex up movies for decades. The movies, while all different, are actually inventive and sexy fun. Here are some of my favorites, most included in this terrific festival at the Quad. But if you don’t live in the city and have a Blu-ray player you can have your own festival.

Blood And Roses (1960)
For movie directors, Sheridan le Fanu‘s novel Carmilla was the go-to book about predatory female vampires. And this underrated film by Roger Vadim (Barbarella) is a beautiful, dreamy, and sensuous retelling of this tale. A fireworks display during a masquerade ball on a European estate unleashes the spirit of an age-old vampire who possesses pouty blonde Carmilla (Annette Stroyberg, who was married to Vadim at the time). A nightmare sequence where the color drains away to black and white with splashes of blood red is surreal and sensational. (This was only released in a ghastly pan and scan VHS in America but I tracked down a decent import DVD).

Vampyres (1974)
A great. sexy shocker directed by Jose Ramon Larraz about two seductive vampires (Marianne Morris and Anulka) roaming the English countryside looking for victims. A young couple staying in a camper witness the girls running with capes through the woods and begin to suspect something is not right. Heavily censored at the time, all the gratuitous nudity and violence is intact thanks to a great uncut Blu-ray from Blue Underground.

Requiem For A Vampire (1971)
French director Jean Rollin was once dismissed as the maker of “sexy vampire pictures,” which were unfairly critically attacked at the time. But now, thanks to glorious Blu-ray & DVD transfers from Kino Lorber‘s “Redemption” label, we are able to luxuriate in Rollin‘s darkly cinematic poetry and sexy obsessions. This movie may be one of his best — about two girls dressed in clown makeup on the run from the police who end up at a weird chateau and come under the spell of a group of vampires who want to use them to lure other men there and propagate their species. Practically dialogue-free, it’s surreal, strange, and unforgettable. Especially memorable is a shot of a bat feeding on a naked girl’s crotch.

Daughters Of Darkness (1971)
I can’t say enough about this elegant, erotic, horror film starring the divine Delphine Seyrig as an ageless vampire countess traveling with her cool, dark-haired lover (Andrea Rau),  stopping at a coastal off-season Grand Hotel in Ostend. There, she and her protege seduce and quench their blood thirst from young virgins. Directed by Harry Kumel, there are visually sumptuous scenes of mayhem (one involving a glass bowl that is particularly inspired). Blue Underground has given this this film a stunning Blu-Ray release.

The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Britain’s Hammer Films lurid retelling of the Sheridan le Fanu book starring beautiful Ingrid Pitt as the bosomy, predatory, noblewoman who lusts after her female relatives and drains them dry in 18th Century Germany. This was Hammer‘s last-ditch attempt to breathe life in their brand with lots of heaving breasts and blood and it’s great fun. Shout! Factory has this out on a gorgeous Blu-ray.

Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975)
Beautiful Cristina Ferrare (who was in real life once married to auto executive John DeLorean) plays a bisexual artist who is less a vampire than a woman with a rare blood disease who seduces and drains men and women of their life fluid to live. But who is the shadowy figure following her? Directed by Juan Lopez Moctezuma (Alucarda) this is finally out on Blu-ray (looking fabulous) on Code Red.

Female Vampire (1975)
The wildly prolific Jess Franco, who made close to 200 films in his lifetime, is finally getting the credit he deserves thanks to scholarly books about him like Stephen Thrower‘s amazing Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema Of Jesus Franco. His sado-erotic female fang-banger movies like Vampyros Lesbos are loony wonders. I have a soft spot for this lyrical masterwork starring Franco’s wife and muse Lina Romay wandering the countryside practically nude in a black cape who stops to have sex and then drain of blood a series of farmers and noblemen. A beautiful Blu-ray is available from Kino Lorber.

Countess Dracula (1971)
Actress Ingrid Pitt in one of her best performances based on real-life 17th century Hungarian noble woman and serial killer Elizabeth Bathory. Terrified of aging, the Countess discovers the rejuvenating effects of bathing in young girl’s blood so she captures and splashes in the hemoglobin of scores of unfortunate villagers. A wedding scene where she suddenly reverts to a withering crone as she strolls down the aisle is fabulous. This digitally restored Blu-ray is out from Synapse.

The Blood-Spattered Bride (1972)
This Spanish horror film (and possible political allegory) directed by Vicente Aranda is about a newlywed couple who are stalked by a mysterious woman from their hotel to the husband’s family home. Later the groom finds a naked woman buried in the sand, save for a snorkel as a breathing tube. He digs her up, drags her home and lives to regret it. A new Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro is the best this terrific film has ever looked.

The Hunger (1983)
Tony Scott‘s exercise is stylish ’80s vampire-chic. Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie play Miriam and John, a decadent wealthy couple who pick up couples at nightclubs and, using a gold ankh around their necks, slit the throats of their dates and use their blood to retain their youth. “Forever” they coo at each other in the shower afterwards. Susan Sarandon plays Sarah, a scientist studying diseases of the blood, who is contacted by John when he suddenly starts aging drastically. There was a sexy lesbian love scene between Miriam and Sarah, to which Susan Sarandon admits on the audio commentary of the exquisite new Blu-ray available from Warner Archives: “That really changed my fan base…”