British horror from 1974, inspired by J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s CARMILLA (1871-72). While VAMPYRES is highly regarded by aficionados of the genre and remains a highlight in the career of Spain’s prolific José Ramón Larraz (1929-2013), it never attains the heights of the similarly oriented 1971 horror-fest DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (which was incidentally among this film’s many alternate titles). But taken purely as the adult-oriented vamp-sploitation movie it is, VAMPYRES is definitely above average.
Fran (Marianne Morris) and Miriam (Anulka) are a lesbian couple shot to death by an unseen someone while getting it on in a very gothic mansion (Windsor based Oakley Court, the setting for many a Hammer horror fest). They live on as undead “vampyres,” feasting on passing motorists whose ranks include Ted, a solitary traveler lured to the mansion by Fran (posing as a hitchhiker). Ted is seduced and given spiked wine, only to awaken the following morning with a nasty gash across his left arm and the ladies nowhere to be found.
Ted heads for a caravan stationed near the mansion. First aid is offered by the caravan’s owners John (Brian Deacon) and Harriet (Sally Faulkner), with the latter growing increasingly suspicions about the mansion’s inhabitants. Ted likewise becomes apprehensive after meeting Rupert, Fran and Miriam’s latest pick-up, and then seeing his corpse being removed from a car accident staged by the vamps. More undead lasciviousness is in store, with Ted serving as an eroticized blood bank for Fran and Miriam, and some nasty violence as John and Harriet are increasingly drawn into the madness.
As scripted by Larraz (under the nom de plume “D. Daubenay,” his wife’s maiden name), VAMPYRES works primarily because of its simplicity. It’s not particularly distinguished from a visual standpoint, but Larraz conjures up a genuinely otherworldly atmosphere within the mansion—albeit with a few too many overlong scenes of people wandering through dark hallways, suggesting that Larraz and editor Geoff R. Brown vastly overestimated their ability to build and maintain suspense. The acting is highly uneven, particularly by Marianne Morris and Anulka as the title characters, who, as admitted by VAMPYRES fanatic Tim Greaves (in his booklet VAMPYRES: A TRIBUTE TO THE ULTIMATE IN EROTIC HORROR CINEMA), were “clearly hired more for their effortless ability to look great in front of a camera than their talents in the acting stakes.”
One area in which the film distinguishes itself is its depiction of sex and gore. Both of those elements are quite graphically rendered, and unusually so for a 1970s British production (which has resulted in a number of alternate home video versions), with the frenzied killings of the final scenes so savage and unflinching they breach Truly Disturbing territory.
Vital Statistics
VAMPYRES
Essay Films/Lurco Films
Director: “Joseph Larraz” (José Ramón Larraz)
Producer: Brian Smedley-Aston
Screenplay: “D. Daubenay” (José Ramón Larraz)
Cinematography: Harry Waxman
Editing: Geoff R. Brown
Cast: Marianne Morris, “Anulka” (Anulka Dziubinska), Murray Brown, Brian Deacon, Sally Faulkner, Michael Byrne, Karl Lanchbury, Margaret Heald, Douglas Jones, Gerald Case, Bessie Love, Elliott Sullivan