LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

Writer Tudor Gates receives sole credit for writing all three of Hammer Films' so-called "Karnstein trilogy," which built loosely upon the template of J. Sheridan LeFanu's 19th-century vampire novel CARMILLA. I had high praise for Gates' third movie in the series, TWINS OF EVIL, but my memory was that the first two films in the series were not quite so well articulated. The jury is still out on THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, but the middle film, LUST FOR A VAMPIRE, confirms my recollection.

Both of the first two films focus on Carmilla Karnstein, a vampire from an equally vampiric family. In VAMPIRE LOVERS, Ingrid Pitt plays Carmilla, who spends most of her time getting lesbian fang-action at a couple of aristocrats' mansions in the late 18th century, only to be outed and executed. In this sequel, the role is essayed by Yutte Stensgaard, and the action takes place forty years after Carmilla's slaying. 

The vampire-parents of Carmilla (Mike Raven, Barbara Jefford) are not seen in the earlier film, but apparently they've been hanging around their ancestral castle for four decades, keeping low but occasionally sucking blood from the locals. At least the locals relate their fears of vampire activity to visiting English writer LeStrange (Michael Johnson), who's come to the area to research the legends for his occult-themed stories. One assumes that the Karnsteins haven't done anything overt enough to get the villagers to storm their castle (which does take place at the film's end), but there's no good reason given as to why they wait forty years to capture a local virgin and use her blood to resurrect Carmilla (who, for most of the film, assumes the anagrammatic name "Mircalla.") LeStrange happens to visit a local girls' finishing school while doing his research, sees the recrudescent Carmilla attending classes, and becomes besotted with her.

It may not be entirely Tudor Gates' fault that LUST feels so slackly written. After the success of VAMPIRE LOVERS, the producers may have instructed the scriptwriter to give them more of the same thing. Further, LUST was also just the second film to be directed by long-time Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster, and Sangster may not have known how to spice up the script's slower sections. 

A major problem with the film is that all of the vampires' motives are obscure at best. The first movie followed the book in implying that the vampiress formed some personal erotic connection with a fellow student. Here, Carmilla just goes through the motions of feeding off a couple of female students at her new bailiwick, which would seem to be a bad idea for a bloodsucker trying to remain clandestine, the equivalent of "shitting where you eat." The viewer never knows if she has some endgame, either of her own volition or planned for her by the parents who brought her back. Does she plan to leave the school and seduce some wealthy aristocrat, which might be to her long-term benefit, and that of her parents? Gates' script is content to have her flounce around the school with the other sexy starlets, titillating the audience but not really doing anything. Most of the support-characters suffer from similar vagueness of motive as well.

Though LeStrange is too dull a blade to ferret out Carmilla's true nature, one of the teachers at the school (Ralph Bates) does figure things out. He foolishly offers his services to the vampiress, who simply kills him, but the teacher's death raises LeStrange's suspicions about the object of his affections. When the lightbulb does go off in the young man's head, he really doesn't seem that revolted by Carmilla's murderous nature, as if his Great Love simply overwhelms all other considerations. The script has Johnson and Stensgaard mouth all the right passionate lines, but even if the two actors had better chemistry, the romantic angle doesn't come alive-- possibly because Gates couldn't figure out how to sell Carmilla's hetero romance after filling VAMPIRE LOVERS with blood-soaked lesbianism.

As noted earlier Carmilla is finally exposed, causing her to flee to the safety of the ancestral castle. The villagers fire the castle, and curiously, Count Karnstein tells his wife and daughter not to worry, that fire can't hurt them. While I like the idea of vampires being invulnerable to fire-- maybe they just fade into insubstantiality, as Stoker's Dracula does-- Karnstein ought to have been a little concerned that if his castle burns down, it's easy for his enemies to find him and his family and stake them all. 

Stensgaard's Carmilla is of course the movie's main character, and though the actress looks good in the role she doesn't manage to put any great energy into the few emotional scenes given her by the script. Thus she shares some blame for the fact that LUST FOR THE VAMPIRE merely proves watchable, but never stylish, suspenseful or even all that sexy.