All-Nude British Lesbian Vampire Revue!

Vampyres (1974) directed by José Ramon Larraz

Okay, maybe this is the Last Year at Marienbad of vampire movies. Vampyres is the exploitation film I thought Daughters of Darkness would turn out to be. In fact, "Daughters of Darkness" is one of the alternate titles for this movie. Vampyres earns its exploitation stripes early as it manages to hit the sex and violence double whammy in the very first scene.
Two very nude women (Marianne Morris and Anulka Dziubinska) are having their ways with each other when someone opens the door and inexplicably shoots both of them leaving us with the sight of their bloody bodies on the bed.
Roll opening credits!
The scene is so devoid of context that it is the essence of exploitation. The camera itself follows a voyeuristic path from the outside of the castle where all we see is a light in a window to the doorway until we finally are freed of the killer’s perspective in order to get a better view of the proceedings. The women have no names. They have no characters. They are simply two bodies. The violence that is done to them is completely senseless because we have no clue about motivations and we don’t even know the gender much less the identity of the killer. All we have is a quick transition from exploitation lesbian sex fantasy to exploitation bloody violence nightmare. And I wouldn’t waste this much time pondering this film at all if there wasn’t some pretense of meaning involved in what follows because Vampyres is as much a ghost story as it is a vampire story and just as the two dead women are soon seen again drinking blood we are also led to believe that Ted (Murray Brown) is their killer or the reincarnation of their killer or something like that. It’s all so very Last Year at Marienbad—except for the whole blood-drinking vampiric thing, of course.
So, were these women vampires all along? Or did they become vampires when they were killed thus becoming ghost vampires? Is Ted the killer or is he the reincarnation of their killer? Is Fran in love with Ted? Is that why she won’t kill him? Is this a reflection of their relationship in the past life? Does that love triangle jealousy explain the motivation for the seemingly senseless killing in the first scene?
Does any of that matter? It’s easy enough to dismiss this film as an excuse for sex and violence—it has both in droves, usually in the same scene—but there’s also the kernel of a good story and several great moments in cinematography.
There’s one image in particular of Fran (Marianne Morris) and Miriam (Anulka) in the woods that resonates with haunting beauty. Is that moment redeeming enough to save this film? I’m not sure, because I’m uncomfortable with the unironic way that Larraz implicates us in the voyeurism. He saturates the film with it in a way that would make Harry “Daughters of Darkness” Kümel blush.
On the other hand, by choking us with so much sex and violence maybe he does us the favor of so overdoing it that it can no longer be fetishized as it would be if it was rationed out the way a typical Hollywood blockbuster would. Vampyres becomes like the all you can eat buffet of sex and violence and like a buffet it encourages you to gorge yourself until you get your money’s worth but leaves you feeling like you never want to see another naked lesbian vampire again. (Okay, technically they’re naked bi-sexual vampyres/ghosts.) Still, that’s a lot of naked lesbian (okay, bisexual) vampire action to get through and calling it intentional oversaturation would be disingenuous.
Larraz’s film is more interesting than some other films of the period. (I’m looking at you, Easy Rider.) It’s definitely more stylish and less deathly dull than some other ‘70s films (I’m looking at you, Serpico.) and it’s a step above true crapsploitation flicks and maybe all its excess sets it apart (sometimes in a good way) from other vampire films. And I suppose in the age of Eli Roth it’s difficult to go on about the misogynistic overtones of Vampyres. In fact, where is the misogyny located in this film? There is certainly a bit of it in terms of a cautionary tale about giving pretty women rides home and then going into their home and drinking their wine and attempting to have sex with them. That will definitely get you killed. The brutality with which Fran and Miriam dispatch their last victim, Harriet (Sally Faulkner) evens the odds slightly in terms of gender specific cautionary stories, but on the other hand the brutality of the way they take out Harriet is yet another way in which the real misogyny and exploitation is the one that we, as audience, are complicit in. It is particularly vicious the way they strip her and go into full bloodlust mode (though two of the earlier killings of men are also marked by the same kind of feeding frenzy) something about this one just seems calculated to take away all hope of survival since the young couple in the camper seemed like the normative characters who would survive the horror. So, while killing them both off is surprising in a good way, the way Fran and Miriam are singularly vicious toward Harriet (and then quietly head off to their cemetery having finished their night’s work) is just a little bit more inexplicable than even the rest of the film.
So, Vampyres manages to elicit all these conflicted thoughts. It has some style and a decent story, but the exploitation elements are harder to ignore than they were in Daughters of Darkness. The vampyres in question are damn alluring (even though their voices are dubbed by other actors) and the story is opaque, but that may be one of the things to like about it. Is it as fun as a film with a real sense of humor? No. Is it more exciting than Daughters of Darkness? Yes. It’s hard to imagine these vampires knitting in a Belgian hotel lobby. Is it a classic of cinema? No, but it is a classic of the vampire genre and even its problematic elements are worth a conversation.
And of course, the ridiculous 1974 haircuts of the men are worth a chuckle.
The wine snob victim (it is so gratifying to see an oenophile drained by vampires) is played by Michael Byrne who has gone on to have a long career of playing Nazis in such classics as The Eagle Has Landed (technically not a Nazi in this one, but a German soldier), Force 10 from Navarone (definitely a Nazi) and most notably in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he was the chief Nazi Col. Vogel. (He’s like the Udo Kier of World War II movies.)
Murray Brown is like a very poor man’s Richard Burton and you can understand why he would be drawn to Fran and why he might have been jealous in his past life. And the implication of something cyclical going on is fascinating if not fully explored. (But then, things like that tend to be less fascinating when fully explored, don’t they?)
And I love the fact that the vampires oversleep and have to rush back to the cemetery before the daylight and the distance from their churchyard crypt does…whatever it might do to them. It’s nice to know that vampires don’t necessarily have a good internal clock to keep them from oversleeping after getting hit with the tryptophan-laced blood on Vampire Thanksgiving.
The underground crypt is like a mixture of an opium den, a Roman bath and Victor Hugo’s romantic Paris sewers.
And as a bonus for true cinephiles and antiquarians there’s a cameo at the very end by Bessie Love, one of the all-time great actresses of the silent and early talkie era and that alone is worth the price of admission here.

Special Features

Poster & Still Gallery
With posters that say things like “The ultimate lust!” and “Their lips are moist and very, very red!” how could you go wrong? Another poster proclaims “They shared the pleasures of the flesh and the horrors of the grave!” Jeez.
Alternate titles for the film include Daughters of Dracula (what does any of this have to do with Dracula?) and my favorite, Ossesione Carnale (which is probably closer to the meaning of the film).

Anulka Glamour Gallery
Anulka was a Playboy Playmate (May 1973). So, yeah, she looks pretty in a swimsuit.

Jose Ramon Larraz Bio
More of an autobio.
“In the early ‘50s Spain was a very limiting place. There were censors everywhere and they were especially hard on comic books.”
I guess Dr. Wertham made his way to Madrid to warn people of the 10 Peseta Menace.
“There could be no nudity. A girl in a bikini was a sin, and I liked girls in bikinis. So I left when I was 22 years old.”
Unfortunately, he moved to Mongolia, where there were still no girls in bikinis.
“He told me that if I could make a film like Symptoms but with more naked girls and blood he would produce it.”
Well, I guess anything other than girls or blood was unintentional.
“I imagine my vampires turn almost to cannibalism, to take the blood from anywhere, no matter if it’s on the arm or on the balls. There is an urgency for the kill. And this is why my film is so brutal.”
How urgent can your need for blood be if you have to go straight for the balls?
“I wanted to make a film about the Black Mass exactly the way it is. The rest was too intense because of one scene where a girl is having sex with a goat. The shock when I showed this is terrible! I thought, so what? It’s a nice animal, the goat; a goat has a right to enjoy itself too!”
Seriously, Jose Ramon Larraz? This is the problem with sexual repression—it gives people way too much time to come up with creative fantasies and fetishes and things that involve goats. (The film in question is Black Candles aka Los Ritos Sexual del Diablo.)
“I have friends who ask me, ‘what is with you?’ Sometimes you make good films, sometime you make other things ‘don’t you care?’ And I have no answer.”
You have friends? I have no answer.

“Lost” Caravan Scene
This is an outdoor scene that was cut and is “reconstructed” as a storyboard using still photos. The scene in question doesn’t seem to be much of a loss to cinema. Keep moving. Nothing to see here.

Trailers
International Trailer – Not much of interest.
US Trailer – Some seriously lurid language “Passion is the prelude to a scarlet horror”
along with some seriously lurid footage.

Commentary with Jose Ramon Larraz and Brian Smedley-Aston
Director and Producer reminisce. This is the gem of DVD. If the Larraz bio wasn’t enough to give you a clue to his antics then this will. He has the same crusty old Spanish accent of Jess Franco (though I believe Larraz is a Catalan) and the same inclination towards salty language but by comparison Franco comes off in his interviews as less of a dirty old man than Larraz. If you skip the movie, don’t skip the commentary and here’s why:
“Photographically or photogenically I have always a preference for that one that suck the tit to the other. It was Anulka.”
I think these are the first words we hear on the commentary. Smedley plays an excellent straight man, but Larraz has all the great lines. And for the record, photographically and photogenically I kind of prefer Marianne Morris.
“Doesn’t matter. If one day I need to be sucked by a vampire I would prefer to be sucked by a blonde vampire than would a brunette vampire.”
I can’t think of any reason I would need to be sucked by a vampire, unless, of course...

An interesting note is that the film was actually shot in sequence. I’m sure it really shows in the quality of characterization and the continuity of the nudity and blood spattering.
The credits sequence with the fake bat is taken from an early Hammer Productions clip.
Also, Hammer fans may recognize Oakley Court while Rocky Horror fans will certainly recognize it as the home of Frank N Furter. The cemetery, meanwhile is in Denham churchyard.
Larraz comments on the fact that actress Sally Faulkner was concerned about nudity since she’d just had a baby with the following incomprehensible fragment of a statement: “Something about her tits, the milk, whatever…”
Apparently Larraz had a girlfriend named Carmen who slept with her eyes open (“Bloody sinister Carmen”) which gave him the idea for Fran sleeping with her eyes open. Despite her sinister sleeping, Larraz remember Carmen fondly “She don’t suck me exactly blood.”
He complains about how one of the actresses walked stompingly: “She walked like Fraulein in Uniform.”
He says that the women knew what kind of film they were signing on to and what kind of “talents” were required: “Not for talk about Socrates and Plato”
Though, to be quite honest, I wouldn’t have minded seeing them talk about Socrates and Plato.
“After half an hour my ass is becoming concrete.”
I don’t even remember what context prompted that from Larraz. Oddly enough, after an hour or so most people’s asses become abstract.
Larraz slags off on Angela Pleasance constantly saying how much he didn’t like working with her on Symptoms.
And finally, the best film commentary spontaneous outburst I have ever heard. I can’t do this justice in written form because you miss the thick Spanish accent but here it is:
“Jesus Christ, I see the pussy of Anulka!”
Good night, folks.

Return of the Vampyres
This is a brief pair of talks with Anulka Dziubinska and Marianne Morris, proving that their own voices would have been as good as the dubbing voices that were used in their places. (Though, I can’t argue with the deep almost husky voice they used for Marianne. Her own voice is different, but both are good.)
Marianne does interior design now and has long since retired from film.
Anulka went on to do commercials, modeling and more acting. They’re both still very attractive women.
Apparently “Jose was very volatile” and Marianne or Anulka's agent (I forget which) had kept her from doing The Story of O because he thought it would be too damaging to her career but was okay with the naked lesbian vampire movie.
The shower scene was on a cold day (hmm) and the blood was peppermint flavored (mmm, zesty mint vampyres).
I suppose one of the great things about this short is that it focuses on the women and allows them their own voice (literally as well as figuratively) and by showing them to be undamaged by the exploitation of the film as their general sense of comfort and happiness seems to indicate almost (almost, mind you) acts as a counterweight to the discomfort caused by the exploitation itself.