Lust For A Vampire

Middling Hammer vampire effort gets superior DVD treatment
Lust for a Vampire is the second and generally acknowledged as the least of Hammer's Carmilla Karnstein trilogy (Vampire Lovers, Lust, Twins of Evil). The movie is actually better than I expected, with most of the downside apparently due to postproduction fiddling by producers Harry Fine and Michael Style. The script by Tudor Gates contains a few fresh twists, Jimmy Sangster's direction is competent, the women, especially Yutte Stensgaard as Mircalla, are gorgeous, and Ralph Bates is excellent in a difficult role (originally intended for Peter Cushing). But what really mars the film and no doubt contributes to its poor reputation are some shockingly bad editing and soundtrack decisions: an otherwise effective scene of three `vampiresses' stalking Michael Johnson in Karnstein castle is ruined by an idiotic voiceover; the unintentionally hilarious "subjective" murder shots were no doubt intended to be cut away from much sooner than they are; blatantly obvious, mismatched closeups of...

"I've Upended The Cross."
LUST FOR A VAMPIRE is the second (and almost universally considered the weakest) of Hammer's "Carmilla Trilogy" based on J. Sheridan LeFanu's famed short story.

A bit loopy and campy, this film is nowhere as bad as its detractors want it to be, though DRACULA it isn't and can never be.

In LUST FOR A VAMPIRE, the lesbian vampire Carmilla Karnstein (played here by Danish actress/model Yutte Stensgaard, who is one of the blondest, most sensuous, and ethereal women to ever grace a movie screen) decides to make an 1830s girls' finishing school her favorite haunt. She spends a great deal of time finishing the girls, quite enjoyably. The women are all universally voluptuous and beautiful, and bare breasts and bodies are well in evidence.

As with all Hammer films, LUST FOR A VAMPIRE is stylish and visually attractive, though the script here is weak and a bit chaotic, leaving way too many loose ends, even for a Hammer production. But if you're watching LUST...

"These are not normal times...you'll not find any young girls talking to a stranger."
What's that me hounds of classic Hammer horror films? You say you want more of the titillating, fantabuloso, bloodsucking, Sapphic action you enjoyed so much in the popular film The Vampire Lovers (1970)? Well, fret not, as Hammer Studios heard your grubby pleas and punched out this sequel, titled Lust for a Vampire (1971). Directed Jimmy Sangster, known for his excellent writing work on such films like X the Unknown (1956), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), and Dracula (1958), the film stars Ralph Bates (Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde), Michael Johnson (Anne of the Thousand Days), and Yutte Stensgaard (Scream and Scream Again), in her last silver screen appearance. Also appearing is Barbara Jefford (The Ninth Gate), Suzanna Leigh (The Lost Continent), Helen Christie (Rasputin: The Mad Monk), and former pirate radio station disc jockey Mike Raven, whom I last saw in the fairly rotten film Crucible of Terror (1971).

The film, set in the year 1830, begins with the abduction...

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