Sete da Vampira – review

Director: Roger A. Fratter

Release date: 1998

Contains spoilers

An Italian very low-budget film, this had pretentions of arthouse and reminded me as I watched it of Chris Alexander’s more auteur output – though Alexander came later and his output is much more solid. I think perhaps it was in the scenes of walking, dreamlike, through the film – though the more deliberate attachment of a narrative in this vehicle (which was perhaps not as successful as it might be) undermined the more dreamlike quality that Alexander engenders. This also had a character, and a specific moment for that character, which felt like Jess Franco was being invoked.

wandering

It starts with a man walking through a snowy landscape, a voiceover suggests he had received a letter from artist Marco Spaccesi (Carlo Girelli) who is missing. The film then moves to a woman in bed, she gets up and searches a building until she opens a door and sees a female vampire, later revealed to be Carmilla (Elisabetta Principe), feeding on a man. The woman is grabbed by an unseen man who slits her throat with a knife.

Carlo Girelli as Marco

The film then has quite long ponderous moments of Carmilla wandering around, victims running (the first through a wood being followed by Carmilla’s limping manservant Samuel (Mirko Riva)). We also get Marco wandering around, having dreamed of Carmilla. He goes to Virginia Thompson (Marta Bordino) to try and locate Carmilla – at the end of the film we discover the vampire is Carmilla Thompson, so not Karnstein. He even gets involved with a séance.

Elisabetta Principe as Carmilla

There isn’t much narrative, so the dialogue struggles to express it. We get an odd moment of Carmilla whipping Virginia but they are clearly shot in different rooms, likely even different buildings. It gave the impression that it was a psychic attack, especially as Virginia seemed unmarked – though in a scene after we see they have applied some very faint makeup weals. Equally Virginia later stabs at Carmilla, in an inversion of the scene. Samuel is abused by Carmilla, who speaks disdainfully of him and at one point makes him don a hat and dance for her pleasure – and it was the treatment of Samuel that reminded me of Jess Franco’s work.

licking

There isn’t much more to say about this – though the vampire can be temporarily killed, she will return and the idea is that this is a curse for the ages, I think. She is a little sloppy, getting a bowl of blood and pouring it down her naked torso rather than drinking it and then rubbing blood on her lips after the fact. The photography wasn’t great but there was at least a dreamlike quality to the affair. The version I watched is apparently the director’s cut but that didn’t stop it dragging in parts. However, it is definitely a curiosity. 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Vampyros Lesbos – UltraHD – review

Director: Jess Franco

Release date: 1971 (UK disc 2026)

Contains spoilers

I have previously reviewed this Jess Franco film and this is specifically the review of the Severin UK UHD release of the film. As such the score is going to be different to that for the film in and of itself. I have a complicated relationship with the film, and Franco generally. Drawn to his films (and my favourites are a couple of his De Sade films), I do find them perhaps less impressive as some in a cinema sense (and certainly a lot less then those involved in the commentaries on this disc); it is a circle difficult to square. Severin, however, I am most definitely a fan of and deem them as one of the (if not the) best purveyors of physical movies currently in operation.

Linda and the Countess

So, the film looks gorgeous – it is not going to look any better methinks. It has been scanned in 4K from the original camera negative and is presented in German – which was the fuller cut, the Spanish version edited on release and later restored but I understand dialogue was changed. I mention in my original review the soundtrack and it sounds great on this presentation. The set comes with a slipcase and both a UHD and standard Blu-Ray disc. Both carry the full range of extras.

blood spattered

The extras include a short archival interview with Franco, an interview with Stephen Thrower – who has written on Franco – and an interview with Amy Brown who is a Soledad Miranda historian. It has in the Land of Franco part 12 – a series over several Severin Franco releases, German trailer and opening title sequence and a career appreciation by Sean Baker. There are two commentaries, one by Kat Ellinger and the other featuring Aaron AuBuchon, John Dickson and Will Morris.

the sun worshipping vampire

I doubt any of the commentators would be impressed with my review of the film, but they have a much less complicated relationship with his films than I. Both commentaries recognise that, in many respects, Franco creates a flipped version of Dracula; in a gender sense Countess Carody (Soledad Miranda, Count Dracula) is Dracula (though Dracula, within the story, turned her), Linda Westinghouse (Ewa Strömberg) is a solicitor travelling to her client and so Harker, and Agra (Heidrun Kussin) can be read as Renfield. However other inversions (from the filmic tradition as well as the novel) are the fact that the film is a sun-drenched affair with the Countess a sunbather, who definitely reflects in the mirror and the method of vampire killing is achieved by giving the brain a deadly blow rather than a stake to the heart (perhaps cerebral rather than emotional). The commentators explore the transgressive nature of the text and, whilst I think that both assign happy accidents in filmmaking to deliberate decisions (and I recognise it is likely a case of column A and B), both were really worth listening to.

strange shooting angle

You are not going to get a better-looking print of the film, plus there are plenty of extras with much to pick through for the student of media studies, and aficionados of both Franco films and vampire films more generally. For the set, 8 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On UHD Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On UHD Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Drakulon

Auteur Chris Alexander features several times on this blog. Though some of his work is narrative, other films are much more arthouse. The IMDb page describes this as “A conceptual, music-driven experimental psychodrama”, and that seems as good a description as any. It was released in 2025 and comes in around the 45 minute mark, flirting with feature length but still best described as a short.

The film is silent and follows an artist (Suspiria Vilchez) who, as things start, dreams of a vampire (Jessica Mucciante). Wearing her chiffon cloak and little else, the vampire might well have walked out of a Jean Rollin film. Indeed there is much I see in Chris Alexander’s films of Rollin and Jess Franco, this being no different. We can note that, in real life, Suspiria Vilchez is an artist and painted the pictures seen in film.

the model and the artist

When the artist awakes (she is in a motel, which is a transitory and perhaps even liminal space, which is often used by the director), we see a painting she has done of a woman with a bat outline over the face and also one of a vampire. Indeed, though Vilchez’ own, I thought I spotted a portrait tattoo of Bela Lugosi but the images we see all suggest an obsession (though one I’d personally say is healthy). However, when a model (Ali Chappell, Necropolis Legion & Space Vampire) comes we see that the artist seems blocked and the model eventually leaves, the canvas untouched.

Jessica Mucciante as the vampire

So, the vampire is the muse, but we are in a place where dreams and reality do seem to merge and become lost. Does the artist later murder the model or is it fantasy, daydream or full dream? Does she invoke the vampire and does the vampire bite her or is the vampire an allegory for her creativity (or for the director’s creativity, given how much he embraces vampire imagery in his films)? The soundtrack, by Chris Alexander, is superb, driving the film. The film is at the further end of arthouse and may not be everyone’s cup of team but if you are a Chris Alexnder fan (or even a Rollin or Franco fan) it is one to be watched.

The imdb page is here.

Dracula’s Bride of Horror – review

Director: Tim Lee

Release date: 2022

Contains spoilers

A few years ago, I reviewed Dracula Vampyre in Beijing a singular mess of a film that found a place in my Worst 100. This film is a sequel, with producer, star, director Tim Lee dropping his Tim Lies pseudonym. Now occasionally I’ll get a comment from a director on a review and, clearly, if I didn’t like it they can often be incredulous – I get it, your art, you think its good. But I do want to take a moment to answer the comment (or the parts directed at me) Mr Lee left on the previous review.

Tim Lee as Dracula

Firstly, addressing a positive commentator he said “To say the reviewer missed those points is an understatement.” The commentator had said that this “is the most credible and realistic Vampire I have seen in a very long time.” Just no, Mr Lee offered a singularly poor performance in that film and was not credible – as for realistic, it is a fantastical creature with no basis in reality. Mr Lee went on to say, “To the reviewer, I appreciate your time, but you lack insight, and were unkind to the actors and work overall. As Unknown knows, I will see you in Hell where I get even with negative reviewers. Lol.” Thank you, therefore, for appreciating the time took to watch and review. I don’t believe I lack insight, indeed I offered that the film was clearly a passion project. Your inability to communicate enough through cinema to offer a viewer any insight was the issue. I also pointed out that the film was in English and your actors were Chinese and that performing in a second language may have impacted performances – but they were poor. I will say that you have improved, to a degree, the communication of your concept and the performances are better in this film.

on the beach

So, in to the film. Which starts with a quote from Hamlet and then concentrates on a bottom – belonging to a woman (Rae Daniels) who is walking on a beach (presumably Venice Beach), carnival music plays, though it is interrupted by an ominous dong as the camera looks towards the underside of the pier. The woman finds a bejewelled skull in the surf and then walks under the pier, becoming more scared as she goes under the structure. We hear a growl and Dracula (Tim Lee, Dracula Vampyre in Beijing) attacks.

Mehra Park as Vivian

We the get a narration by Dracula, introducing himself and claiming the mantle Prince of Darkness. He speaks of a super-blood-moon and he returning to our realm, resurrecting his queens (named Dracula’s witches) and hunting down his latest bride, in whom he has instilled his presence since she was a child as a chosen one. He threatens, generally, witch burners and wolf killers. We then cut to a woman, Vivian Harker (Mehra Park), in a vehicle, tears filling her eyes – and later we discover that her husband Jack Harker (Kyle Colton) has been unfaithful and she has moved into a hotel. She gets out of the vehicle but gets a vision of being stabbed when close to the hotel and heads to the beach.

Rockula

The film follows her on the beach – she passes under the pier without being attacked, though she is watched by Dracula. We see her on the beach and having a swim and, eventually, leaving. She walks past a man, performing on a karaoke machine with tarot cards laid out before it. She lingers looking at the ocean and he approaches and calls himself Rockula (also Tim Lee). He suggests he produces horror movies and tries to engage her in that – she was an actress. Eventually, she makes her way back to the hotel, Rockula vanishing in a puff of smoke once she has gone.

Dracula and his witches

In the lift, Vivian clearly is apprehensive and she eventually gets to her room, which is number 1313. She again has visions of being stabbed. As the film goes on, these coalesce into a (poor looking) doll stabbing her. We discover that the room is known as a murder room. Dracula collects a further witch (Shannon Allen), taken from the street as she approaches him as a trick, and also a witch appears wearing a skull mask (Junie Hoang). We see them attack a couple of people (a preacher (Daxton Edwards) and a wolf hunter (Daniel Chidavaenzi)). We also discover that psychiatrist Jack is both sleeping with his secretary (also Junie Hoang) and Vivian’s sister, Mariam (Lacey Rae). Part way through Dracula tells Vivian the story of the previous film, during which we get black and white scenes from that film.

Dracula and Vivian

So, what’s going on? There are several readings. It could be that Dracula has appeared to make Vivian his bride. It could be that he is a delusion created as her mind breaks, through betrayal and depression, and she is attacked and killed in room 1313 (either by a toy doll or that the doll, equally, is also a delusion). The dialogue of a police detective (Brittany Wilson) suggests either homicide or suicide. The communication of narrative in this is better than the previous film but it is still not great, with Tim Lee clearly having a vision but that vision not being delivered well. In some respects, it reminds me of Jess Franco, the Venice Beach setting is reminiscent of Franco’s Spanish beach settings but, more so, Franco might be beloved by horror fans but many of his films struggled to offer a cohesive narrative, especially his later films. Comparatively Jean Rollin created his own visual language but he was adept at imparting that language and thus the narrative.

two witches

The acting in this is much better than the previous film but the fractured narrative was not actor friendly. The dialogue itself was sometimes too blunt (so the police detective just spilling to random person, claiming to be the victim’s sister, about the goriness of the scene and it being either homicide or suicide was too on the nose to be realistic). The weakest link, acting-wise, was Lee himself and that may have much to the difficulties both being star and director can offer, removing a more objective eye. This is not a great film, but it is certainly better, by an order of magnitude, than his previous vampire film. 2.5 out of 10. In the UK this is available to view on Plex.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Domina Nocturna

Released in 2021 this Brazilian film was directed by Larissa Anzoategui and is entirely without dialogue. My quandary was how to tackle and explain it here. As such I decided to reproduce the IMDb summary first of all:

"Haunted by the darkness as she wanders through a dead city, our young, doomed heroine Angelique is stricken with hallucinatory visions as she learns the story of a cruel and loveless vampiress. Her visions are of the bizarre rituals that imprison a group of Satanic worshippers in a cycle of dying passion, and who seek to survive beyond the grave. In Angelique's ears, only the music of the gothic atmosphere flows to augment her quest into the horror and the passion of the dead - and no voice can rise above it. A haunting, enigmatic tribute to the classic Euro-Horror works of Jean Rollin and Jess Franco. Brazilian filmmaker Larissa Anzoategui created a film inspired by authors Lord Byron and the Brazilian Álvares de Azevedo and Anzoategui's passion for expressionist aesthetics. The cast and crew was composed completely of women under the direction of Larissa Anzoategui ("Astaroth") in her sophomore film."

opening scene

It is quite the summary and so let us break it down. It starts with Angelique, played by Larissa Anzoategui, walking through the city and then, having seen (and tried to follow) a(n animated) crow, checks into a hotel. We do not see the desk clerk – just a creepy hand is in view – and we also get a cloaked figure operating a switchboard. She clearly feels the presence of something following her and rushes to her room. In there she has a series of visions, which make up the bulk of the film and includes a vampire themed one (I’ll get to that I promise).

bloody mouth

Getting back to the summary and the citing it as a tribute to Franco and Rollin. This can be problematic, as a citation for influence generally, and sometimes a disservice. If we take Franco for a moment it needs to be said that the photography displayed in this was superior to anything Franco produced (though not as recognisably idiosyncratic). On the other hand, this may have been a tribute to Rollin but it did not capture the essence of his work – to be fair, you could probably draw an inspiration line from Two Orphan Vampires, with the various visions in this like the orphans meeting the Outcast, but without Rolin's depth of overarching narrative. However, there was another film that struck me as I watched…

hrebalist

And I am loathe to say this, as they are two different beasts, but I was less struck with a connection to Eurohorror and more to the Edward D Wood Jr written Orgy of the Dead. Very unfair, in many respects; Orgy was an exploitation flick with Criswell hamming it beyond the pale, this was an art film where mini-stories were expressed with seriousness using expressions and (sometimes) dance. Yet I couldn’t shake the underlying feeling, and so can only apologise.

the vampire

As for the vampire section, we have previously seen a herbalist create a poisonous concoction which, having looked at a heart locket with her face and that of another woman in it, she drinks. The scene cuts to a vampire woman sat on a throne with a woman by her side sat on the floor – it is the woman from the locket. She offers her neck and the vampire bites her, drinking her blood. The herbalist comes in and offers the vampire her wrist – which she bites and dies poisoned and the herbalist falls (presumably dying also). The woman from the locket takes the throne and reveals her new fangs.

cat witch

It is a simply constructed story that is told without dialogue. Other sections have more gore at times and more nudity at times (the vampire section is modest in that regard). Mostly they take themselves very seriously – with the exception of a scenario with a witch who puts her cat in her cauldron, turns herself into a cat creature and gets furballs… at first…

offering her wrist

The reason for not looking at this as a review is that it is simply a performance piece put to film, rather than a narrative film – and whilst not all art films are narratively constructed, this seems so performance above narrative that to score it would be unfair.

The imdb page is here.

Phantasmagoria 2: Labyrinths of blood – review

Director: Cosmotropia de Xam

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

I haven’t seen the first film, that this is the sequel to, but despite having two primary characters in common I doubt it matters. The first film, from what I can gather, was a possession/exorcism-based film with the character Valentina Creepax (Mari K.) the subject of the film. If the film had the same amount of narrative exposition as this film then I’ve probably summed it up.

That said, such narrative can be eschewed when pursuing an arthouse sensibility, it is true, however despite the fact that this is the case here and despite the fact that it most definitely homages Jess Franco - actually filming in some of Franco’s recognisable locations – this is actually hamstrung by the lack of narrative and by some truly dreadful performances (which I’ll get too).

purple blood

Starting with the Valentina character, with imagery of her eyes gouged out (a recurring image with more than one character) and then cutting to a vampire with a girl, whom she manhandles like a limp doll and bites. Her blood is purple – purposefully so. It seems vampires have purple blood, in order to contrast the blood type with Valentina’s red (virgin) blood, for reasons that soon become apparent.

Mari K. as Valentina

We see Valentina sat on a bed, surrounded by dolls. She reads from a book and her words tell us the basic lore/narrative premise of the film. That the vampires seek to create one by mixing their blood, virgin’s blood and holy water, to create a beast that is under their control and impervious to religious iconography, who will bring innocents to them. Yes, you’re right. It sounds awfully convoluted, as does them sending a doppelgänger of her so they can get her virgin blood.

at the lake

We get to a point, in the deliberately over-exposed digital filming where we see Valentina languidly pursued, climbing a tree to get away from her vampire pursuers and eventually going into the lake/pond. How she then washes onto an ocean’s beach is not explained and expected to be accepted within the arthouse form – perhaps it represented moving from one world to another? I’m probably being generous; and the art never captivated me enough to allow it to wash over me oblivious to the narrative failings. She is rescued by the Contesse (Rachel Audrey).

Rachel Audrey as the wise woman

It is here that the film totally lost me. As the Contesse spoke to her I wrote in my notes, “wooden”. The Contesse does give more background, talking of the prophecy of Baba Yaga, connecting the story into Dracula and talking about the new race of vampires that is due to be created. The Contesse (who is a vampire herself and this is revealed later) suggests that Valentina consult a wise woman in a nearby cave – also played by Rachel Audrey. In this case Audrey is made up with prosthetic clay to make it look like she has no eyes, but in fact looks like she has prosthetic clay on her face.

fangs

Elsewhere on the island another character from the first film, reporter Diane Cooper, is continuing her story (from the first film). Now as I watched I was absolutely struck by the awful acting not realising at first that Cooper was also played by Rachel Audrey. Now, there is a success in characterisation, I guess, as Cooper and the Contesse were clearly different characters but – and I hate being horrible – there was nothing else positive to report. If her performance as the Contesse was wooden, the Cooper performance combined wooden and grating.

Dracula café 

The film really lost me due to these performances. The look of the film was interesting, the re-treading of Franco haunts was entertaining, the stop outside the Dracula café was amusing enough but the fact that we were in the presence of Diane Cooper threatened to remove the amusement. The confused (ill-explained) narrative didn’t help and the art aspects didn’t feel sincere enough to escape pretentious. That said, whilst I normally like vampire arthouse, it is a sub-genre that is love it or hate it and I suspect this might be the same. Unfortunately, this one fell in the latter camp for me. 2.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Bad Girl Dracula – review

Director: Andrew N. Shearer

Release date: 2019

Contains spoilers

From the people who brought us Space Boobs in Space comes a completely vampire focused film and calling this a review is a bit of a cheat because, like the earlier film, I’m no going to score this.

The stars/writers are burlesque artists and form the Gonzoriffic Artists Collective and this is, like the other film we’ve looked at, a Z Grade piece of entertainment that is generated with the aim of creating Z grade schlock. What I did like, however, was the little nods to the wider genre.

Dee Flowered as Bad Girl Dracula

So, after opening with a sepia piece, supposedly in Transylwania (their spelling), where Van Helsing (Kirin Thurman) talks about the evil Bad Girl Dracula (Dee Flowered, Space Boobs in Space), we get the first sketch proper. In it we get a woman, who identifies herself as Laura Williams (Thio Rose), arriving at a building, being pushed into a room by a woman (Tittiana Sprinkles, also Space Boobs in Space) and meeting Bad Girl Dracula (referred to hereafter as BGD). It is revealed that Laura is actually reporter Miranda Soledad – which, of course, is a reversal of the name of the actress famous for Jess Franco’s movies and star of Vampyros Lesbos. They play strip interview (to underwear – this is burlesque after all).

Blacula purse

At the start of the interview Miranda retrieves her recorder from a bag with a picture of Blacula on it. The Master vampire is revealed to be the woman from the start of the sketch and we eventually find out she is called Brinke Stevens named after the Scream Queen. In the second sketch the Master and BGD travel in time so BGD can get a magical item from Sexferatu (Izzie Popp, also Space Boobs in Space) we discover it is a ring said to be capable of luring virgins from their village – absolutely the ring from the Devil’s Wedding Night.

a crap bat moment

Like the earlier film, this does what it set out to – and whether you like it boils down to whether you can stand 80 minutes of z grade sketches with a touch of burlesque. I have to say that Tittiana Sprinkles stole the show as the nonchalant, foul-mouthed Master vampire and we got some crap bat thrown in. It isn’t great viewing but it does what it set out to do and thus has a sense of fun to it.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Blood Rites of the Vampyr – review

Director: Sébastien Godin

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

I was contacted by director Sébastien Godin, who’s premier for this film had been thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic and was subsequently looking for reviews – I’m never one to turn down a view of a vampire film. Full disclosure, he also told me that he was a long-time reader of this blog - it’s always a thrill to find people who get something out of TMtV, however I have not let this influence the score.

The film was described to me as an attempt “to marry the styles of classic horror from the 20's and 30's with a 70's Euro-horror sensibility. Influences on the film include Jean Rollin, Jess Franco and F.W. Murnau”. This is quite an ambition for, what is admittedly, a micro-budget film. Certainly, as we’ll see, the black and white shot film styled itself as an art-house mood piece – though it sometimes strayed into a too narrative place for the mood piece.

Vicki Bitis as the Vampyr

It starts with a man, restless in bed. A woman (Vicki Bitis) is in the room, her face gaunt, her movements jerky. She moves her arms over him (a lot of her movement, through the film, might be described as being in the style of interpretive dance). He bolts awake. Later he tells a monk (Anthony D.P. Mann, Terror of Dracula) about the dreams that are filled with spiritual disturbance. He describes floating, no more than a point of view, in the forest, there is a grave and a sickly-looking woman who dances.

Anthony D.P. Mann as the monk

This disturbs the monk, though he denies knowing anything that might shed light upon the dream. Even so, he warns the man not to attempt to find the grave in the woods, to stay far away from it. This, of course, confirms to the man that the grave exists. After he leaves the flat, the monk offers a prayer, begging that it not be so.

spontaneously bleeding

We see the man stumbling through the woods, as though in a nonsensical daze. He reaches the grave marker and his throat opens spontaneously, spilling blood onto the earth. We see a hand emerging from the detritus and then the woman appears, led on the grave. Her eyes open and then she bites the man. She then goes to the town, where she appears as an anachronism as she walks the streets and, when in the man’s apartment, seems mystified by modernity. To note we get moments of a vampire silent movie on the TV at this point.

Steve Kasan as Blackburn

Detective Rollin (John Keech) is speaking to his counterpoint Detective Blackburn (Steve Kasan). A body has been found, drained of blood with no apparent trauma barring two small wounds to the neck (this is not the man in the woods, his body is found later). The Detective relays a story his grandma told him. When settlers first arrived at the area the land was barren but a special woman appeared at night, disappearing by day, who bled into the earth causing it to bloom – making an interesting connection between the vampyr and earth fertility.

dribbling blood

There was a price for her help, however. She demanded a monthly virgin sacrifice and when the townsfolk refused a savage beast appeared killing livestock and some children. The townsfolk captured the woman and buried her in the earth, sealing her in with a cross. Rollin is incredulous but Blackburn is happy to use the V word, insisting that time will tell if he’s correct. Meanwhile the Monk has contacted a vampire hunter (Luc Bernier, A Blood Story & Blood Reunion 3: Hunters).

a moment in red

So, I listed the inspirations outlined by the director and certainly I got the feel from this of the works of Chris Alexander, who cites Franco and Rollin as inspirations for his vampire films also. As with Alexander’s work, I see the Rollin influence in this much more than the Franco. I also was reminded, as I watched, of Lilith’s Awakening, though that was possibly within the black and white (which goes into red lighting and then colour for one scene). Where this became a tad conflicted, as a film, I think was in it grasping for the narrative when it felt like it wanted to remain a mood piece and the narrative threatened to be a hindrance to that.

attack

I liked some of the narrative ideas, don’t get me wrong, the idea that the vampyr was intimately tied to the health of the land was great, a voice-over tells us that vampires are fine in daylight, they just lose their supernatural powers, and it further relays that they hunger for (and can subsist on) knowledge as much as blood, which was really interesting. But little was done with the ideas, especially the latter, once presented and that was the conflict I perceived between storytelling and communicating a mood. Acting wise I felt Mann as the monk was a tad too over the top, but that may have been because Kasan was marvellously nuanced and understated as the Detective.

blood from mouth

Further, I liked the look they gave Vicki Bitis as the vampyr and her expressive dance movements fed into the film as a mood piece. Perhaps the pushing of ingested blood out of mouth was a tad wasteful but, again, was part of expressing a mood. I need to mention that she wore black shorts/leggings beneath her period styled dress, visible in a couple of scenes. Undoubtedly these spared her blushes in a dance moment and probably helped with warmth during night shooting at a cenotaph – however they were very noticeable and an idiosyncrasy – perhaps flesh tone might have served to not pull the viewer out of the mood wondering at the anachronism. Her meeting another night creature cemented the Rollin-esque aspect.

the beast

When it comes to effects there is little to go over. There’s lots of fake blood – with much expelled by the vampyr (and vomited at one point having eaten a morsel of cake). The black and white helped here, and the effects looked good as one or two hearts were held aloft (the removal from the chest more implied than shown). We did get a couple of flashes of what might be described as the beast mentioned in the back story. On pausing the beast looked false, but in quick cut it worked well enough and fed into the animalistic aspect described in the Detective’s story. Note that I am deliberately not listing the lore around what could destroy a vampire.

shadow of the vampire

The photography was crisp, and the Black and White worked well in enhancing the mood. Finally, I need to mention soundtrack – which worked with the more industrial pieces used during vampiric moments, but the very 80s synth styled phrases didn’t do it for me and were a tad jarring. That’s not to say that I disliked the film, in fact quite the opposite, I enjoyed my time within the film. For me it’s one that if you like the movies of Chris Alexander, then you should enjoy. So that’s the viewer who enjoys an art-house sensibility and limited narrative (notwithstanding my perception of the film’s conflicted approach to narrative). 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.