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.
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.