Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

The Vampire Lovers Blu-ray Movie Review

The Vampirism That Dare Not Speak Its Name.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 25, 2013

Roman Polanski’s elegantly disturbing film version of Rosemary's Baby is often credited with breathing new life into what was then a pretty moribund horror genre. Though it’s nowhere near in the same league as Rosemary’s Baby, either artistically or with regard to its inherent chills, The Vampire Lovers which came along a year after Rosemary’s Baby was perhaps in its own small scale and intentionally provocative way, just as revolutionary. Hammer Films had made something of a splash by revisiting several iconic Universal properties throughout the fifties and sixties, including Frankenstein and Dracula, investing them with their own lurid atmosphere and frequent Grand Guignol touches. But by 1970, the bloom was definitely off the rose and Hammer seemed to be perilously close to tipping over into self parody. That actually did happen to Hammer, but just a bit later than 1970, and in fact the so-called Karnstein Trilogy, of which The Vampire Lovers was the first part, was in some ways the studio’s last gasp of originality, albeit originality that many found objectionable at the time of the three films’ theatrical exhibitions. “Exhibition” is an unusually appropriate term for this trilogy, for The Karnstein films were rife with female nudity (including full frontal, something that was more or less verboten in those more delicate times), as well as a none too subtle lesbian subtext. The films were obviously titillating if never very scary, and over the years they’ve attained something of a cult status, foreshadowing the more libertine sensibilities that would inhabit films in ensuing decades. The ironic thing is that The Vampire Lovers, despite its occasional “naughty bits”, will probably seem downright quaint to many younger viewers raised on much more sexually explicit and gorier fare.

If asked to provide the literary roots of the vampire story, most people would probably instantly think of Bram Stoker and Dracula. It may be at least a little surprising, then, to realize that J. Sheridan La Fanu had Stoker beat by a couple of decades or more when his novella Carmilla was published in 1872. (There are of course countless antecedents to either Carmilla or Dracula.) Rather strangely, Le Fanu is very little remembered today, aside perhaps from some specialists, but in his day he was a rather popular writer and one credited with popularizing the Gothic genre as well as the ghost story in general. Ironically, Le Fanu’s vampire tale was one of the major impetuses behind Stoker’s much better known story. Le Fanu’s Carmilla was a fascinating early attempt at what might be termed “lesbian fiction”, albeit with a vampiric edge, and if the lesbian content was handled fairly discursively (as might be expected of a more genteel era), there’s little doubt that the gynocentric focus of the story was rife with a simmering sexuality, something that no doubt titillated readers and led to the work’s popularity.

The film starts with a prologue of sorts that introduces us to Baron Hartog (Douglas Wilmer) who is tracking a vampire (Kirsten Betts) who evidently killed his sister. In one of several unexplained things that crop up throughout The Vampire Lovers, Hartog mentions the vampire’s cloak, which it must have on in order to return to its graveyard home after feasting, with Hartog running a kind of insane gauntlet to get to this vampire’s sheath, even though he’s clearly only a few feet away from where the vampire stood a moment ago. What’s kind of funny about all of this is that the vampire is still cloaked, even after Hartog picks up the piece of dropped clothing (and more cynical minds might be questioning why a vampire would drop their cloak in the first place if it was so important to getting them back “home” safe an sound). Hartog dangles the cloak in front of the vampire, who tries to exert her feminine wiles on the Baron, only to be dissuaded by first his crucifix and then his sword.

The Vampire Lovers then segues into its main story, which sees young vampiress Marcilla (Ingrid Pitt) ingratiating herself into the home of General von Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) after Marcilla mother, The Countess (Dawn Addams), claims that a close personal friend has died and she needs to visit the grieving relatives. What’s really happened is that The Countess has been contacted by a man whose presence in the film is never completely explained, but who seems to be the Chief Vampire (so to speak) who controls all that goes on, albeit from afar. This is mentioned in one of the featurettes included on this Blu-ray, making the interesting (if somewhat salacious) point that the filmmakers changed what was originally a purely lesbian storyline into one featuring a man who acted as voyeur, watching lesbians go about their business.

Marcilla makes relatively quick work of The General’s daughter and then disappears, only to show up at another tony household, this time the property of Roger Morton (George Cole), who just so happens to have his own winsome daughter named Emma (Madeline Smith). Marcilla is now sporting the new name of Carmilla, but her behavior remains more or less the same, although this time she’s fighting her own romantic inclinations toward Emma, seducing the girl at one point only to suck her blood the next. It takes the Morton household a good long while to figure out what’s going on, during which quite a bit of carnage takes place. Only the late arrival of the General and the now elderly Baron Hartog manages to set things mostly aright, though as any good screenwriter will, scenarist Tudor Gates leaves a rather broad opening for a sequel (which of course turned out to be the case).

The Vampire Lovers is ultimately a pretty silly film, even by early seventies Hammer standards, but it’s also easy to see why the film has attained such a cult status over the intervening years. There’s a simmering sexuality running rampant through this film, and while Roy Ward Baker may hide lesbian kisses behind candelabras and the like, he makes no bones about showing ample bare bosoms (and even a bit more than that on occasion), pushing the envelope ever so slightly and creating a different kind of shock value than that which typically accompanies horror fare. Some may be drawn to this film simply due to its perceived camp value, but there’s something kind of oddly enticing lurking just beneath the copious amounts of hammy acting and naked flesh that may appeal to those without a hint of post- modern irony in their souls.

The Vampire Lovers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Vampire Lovers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory's Scream Factory imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The elements here have some issues that include quite a few scratches and other blemishes, as well as what appears to be at least some minimal fading, which keeps the typical lurid Hammer color scheme from popping quite as well as one might hope. The overall image here is relatively soft quite a bit of the time, with midrange and wide range shots exhibiting even more fuzziness. Close-ups still offer above average fine detail. Reds seem just slightly orange some of the time and flesh tones are also slightly on the ruddy-pink side of things (see the first screenshot of Cushing for a good example). Overall, though, this is still a substantial improvement from the old Midnite Movies DVD two-fer, which is the last home video incarnation of the film that I experienced. Fans coming to the film with appropriate expectations will probably be reasonably well satisfied with the results here.

The Vampire Lovers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Vampire Lovers features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that has some minimal hiss, pops and cracks along the way, but which sounds rather good overall. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and the film's rather hyperbolic score also sounds quite spry. (The film has some unintentionally funny cues—listen for example when the General sees the fang marks on his daughter's bosom and knows the die is cast. Listen to how long the string runs go on for in that cue.) Fidelity is very good if not overwhelming and dynamic range is reasonably wide.

The Vampire Lovers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Feminine Fantastique – Resurrecting The Vampire Lovers (1080p; 9:52) gives some really good background on the film focusing on both adapting Le Fanu's novella as well as how the film changed some of Le Fanu's original conceptions.


• Reading of "Carmilla" by Ingrid Pitt (1080p; 12:05) starts with a snippet from the film itself and then segues to a sort of "video" audio book of Pitt reading that plays to stills from the film.


• Madeline Smith: Vampire Lover! (1080p; 20:35) is a fun interview with the actress.


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 8:18)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 2:18)


• Radio Spot (00:51)


• Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker, Star Ingrid Pitt and Screenwriter Tudor Gates is hosted by author Jonathan Sothcott. This is a fascinating commentary that should be of interest not just to Vampire Lovers lovers. Pitt is a bit hard to understand at times, but Baker and Gates are especially interesting, giving a glut of background on why the film was made, what the state of Hammer and the British film industry in general were at the time, as well as lots of anecdotal information about the shoot itself.

The Vampire Lovers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Most people I know who have an overt fondness for The Vampire Lovers are only too aware of how silly and in fact illogical it is at times, but that seems to be part and parcel of the film's abiding allure (not to mention the nude shots of Ingrid Pitt). Those with a slightly skewed sensibility will no doubt appreciate this film's incipient lesbianism, especially since it's presented in such a discursive fashion throughout the film. Frankly, things are never all that scary in this film, despite some pretty graphic blood and gore, but there's a slightly goofy quality to The Vampire Lovers that makes things unexpectedly enjoyable. This Blu-ray has less than perfect video, but the audio is quite good and the supplements are a lot of fun. Recommended.