vampiremediareview

[vampiremediareview]

The Vampire Lovers

The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 horror film heavily based on the famous novel Carmilla. It was directed by Roy Ward Baker and starred Ingrid Pitt as Carmilla and Madeline Smith as Emma, our sort of stand in for Laura in this version.

The plot follows the typical storyline of Carmilla. A carriage crashes causes Carmilla to be taken in by Emma's family, whereupon she betwitches her into a love affair and she is quickly swept up with her. Carmilla is moody and seems to swing between emotions at the drop of a hat, meanwhile our gentle sweet Emma is growing fainter and fainter every day.

The main change that I noticed first is that Laura, the protagonist of the original book, dies within the first few minutes of the film and another girl takes her place. Something similar occurs between Laura and Bertha, though I'm not sure why this change was decided upon. Furthermore, their romance is a lot more explicit in this movie than in the book. The two kiss, explore each other's naked bodies and appear to have sex at one point.

The Standouts

Ingrid Pitt puts on a truly amazing performance as Carmilla. She's alluring and captivating to watch on screen. Everyone is fascinated by her- even the men in one of the opening scenes all crowd around her, amazed. She's often in these brightly colored blue and red dresses. It almost puts one in the mind of a poison dart frog in a way.

My Personal Take

As far as adaptations go, this one was quite lovely. The set design of Karnstein Castle is appropriately gothic and lux... The scenes that are meant to be scary do come across as such. They didn't spread themselves too thin or try to be too much at once like some other movies. They build an atmosphere of suspense, mystique, and horror interspersed between moments of eroticism between Carmilla and Emma.

It was difficult for me not to notice certain running themes, though they were minor. Obviously, there's the factor that this evil, bloodsucking creature bears a name that ends in -Stein, which is commonly used as a suffix of Jewish last names. Her hair also goes from light to dark when she becomes evil, something that is not my personal favorite trope in the world. Furthermore, Emma is weak and helpless to save herself, and has to be saved by a group of men from this...

A lot of these complaints are rather small in the long run, and not entirely the fault of the movie's creators as they were present in the book as well. It's just something that I like to consider when I'm thinking about a movie... "What do the vampires represent in this movie?" and Carmilla as a dark haired, foreign jewish demon isn't the best thing in the world.

Overall

Despite what I mentioned in the last section, I do highly recommend this movie. Even moreso than the previous one I covered. Though you may want to avoid watching it in public due to the aspects of nudity and sexuality. Let's face it, if you're on this blog, you're probably looking for problematic, evil vampires... If you like problematic, evil lesbian vampires then this is the movie for you. Definitely watch away!

[vampiremediareview]

Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck

The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck is a 1967 comedy horror movie directed by Roman Polanski. I first came to know about it through its musical adaption Dance of the Vampires, released in 1997.

The movie follows two bumbling vampire hunters in their pursuit of both knowledge and a human woman, Sarah, who's recieved the attention of the local vampiric Count von Krolock.

This movie hits all of the typical cornerstones of a vampire movie, right down to a mysterious vampire noble seducing an innocent young girl. The girl, Sarah, is honestly not as involved with the premise of the movie as I'd have personally liked, but I found Sharon Tate's performance as Sarah to be quite nice.

Though it is quite typical as far as vampire movies go, I found it's cinematography to be very interesting. The bleak sights of the winter forest around them creates an amazing sense of isolation and desperation. It creates a sense that they are truly alone and that they need to accomplish their goal in slaying von Krolock.

The Standouts

Sharon Tate's performance as Sarah is very good. It portrays the innocence of youth really well and her curiosity is nice as well. Her costume choice is beautiful and her acting in the final scene is entrancing. Ferdy Mayne's performance as Count von Krolock is nice as well. I especially enjoyed the scene where our two main characters were introduced to him... He has the aura of someone intimidating and dangerous, yet subdued. It was a little more subtle, but he seemed to have a way of lulling people in in different ways, such as when he offers Abronsius his library to use,

The opening credits are stylized in a beautiful way that had me captivated to watch more. The effects with the mirrors and the vampires' lack of reflections was breathtaking and amazing.

My Personal Take

It wasn't nearly as comedic or scary as I would have preferred. In trying to be both I find that is sometimes failing to be either. Abronsius is a little too bumbling for my tastes, though that might be a generational divide. I spent a lot of the movie, looking for symbolism in the plot and not finding much. I also found myself wishing that Sarah had more agency within the story, which leads us to our next section.

Dance of the Vampires

The version of this that I watched was the Berlin 2011 version on youtube (linked here). I primarily chose this one because of its subtitles. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I did find myself enjoying it quite a bit.

One of the main positives for me to this version is the way that Sarah has more agency. Though she is invited by the Count to the ball, it is by her own decision that she joins him there. I also liked that Alfred and Sarah had a stronger relationship in this, perfectly exemplified in their duet with "Draußen ist Freiheit".

The effects in this musical are even more impressive to me given that it is live. It took me a moment to realize that Herbert did not have a reflection in "Wenn Liebe in dir Ist" and once I did, I couldn't help but gasp. The use of color symbolism also doesn't go unnoticed, especially in Sarah's red cape and shoes opposing her white dress.

It is by no means a perfect musical. The relationship between Magda and Chagal left me scratching my head... I wasn't sure what to make of it. "Die Unstillbare Gier" seemed to me strange. I wasn't sure if it was meant to humanize the Count or not. At some point, I decided to give up on reading too much into it and just enjoy the amazing singing, acting, and set design that they put on.

Overall

In conclusion, I do recommend both the movie and the musical to watch. I may have been a bit critical of them, but they were both genuinely enjoyable experiences. I'd say that they are better than the average vampire b-movie coming out today. If you are on the fence about watching it, I would say you should do so. Even if only for the amazing cinematography and atmosphere.