Vampyres (1974) Review
1974’s Vampyres – perhaps the best known and most widely-released of all director José Larraz’s films – sees a duo of blood hungry female vampires prowling the British countryside, from where they lure unsuspecting male motorists back to their imposing, dilapidated mansion for draining… in more ways than one.
Seventies cinema was ripe with lesbian vampires (any chance of resurrecting this subgenre was well and truly stuffed up by James Corden’s later Lesbian Vampire Killers in 2009) with the likes of Vampiros Lesbos (1971), The Living Dead Girl (1982) Daughters of Darkness (1971) clogging up the local cinema schedules.
The Seventies was the decade that saw a radical rethink in terms of how vampires were portrayed in movies with bloodsuckers having to slice their victims, for their intake of blood, instead of having fangs and also display the ability to wander around in the daylight – Romero’s Martin is a key example – and Larraz’s female vampires, here, are no exception. This makes Vampyres a refreshing distraction from the established norm.
Vampyres is credited as being written by Diana Daubeney, the director’s wife. Daubeney didn’t actually write the film at all, this is a pseudonym that Larraz chose to be credited under. Keep an eye out for silent film superstar Bessie Love who cameos at the end of the film as a prospective buyer for the property. The property in question is Oakley Court, a property that will be instantly familiar to fans of cult hit The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and numerous Hammer films.
Unlike the director’s other films there’s actually surprises to be had within the admittedly meagre plotting. The film’s central struggle – an incarcerated male victim attempting to escape his captures – makes for engaging viewing but, as with his other films, the director frustrates by delivering with an ending that seems both abrupt and inconclusive. Steeped in atmosphere, with sex scenes that actually deliver the goods, Vampyres is a little-seen classic of Seventies horror cinema that deserves a wider audience.
VAMPYRES is featured in the forthcoming release BLOOD HUNGER: THE FILMS OF JOSE LARRAZ BLU-RAY released 25th March 2019.