Female Vampire

Convincing but cheap, its erotic moments are creepy and sexy and it never resorts to blood just to make a point. That would have been fine in most horror films, but Female Vampire isn't a horror film with a creepy atmosphere, it's more like a creepy atmosphere with a horror film. Romay is sexy and convincing -- Franco has wisely let his villains remain mute, eliminating a lot of silliness. Taylor is refreshing as a poet who believes his destiny is to join her in immortality. A lot better than some of Franco's other 300-someodd movies.

I am a Franco-phile, but the man tries my patience at times. Despite some striking images of semi-naked women striding through fog-enshrouded forests and a magnificent score by Daniel White, the director's technical sloppiness capsized my enjoyment. His zooms are shaky, even wide shots are often soft, and music cues between scenes are often cut off without justification. It's sad that Franco cared so little at times for his own aesthetics and tolerated shabbiness. Lina Romay, Franco's replacement muse after Soledad Miranda died tragically, plays the bloodsucker of the title, a tragic figure doomed to wander in the shadows of the Spanish countryside, her thirst for blood eternal, her hunger for sex insatiable. The film is a series of erotic encounters (some hardcore) interspersed with meandering dialog scenes and pretty scenery. It is slow and wants to be hypnotic, but the terrible dubbing renders it dreadfully melodramatic at times and its poetry is constantly undercut by a subplot starring Franco himself. Romay is flat as an actress and comes across as an erotic try-hard, too, never even coming close to filling the shoes of the celluloid enchantress Miranda. "Female Vampire" is a disappointment.

(aka: EROTIKILL or FEMALE VAMPIRE) I saw the Image DVD and although there may have been some hard-core sex scenes that were deleted from it, I doubt I'd do anything for this film. In fact, I doubt anything can save the viewer from this boredom. Lina Romay appears out of the fog with nothing on except a cape and a belt, with the camera zooming down and focusing on her black pubic hair region. Typically crass for Franco. Still, I don't mind watching. We get to see Lina as a Austrian countess who if you watch the EROTIKILL version, sucks blood out the traditional vampire way, or if you watch the FEMALE VAMPIRE version, sucks sperm (or other sexual bodily fluids) out of her victims the untraditional soft-core way. Most of the film involves soft-core scenes of Lina having sex with men, women, bedposts, pillows, herself, etc. and although I love looking at Lina's naked body, I'm not so sure I want to spend (almost) 2 hours doing so. The Image DVD uses a good print that does have some sprocket damage that's quite noticeable during the whipping scene (which looks pretty tame, btw) and some alternative footage from EROTIKILL which shows Romay biting people's necks and the blood dripping from her mouth. That's about the only blood you'll see in this film, and it's not even in the FEMALE VAMPIRE version. Sorry Lina but even you can't carry it. 2 out 10

I came to hear of Jess Franco, like most of those in my generation, from Vampyros Lesbos, and was quite keen to see "Female Vampyre" (as it appears on DVD). These are two completely different movies, to say the least. First, the directing of Les Avaleuses is surprisingly inept. Shots are often out-of-focus in inappropriate situations, otherwise beautiful panoramas are ruined by unsteady hand-holding of the camera, and the zoom lens is frankly abused. The plot is even thinner than that of Vampyros, which is saying quite a bit. The acting on the part of practically everyone is bloody awful. "Lina Romay" may look a bit like Soledad Miranda but she has none of the screen presence which was Soledad's. Also, let's face, this is a very silly film. It is neither explicit enough to be a porno, nor interesting enough to be a decent movie. Also the music sucks. I was most disappointed in that. I was expecting something much more funky.

Well this is pure Franco that's for sure. The story, to put it mildly, is not it's strong point - a female vampire goes around killing people by means of oral sex and that's basically about it. Female Vampire shares many of the traits of Franco's earlier Vampyros Lesbos, i.e. a stultifying pace, an iconic female lead, uninteresting male characters, lots of sex, half-hearted horror, low production values and a persistent score. However, on every count, this is an inferior movie. Lina Romay is this movies strong point but she does not have the sheer magnetism of Soledad Miranda; where Vampyros Lesbos had a definite erotic style, Female Vampire is mostly endless ugly softcore scenes; and this film's very turgid score is simply not in the same league as the lounge classic that accompanies Lesbos. This is effectively a softcore sex movie with a very loose horror angle. Franco does deliver his somewhat unique sensual approach to proceedings and it is quite effective at times. And with Lina Romay he does have a leading lady with a definite screen presence - without her, this film would most probably be worthless; however, even the gratuitous naked shots of her become wearisome after a while. And as for that dull and repetitive soundtrack! The production values are incredibly low and my guess is that Franco must've shot this one in under a week. It's really pretty bad but if you are a Franco die-hard and/or a Lina Romay fan then it might be worth a look. Other viewers should be warned that this is, to say the least, not for everyone...

Spoilers herein. The title is a reference to Kar Wai Wong's film of a similar name, and one with - I think - similar aspirations. Kar Wai's film is a masterpiece and recognized as such. This one ( I saw the `middle-core' version) is dismissed as simply inept. But its more than that. I watch a lot of films, and I watch them closely. There are many that impress, but the best ideas in cinema today are coming from Spanish-speaking filmmakers. Medem really impresses, but there are a dozen or so from all over the world worth watching. Where did they come from? Well, in part they came from Franco, who is a Spanish Goddard in a way. You don't really believe that they intended you to take this seriously? On the other hand, it is not exploitation, nor parody nor camp. It is deliberately meaningless. The incessant zooming and wandering of the camera in long shots, often unfocused, is what this is all about (as also with Kar Wai). The water-torture repetitiveness of the score (like `In the Mood for Love') is equally deliberate. Usually, such techniques are used to suppress the normal rewards of a movie which are replaced by essays on filmmaking, as was with the French and Swedes and now the Danes. Medem weaves a dense metafabric. What happens here? This has had the life deliberately sucked out of it. The reason Lina the vampire bumps the camera at the beginning is because she first seduces and drains us. Go to `House of 1000 Corpses' if you want truly stupid, you won't find it here. As for Lina, she is no Nico, which is to say that she has no idea what this is about. That's the final Latin touch. But I do give every Catalan my extra appreciation for existing. Incidentally, I make a private hobby of how directors use their lovers in films. This has to be one of the most fascinating (and longest lived at 100 films!) of all. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

A meandering dull-fest directed by the notorious Jess Franco, and "starring" Lina Romay as a mostly * vampiress who sucks the life out of men and women "orally," if you get what I'm driving at. Other than this, there isn't much in the way of a story. It's typically botched by Franco's lazy direction and bad camera-work... shots are often out of focus and Madame Romay bumps into the camera at one point! Lina is attractive enough physically, but here she presents no sensuality, no sex appeal, no magnetism beyond her looks. This functions more as a * film and that's about the only reason worth looking - and even that gets boring real fast. 0 out of ****

Female Vampire (1973) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Jess Franco's erotic twist on the vampire legend has Lina Romay playing Countess Irina, the last member of a vampire family who plans on ending the legacy. A troubled journalist (Anna Watican) shows up to interview Irina and soon the vampire is putting a spell on her. This film is available in three different versions. A hardcore one, which I've watched before, a horror version and a softcore version, which is being reviewed here. The difference in this take on the vampire legend is that Romay doesn't suck the blood out of the neck but instead sucks the semen out of you know where. When you talk to Franco fans about this film you'll usually start a heated debate but to me this is one of the directors best films. The opening, with Romay, naked of course, walking through a fog filled forest, really sets the tone for the film, which also includes a terrific and haunting score by Daniel White. Romay plays a mute in the film and I think this is one of her best performances because she's able to display a sadness that really works for the film. It doesn't hurt matters that she walks around completely naked throughout the movie and this beauty is certainly her in prime shape. This softcore version is certainly more erotic than horror but this is just fine as I find the movie to be incredibly sexy. There's a nearly ten minute lesbian scene between Romay and the reporter, which is extremely hot. Franco himself as well as Jack Taylor, Alice Arno and Monica Swinn has supporting roles and all add fine work (although it's hard to tell with some of the English dubbing). This version runs a tad bit too long at 101-minutes but if you get caught up in the dream like nature of the film then you really are seeing one of the more unique sexploitation films out there. I've seen the XXX version, which is just downright ugly and kills the beauty of the original film but I'm still trying to seek out the horror version and will hopefully come upon it sometime soon. Female Vampire (1973) Horror version *** (out of 4) I finally managed to get a copy of this alternate version of Female Vampire, which is better known as Erotikill or The Bare Breasted Countess. This is certainly a new film and really separates itself from the better known "sex" versions, which also contains another alternate version with XXX scenes. In this horror version everything is basically the same story wise with the major exception being that Countess Irina (Lina Romay) sucks blood and not other things. The differences in this version are quite major and the biggest is that this cut runs nearly 35-minutes shorter. The opening sequence with Romay walking through the woods features her wearing panties, which eliminates all of the below the waste nudity. All the attacks aren't done through sex but instead are bites to the neck, which also include shots of Romay's bloody lips. The film still has a lot of nudity but most of the below the waste stuff has either been taken out or are alternate shots with Romay wearing clothing. The subplot and relationship of Romay with the journalist (Anna Watican) is also shortened to the point where we don't see the two characters together very often. Other changes include a torture chamber sequence where Romay bites on more necks from women she has captured down there. So, is the film any better or worse? I think this horror version works fairly well as a horror movie but it's nothing we haven't seen before and it really can't compete against Franco's much better Vampyros Lesbos, which is pretty similar. I think taking away the sexual aspect of the story kills all of the originality so to me the sex version will always be the preferred one.

Whether intentionally or not, Jesse Franco films can be strangely allusive. Like Godard, he shoots quickly and cheaply (in one year he made 12 films!), yet can remain startlingly true to his own vision. Like Godard he sometimes focuses on female characters to critique masculine structures of power. Like Godard he uses a crime genre to subvert its assumptions, reducing narrative to a minimum, expanding 'superfluous' scenes to bursting point. Like Godard and Altman he foregrounds the female body, but refuses to eroticise it. Like Melville's LE SAMOURAI, the heroine's power in LES AVALEUSES is based on both the donning of an 'armour'-like uniform, and on a muteness (here literal), a refusal to enter into the matrix of language that is the foundation of male-dominated society. the heroine, Irina Karlstein, is a beautiful Countess who has inherited the family 'problem' of vampirism. spending most of the movie deshabille, her homicidal method is a variation on the traditional bloodsucking more appropriate, shall we say, to a decade that produced DEEP THROAT. She does not discriminate in her prey between male and female. A melancholy voiceover reveals her lack of control over this 'gift'. Intercut with this plot are a series of 'male' narratives, including a pretentious writer almost supernaturally attuned to nature who can divine her presence, and many even be her creator; a detective and pathologist who disagree on the nature of the serial slayings; and a blind, possibly Teutonic, hippy. How do you describe a Jesse Franco film without veering into the unprintable? Apparently, Franco shot two versions, one emphasising horror, the other, er, lovemaking. It is easy to sneer and most critics do, but has anyone actually systematically examined his oeuvre, his themes, his imagery? Because he has a very distinctive visual style as hostile to narrative comforts as Godard, an alienating melange of absurd romanticism and pedantic distance, excruciating close-up and disjointed editing, exploitative voyeurism and liberating point of view. It wouldn't be right to call it * either, which depends for its success on an onion-like structure, a gradual formal disrobing if you will. Franco denies us this by clothing his heroine like Margarita on her broom in Bulgakov's novel - thus we have nothing to look forward to, our power of undressing is denied. This makes the film almost, weirdly feminist: the profusion of painfully extended scenes - explicit, yet ungraphic, ranging from lesbianism to onanism - seem very private, empowering rites excluding us (the presumed male viewer?) from participation, forcing us to watch. AVALEUSES doesn't cheat as a horror film either, from its sex/death thematics to a rarefied setting to a scientific endeavour linked to law defeated by primeval forces. Irina is linked to the forest - she IS sexuality - and the film is full of gorgeous colours, and a use of red filter which might be a tribute ot LE MEPRIS. But, perversely for a film featuring a mute and a blind man, the film is best enjoyed ,as Sirk desired, with one's eyes closed - whatever one thinks of the movie, the soundtrack is a masterpiece, enriching what we're watching; a magnificently varied mix of lounge, jazz, Legrandesque romanticism, 60s pop etc. You never want it to end, a coitus continuus if you like.

The story of "Les Avaleuses" is about a beautiful vampire lady who lives for centuries on a Spanish island and needs blood as well as male sperm to survive... Even though the film sometimes has got some lengths and real dialogues are quite rare, "The Female Vampires" can be truly enjoyable as long as you are a serious fan of early 1970s Euro sleaze! Director Jess Franco deserves my whole respect for creating a wonderful gothic atmosphere. The acting skills of main actress Lina Romay are quite well, but her physically performances are even better! This film was released under dozens of titles like "La Comtess Noire", "Lady Dracula 2", "Erotic Kill"..., but I think the number of all different cut versions is not much lower..! The version that I watched took about 90 minutes and contains a * scene, a short S&M sequence and some * action. But I know there is a film with even more than 100 minutes existing, including some real hardcore *. But no matter which version you watch, "Les Avaleuses" is a unique sexploitation experience and definitely one of Franco´s best movies ever!