Things start with a bang as both attractive leads are seen cavorting naked among the sheets and getting frisky, only to be shot by a gun-welding assailant. After that, our ghostly vixens roam a misty and lush English landscape to lure their unsuspecting prey toward a gothic manor for drinks, and much more. Purists will be quick to note that these women walk about in daylight, don't sleep in coffins or even sport aversions to mirrors or any other such lore. Most damning of all - they don't have fangs and instead go about their bloodsucking business in a rather old-fashioned way by slashing their victims and then suckling away at the wound. Frankly, this makes for some very disturbing scenes that work on an entirely different level for this kind of genre and feel downright Cronenbergian.
Beyond its cult reputation, Vampyres also served as a direct inspiration for director Tulsi Ramsay of India, who studied the film and used it as a blueprint for his own sexy horror film, Veerana (1985). Regarding the Indian film Peter Tombs, in his book Mondo Macabro, notes that "as in Larraz's Vampyres, Jasmin seeks out her victims on the lonely highway, hitching a lift and then taking them back to a deserted mill where she drains their bodily fluids. The film ends in traditional Hindi horror style. The vampire witch is tracked down by torch-wielding villagers and defeated by the brandishing of a giant AUM symbol." The AUM symbol is an interesting pattern that is hard to describe but suffice to say that it provides protection from evil in Indian horror films. The victims in Vampyres certainly didn't know this or maybe they would have given it a try.
Of possible interest to Cinephiles with a keen eye and mind for details is the appearance within Vampyres of Bessie Love as the "American Lady." Love has been in over a hundred films and started her career with D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation all the way on up, appropriately enough given her context here, to Tony Scott's rendition of lesbian vampires in The Hunger, 1983. Blue Underground loads the Vampyres dvd with plenty of extras to make this a tempting acquisition for any horror and cult-film enthusiast, including international and domestic trailers, a poster and still gallery, audio commentary with director Larraz and producer Brian Smedly-Aston, a "lost" caravan scene, an Anulka Glamour Gallery, a DVD-ROM link to Vampyres: A Tribute to the Ultimate in Erotic Horror (an in-depth look at the film that also goes into all the cuts missing from censored versions) and a featurette titled Return of the Vampyres with contemporary interviews with Marianne Morris and Anulka - both still beautiful and seductive after all these years.
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by Pablo Kjolseth
