TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Uriah43 "Giles Barton" (Ralph Gates) is a novelist who writes about vampires and his interest about them has led him to a finishing school for young women in a remote part of Austria. While there he meets a beautiful student named "Mircalla" (Yutte Stensgaard) and immediately becomes enamored with her. What he doesn't know is that there is more about her than meets the eye. On that note the same could be said for this movie as it is the 2nd film in the "Karnstein Trilogy" produced by Hammer Films which also includes its predecessor "The Vampire Lovers" and later "Twins of Evil". Naturally, being a Hammer production it has a good Gothic feel to it which adds to the overall ambiance. It also has several beautiful women of which both Suzanna Leigh (as "Janet Playfair") and the aforementioned Yutte Stensgaard stand out most prominently. At any rate, while it isn't necessary to see "The Vampire Lovers" prior to watching this film I would suggest viewing it first if for no other reason than to gain a bit of continuity. Likewise, I should also mention that the vampires in this movie don't follow the same general rules one might expect as they can walk around during the day with apparently no ill effects. In any case, this is a pretty good vampire movie and I rate it as slightly above average.

James Hitchcock The lesbian vampire was invented in 1872 by the Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu in his novella "Carmilla". Of course, Victorian codes of literary propriety forbade direct discussion of sexual matters, so the lesbianism in his story is implied rather than explicit, but anyone reading it will be left in no doubt that Le Fanu's anti-heroine is romantically attracted to her own sex. It was, however, to be nearly a century before the cinema could take advantage of his invention. Victorian values persisted long after the end of the Victorian era, with the Hollywood of the Production Code being one of their last bastions, and until the 1960s making a film about lesbian vampires would have been as unthinkable as making a film about lesbian anything else. Cinematic vampires were generally male and sexless; I doubt if anyone ever regarded Bela Lugosi as a sex symbol. With the coming of the permissive society, however, things changed. Cinematic vampires no longer had to be gaunt, cadaverous, Transylvanian Counts but could now be sexy, voluptuous young ladies with a fondness for other sexy, voluptuous young ladies. ("Fangs for the Mammaries"....) Hammer's "The Vampire Lovers" from 1970 is a film of this type. This blend of horror and eroticism was popular at the box office so hammer decided to make a sequel. The fact that Le Fanu had not actually written a sequel to "Carmilla" proved no drawback, and the studio concocted a plot in which Carmilla Karnstein, having been restored to life through the use of diabolical magic, becomes a pupil at a girls' finishing school under the name "Mircalla", where she proceeds to wreak havoc among the other pupils, the staff and the inhabitants of the nearby village. Hammer were later to make a third film in the so-called Karnstein Trilogy, "Twins of Evil", although this film does not feature either lesbianism or the character of Carmilla. Miss Simpson's academy is the sort of fantasy girls boarding school beloved of erotic film-makers- it operates a strictly selective admissions policy, with selection taking place on the basis of looks rather than academic ability, the students are allowed to stay at school until their late twenties rather than leaving at eighteen, the gym mistress is as youthful as any of her pupils, and the school uniform (improbably, given that the action is supposed to take place in 1830) consists of the flimsiest, most diaphanous robes imaginable. The sex scenes are fairly tame, although there is plenty of toplessness and a couple of brief scenes of full nudity.Today there is a tendency in literature and the cinema to make vampires sympathetic. If "The Vampire Lovers" were to be remade today it would probably resemble a Sapphic version of "Twilight" with Carmilla, now a heroine rather than anti-heroine, portrayed as a soulful, sensitive, misunderstood creature, deeply in love with her mortal girlfriend Laura. This tendency, however, had not yet got going in the seventies, so the vampires in the Karnstein trilogy, although sexy, are still portrayed as evil, murderous creatures in league with the devil. Indeed, they are more evil than they were in Le Fanu's story, where Carmilla is portrayed as morally ambiguous. "Lust for a Vampire" does not feature any of Hammer's major stars. Ingrid Pitt, who had played Carmilla in "The Vampire Lovers", was offered the same role here but turned it down, possibly because she realised that, at 34, she would not make a very convincing schoolgirl. The part went instead to an otherwise obscure Danish actress named Yutte Stensgaard. Peter Cushing was forced to withdraw from the film because of his wife's illness. Christopher Lee does not appear here (or, indeed, in any of the trilogy), but Mike Raven, better known as a radio DJ, does a sort of Lee impersonation as Count Karnstein. The film's best-known actor is Ralph Bates, something of a horror specialist, who is given top billing even though his is only a supporting role and his character dies early on. The film was popular when it first came out, largely because of its erotic content, but today it looks like the weakest of the Karnstein trilogy. "The Vampire Lovers" at least had the advantage of being a reasonably faithful adaptation of a literary classic, albeit the lesbian theme far more explicit than in the original, and Pitt is splendidly seductive in the main role. "Twins of Evil" has its faults, notably the casting of the talentless Collinson sisters, but it does have a good performance from Cushing and raises some surprisingly pertinent points, for a Hammer horror flick, about religious fanaticism and the nature of evil. "Lust For a Vampire", by comparison, is poorly acted with a cliché- ridden and rather silly plot. Yutte Stensgaard, although striking- looking, had neither the talent nor the charisma of Pitt, and it is easy to understand why her acting career was so brief. (Having a name that was unpronounceable to anyone not fluent in Danish probably didn't help. Indeed, given that "Yutte" was a partial anglicisation of her real Christian name, Jytte, even Danes might have been at a loss as to how to pronounce it). Michael Johnson as the main male character Richard Lestrange is bland and uninteresting. The film still enjoys something of a cult following, chiefly among those who judge a film's artistic merits by the number of scantily-clad girls on display, but judged by any other standards "Lust For a Vampire" is a disappointment. 4/10 A goof. Arthur Biggs (a character who appears only in one scene) introduces himself as an "avant-garde writer", even though the phrase "avant-garde" was not used in this sense as early as 1830.

Paul Andrews Lust for a Vampire is set in 1830 in England where fantasy writer Richard Lestrange (Richard Johnson) is staying in the village by the infamous Karnstein castle, it's been exactly forty years to the day since the Karnstein evil was last seen. Richard tries to prove to the locals that Vampirism is just superstition & decides to visit the castle himself, while there he meets a teacher named Giles Barton (Ralph Bates) three young girls whom he teaches at a nearby finishing school. While visiting the school Lestrange falls in love with new student Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard), however it turns out that Mircalla is actually the reincarnation of the evil Vampire Carmilla Karnstein & starts to seduce & drink the blood of the other girls at the school. As the bodies pile up & the police become involved Mircalla's secret is revealed...This British production came from Hammer studios & was directed by Jimmy Sangster who a last minute replacement for Terence Fisher after he apparently broke his leg, Lust for a Vampire was the second of trilogy of films made by Hammer that they adapted from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's short Vampire story Carmilla published in 1872 & began with The Vampire Lovers (1970) which was followed by Lust for a Vampire & ended with Twins of Evil (1972). I don't thin that Lust for a Vampire is a very good film at all, there are moments which make little sense or are barely explained. What, for instance, did that village girl see to make her scream & faint in the carriage at the start? Why was Carmilla at the finishing school anyway? I suppose her parents wanted her to be an educated Vampire, how did she keep sneaking out at night without being caught? I find it hard to believe that Lestrange would just fall in love with Carmilla after having only briefly seen her once, I mean they didn't even speak to each other yet he falls madly in love with her. It's a real stretch to believe & then when he does talk to her for the first time he says how much he loves her, talk about being forward. Carmilla seems to have no sort of plan or reason for being at the school & it's a mystery why she & her two guardian's don't just live in the castle together like a nice Vampire family, you know what I'm saying? Would an experienced police inspector really climb down a well by himself with no-one at the top to help if he got in trouble? Why not call for back-up? At over 90 minutes long Lust for a Vampire has a reasonable pace but not much happens if truth be told & it's hardly exciting, the central concept which had some potential of Carmilla being torn between her evil Vampire ways & her love for Lestrange is wasted.Lust for a Vampire was made with it's male teenage audience in mind as it's far more sexual than scary, an entire school full of attractive young girls who don't like wearing many clothes even when they go out at night in the cold they insist on the absolute minimum amount of clothing. There are a few topless shots, a couple of brief lesbianism scenes & a badly put together tinted montage during Lestarnge & Carmilla making love set to an awful song call Strange Love. There's not much blood or gore here, there's a bit of blood at the start as well as a decayed skeleton, there are a couple of biting scenes & a couple of staking scenes at the end. The sets look alright but the castle is a little cramped, the opening resurrection scene features some really bad incantations badly staged & close-ups of Count Karnstein's blood shot eyes (maybe taken from another film entirely) which are clearly not there in medium face shots.Probably shot on a low budget like most Hammer films the production values are decent enough if not amazing, it looks alright without ever being memorable. Danish actress Stensgaard is OK, Mike Raven was dubbed by someone else (Raven apparently walked out of the premiere because of this) while Ralph Bates is killed off early on, Peter Cushing was meant to star but didn't while Ingrid Pitt was apparently asked back but declined because she thought the script was terrible.Lust for a Vampire is minor Hammer to be honest, it doesn't really feature any of their main stars & is a fairly middling production in terms of concept & execution. Not one of Hammer's best, that's for sure.

Henry Kujawa Okay, Peter Cushing's not in this (Ralph Bates is), but it was in the middle of a 3-film tape, and I was too lazy to fast-forward over it. Anyway, who'd want to miss the naked glories of Yutte Stensgaard, the Danish blonde cutie who filled in for Ingrid Pitt while she was off filming COUNTESS Dracula (a film that has nothing to do with Dracula or vampires)? The Count and Countess Karnstein, both left unaccounted for in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, return, and bring Carmilla back from the dead (again). Then they enroll her in a girls' school... you know, this almost sounds like something Roger Corman should have made. Bates is pathetic as a pansy teacher (the only kind the strict headmistress seems to hire to teach all those innocent young things), but he's got an interest in the occult, and soon finds out "Mircalla" is really a vampire, but all HE wants to do is become her willing servant, and servant of THE DEVIL! Instead of taking him up on his pathetic, wimpering offer, she OFFS him. I'm beginning to think Bates' career as a Hammer star was self-destructing before he ever managed to get it off the ground...Meanwhile, a writer cons his way into becoming the school's new English teacher, but while it was the gym teacher he initially was interested in, once he lays eyes on the blonde, his heart's gone. And even though he begins to suspect she IS a vampire, he hopes he can somehow "save" her with love! Truth to tell, of the 3 members of the Karnsteins in this flick, she's the only one who does seem to have a mixed nature-- part of her seems to WANT real love in her life, but the other part keeps killing innocents, and at one point we see her in bed with an all-too-willing fellow student, who seems to go into ecstasy whenever she's having her blood drained out of her.Things go sadly STUPID at the end, when the villagers becoming a murder-crazed mob, and then, more so when they IGNORE the clear instructions of a priest that fire will NOT kill these vampires, and they set fire to the castle anyway. (Anyone know how you can set fire to a STONE building anyway?) Mircalla winds up dying in an unusually spectacular way for a vampire-- a FLAMING wooden stake thru her heart (moments after trying to save her straight boyfriend's life-- what kind of lesbian IS she, anyway?), but as the end credits come up, the Count and Countess are STILL seen to be among the living! WHAT TH'...? Apparently, the ending was intended to set up another sequel... but absurdly, the 3rd film in the series, "TWINS OF EVIL", turned out to be a PREQUEL to "THE VAMPIRE LOVERS". Go figure!! Supporting actors to watch out for: David Healy, one of the best (and unsung) Dr. Watsons, from the Ian Richardson "THE SIGN OF FOUR" (1983); Christopher Neame, who played Johnny Alucard in "DRACULA A.D. 1972", the villain in the unfinished DOCTOR WHO story "SHADA", and an angry British agent in "LICENSE TO KILL"; Erik Chitty as the pathologist, who played the Matrix Coordinator Engin in the DOCTOR WHO story "THE DEADLY ASSASSIN"; and the VOICE of Valentine Dyall, who appeared as "The Black Guardian" in 2 different seasons of DOCTOR WHO.Not the smartest flick ever made, but fun all the same!