Rish's Reviews
I saw this in the same run-down revival theater where I saw The Others and Session 9 a year or so back, this time playing with the extremely bad Wizard of Gore. If anything, the theater was even grungier and less comfortable than before. I sat among the very dregs of mankind, borderline psychotic gorehounds who were so socially backward, they made me look like Clark Gable (and how hip could I be if my idea of cool is Clark Gable?).
The print I saw was called Daughters of Dracula, but that's actually a pretty silly title. It's also known as Blood Hunger, Satan's Daughters, and Daughters of Darkness, but we'll just call it Vampyres for now.
An English film, it told the tale of a handful of characters who cross paths with Fran and Miriam, two lovely and mysterious who live in an abandoned mansion and whose thirst for sex and wine is only exceeded for their thirst for something else.
Not that, you sick bastard. Blood, their thirst for blood.
A very disturbing work, this was our second X-rated horror film (I believe). This one probably would still earn that rating, if it existed today. It had gore and bloodletting, nudity and sexual debauchery of many different types, and combinations of the two. The scenes with the blood frenzy of the women (which intensify each time) actually had me twitching in shock and repulsion. Sadly, I have an ex-roommate who will definitely be looking for this movie because I said that.
It featured beautiful women in all three female roles, including one of the most perfect-looking blondes ever to haunt my dreams. None of them are familiar to me, but Michael Byrne, the villain from Indiana Jones III and Force Ten From Navarone, appeared as a wine-loving playboy with really, really bad teeth.
An interesting choice was to feature completely non-supernatural vampires. These two women never become bats, demonstrate great strength, melt in sunlight, or even sprout fangs. It might even beg the question as to whether they really were vampires, or only believed they were, a question I've seen raised in later films, like Martin and Midnight Kiss. I choose to believe, though. After all, mortal women are rarely this hot.
The film was well made, but not at all enjoyable. Unfortunately, they totally leave the main subplot unresolved at the end of the film, quite infuriatingly (I've read that in some versions, that problem does not exist). It was very slow-moving, especially toward the end. The first couple of minutes are completely useless and should never have been filmed, let alone left in the finished movie.
When it ended, I felt a little bit dirty, actually. Not just because the film was lurid, but because of the way it ends. It's almost as if . . . how do I put it without giving anything away? It was so hopeless, it's almost as if what we've just been watching has all been for nothing, sort of like "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" or one of those "Outer Limits" episodes where humanity is wiped out by the aliens so easily, you feel sick for ever believing we stood a chance. But that's not quite it. In a way, I was reminded of how I felt after seeing Seven in 1995. I guess I'll just shut up now.
Tyranist, any idea of the meaning behind "vampyres" with a y? [tyranist: Nope. I guess some people just like to spell funny. Still, spelling it 'pyres' does bring up visions of flames, doesn't it?]
Best Scare: Probably the classic hand-on-the-window scare that still evoked a lot of jumps and gasps.