#.sherry e. deboer

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The Velvet Vampire (1971)

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The Velvet Vampire | Stephanie Rothman | 1971

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The Velvet Vampire (1971) Stephanie Rothman

June 23rd 2024

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The Velvet Vampire

Stephanie Rothman’s THE VELVET VAMPIRE (1971) is in dire need of restoration; the print showing on Shudder is muddy. Given its cult status, it should also be a candidate for a remake by one of the interesting women who’ve been moving into the horror genre like the Soska Sisters or Coralie Fargeat. Rothman’s film is filled with ideas that never come to fruition. It opens with a glamorous woman (Celeste Yarnall) attacked by a masked rapist on a deserted Los Angeles street. When he moves in for the kill, she dispatches him easily. It ends with her driven off by a crowd brandishing crucifixes. But this isn’t a morality play about a powerful woman punished for self-determination. Instead, it’s an uneasy cross between vampire film and soft-core porn, inspired by Harry Kumel’s DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971), but with none of his intriguing mix of blood and sex. Rothman lurches between scenes of Yarnall attempting to seduce a couple (Michael Blodgett and Sherry Miles) at her desert home and attacking anybody who’s in the wrong place when she gets hungry. The actress has a wonderfully commanding presence, but the objects of her attention aren’t worthy of her. Blodgett’s character is a snarling, controlling lout. He’s always guiding his wife around, as if without him the poor dim thing would bump into the furniture. Miles, who later worked as Sherry E. DeBoer, is almost totally lacking in affect. She had an acting coach on set at all times. It didn’t help. Yet the image of Yarnall in a dark hat, gloves and blood red top tooling around the desert in a dune buggy is remarkably potent. It’s an iconic moment looking for a better movie.

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The Velvet Vampire (1971)

My rating: 6/10

A rather MANOS-y take on the whole Dracula story, wherein the vampire is a dune buggy driving, bisexual desert dweller (the dune buggy is, oddly enough, quite important to the plot until it isn't) that does her very best to seduce a young couple - not that it's very hard, I'm pretty sure there have been porn characters less down to bone. Everything about this is quite enjoyably weird and silly and drenched in psychedelic guitar noodling because 1971, and it would be great riffing fodder were it not for the aforementioned horniness - the characters spend so much time with their various bits hanging out, it honestly gets a bit silly.

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The Velvet Vampire (Stephanie Rothman, 1971)

Cast: Michael Blodgett, Sherry E. DeBoer, Celeste Yarnall, Gene Shane, Jerry Daniels, Sandy Ward, Paul Prokop, Chris Woodley, Robert Tessler, Johnny Shines. Screenplay: Maurice Jules, Charles S. Swartz, Stephanie Rothman. Cinematography: Daniel Lacambre. Art direction: Teddi Peterson. Film editing: Stephen Judson, Barry Simon. Music: Roger Dollarhide, Clancy B. Grass III. 

You won't see worse actors than Michael Blodgett and Sherry E. DeBoer (billed as Sherry Miles) as Lee and Susan Ritter, a young couple who fall into the clutches of Diane LeFanu (Celeste Yarnall) in The Velvet Vampire. And you probably won't encounter a wackier vampire movie, one set in the desert, of all places. But blood-sucking Diane seems immune to the sun until the very end, when she's attacked by a gaggle of cross-brandishing people under a sun that has pierced the Los Angeles smog. So what is this low-budget programmer doing on the Criterion Channel, that streamer of international film classics of the highest order? It's probably there because it's October, and the channel is doing its best to fill the annual glut of horror movies with some that demonstrate the history and variety of the genre. And also, perhaps, because director Stephanie Rothman was a product of the Roger Corman quickie-movie factory that gave a start to directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and James Cameron, and actors like Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, and Diane Ladd. Rothman never reached those heights, but she built a career in exploitation movies that were marked by her emphasis on strong women and her shrewd instincts as a writer-director. So The Velvet Vampire has become a cult classic for reasons that transcend the ineptness of some of its performances -- though Yarnall, in fact, is actually quite good in her role -- and the creakiness of its screenplay. Rothman makes the most of the desert setting, and she finesses the lack of a budget for stunt work and special effects when Diane meets her demise at the end. Unable to make the character appear to burst in flames, she cuts from the cowering Diane to a shot of logs in a fireplace, achieving the effect with simple editing. She provides an erotic charge by suggestion, with a comparative minimum of nudity. It's not a good film, but it's an entertaining example of how to do a lot with very little.

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The Velvet Vampire (1971)

[weirdlookindog]

Sherry E. DeBoer and Celeste Yarnall in The Velvet Vampire (1971)

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The Velvet Vampire | Stephanie Rothman | 1971

In dreams...

Sherry E. DeBoer, Michael Blodgett, Celeste Yarnall

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The Velvet Vampire | Stephanie Rothman | 1971

Sherry E. DeBoer, Celeste Yarnall

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The Velvet Vampire | Stephanie Rothman | 1971

Sherry E. DeBoer, and friend

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The Velvet Vampire | Stephanie Rothman | 1971

Sherry E. DeBoer, Jerry Daniels

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The Velvet Vampire | Stephanie Rothman | 1971

Sherry E. DeBoer, Celeste Yarnall, Michael Blodgett

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The Velvet Vampire | Stephanie Rothman | 1971

Celeste Yarnall, Sherry E. DeBoer

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The Velvet Vampire (1971)

#the velvet vampire#.sherry e. deboer#celeste yarnall#michael blodgett#1970s horror#1970s movies#1971#stephanie rothman#horror movie poster

The Velvet Vampire (1971)