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An erotic horror film that actually works on nearly all levels is a pretty rare thing. However, Jose Ramon Larraz's VAMPYRES does just that. The erotic scenes are steamy and arousing, without veering into softcore porn territory; there's a fair amount of tension built into some scenes; and there's a decent amount of blood and gore as well. The cinematography is handled by Harry Waxman, who was also director of photography on THE WICKER MAN a year earlier (in 1973). And like that film, he manages to imbue his images with genuine atmosphere (helped out of course by the beautifully gothic location where it was filmed). Jose Ramon Larraz directed and also wrote the script (under tha alias D. Daubeney). He ignores most of the conventions of the vampire genre; ie. his vampires don't have fangs, or turn into bats, and they can wander around in the daylight without bursting into flame. There's no vampire hunter or priest brandishing a cross or holy water or wooden stakes. Besides the fact that the two women are portrayed as vampires, there's no element of the supernatural present at all in the film. This manages to make the film a bit more original and different than most of the vampire films of the period (which usually stuck to the rigid conventions listed above). The story involves two bi-sexual vampire women (Marianne Morris and Anulka Dziubinska) who lure men to their crumbling gothic estate, make love to them, and eventually kill and feed from them. One of the women takes a liking to a would-be victim (Murray Brown), allowing him to live by only feeding from a wound in his arm while he's in a drugged or drunken state (not aware that she's a vampire). This eventually weakens him, but not before he begins to suspect something's not quite right about the women. The gothic manor is isolated from civilization by a deep forest and this isolation adds to the films dreamlike and slightly surreal atmosphere. It's reminiscent of Jean Rollin's erotic vampire movies but not nearly as surreal as say Rollin's REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE because as I mentioned above the fantasy and supernatural element is down-played in VAMPYRES. In fact if it weren't for the opening shot in the movie that shows how the two girls died (killed by an unknown assailant while in bed making love together, no less), then it could be argued that they weren't really vampires at all but just adapting the psychological traits of vampires in order to satisfy an abnormal and sadistic sexual addiction. In this sense it could be seen as an (erotic) revisionist vampire movie, foreshadowing George Romero's MARTIN by three years. The scenes of violence and bloodshed can be seen (and enjoyed) as mere exploitation, but to me there seems to be a subversive element involved in these scenes. The erotic scenes are portrayed as tender (albeit arousing) moments and not necessarily pornographic at all; but they're usually followed by an outburst of violence where the vampire women viciously slash and stab at their victims with a dagger, voraciously licking and drinking the blood that flows from the wounds. And it's these violent scenes that actually seem pornographic. This is one of the elements I really like about the film, which makes it stand out above other erotic horror movies of the time (like Hammer's erotic horror films for example). In closing, while the dialogue and plotline may not be all that original, the gothic atmosphere, isolation, and dreamlike quality evoked by the cinematography as well as Larraz's indifference to the usual vampire movie conventions make this an enjoyable viewing experience. It certainly rises above its low budget limitations.
8/10
