The middle film in the ‘Karnstein Trilogy’ flanked by ‘Twins of Evil’ and ‘The Vampire Lovers, ‘Lust for a Vampire’ was a first time watch for me today, but having seen ‘Twins of Evil’ I feel I encountered the same problems with this film, as I did with that one.

The plot revolves around a recently opened all girls boarding school in Eastern Europe with a…lets say ‘eccentric’ set of teachers. ranging from ‘Giles’ who is obsessed with the local ‘Karnstein’ family, believing them to well and truely be vampires. through to a headmistress whos poured her entire life savings into the academy and is more than happy to sweep ‘incidents’ under the rug if it keeps the prestige of the school in check.

We open by introducing ourselves to Richard LeStrange a travelling author who is to take up residency at the local school as the new English Lit teacher. almost immediatley Richard gets caught up with ‘Mircalla’ a new student to the academy with a captivating gaze…Indeed, theres more to Mircalla than meets the eye…Shes a vampire, thats…thats whats more than meets the eye.

The ressurected daughter of the count and countess Karnstein – Original name ‘Carmilla’ her motives in going to the academy arnt entirely clear, but at a guess, its to have her fill of the student body and maybe recruit a few new servents for the Karnsteins. Unfortunately this is disrupted however when Richard falls head over heels in love with Carmilla, a feeling she resiprocates.

and thuse a complex romance plays out, with Richard slowly gaining an awareness as to what Carmilla is, Giles also slowly piecing things together and Carmilla slowly but surely ‘dissapearing’ more and more students…its only a matter of time before parents start asking questions and the pair find themselves in a perilous situation.

And I for one really enjoyed this film. pretty much across the board it did everything I’d want out of a Hammer vampire movie, it easily blew most of the ACTUAL ‘Dracula’ films out of the water. theres just one element of this that I wasnt quite as fond of…

On the script front, we have a well paced, decently plotted, solidly toned work with strong, complex characters (for Hammer) interesting and complex scenarios and realtionships that are played out in a way that feels genuine. solid dialogue for the most part thats engaging and enjoyable. and a solid 3 act structure that only falters slightly in the closing minutes (and that isnt inherently due to the script, more due to clumsy editing and budget limitations).

I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the script apart from one. and thats the overtly sexual tone of the whole thing. Dont get me wrong, I enjoy some eroticism in my horror movies, I like a bit of playfulness and I can absolutely appreciate the boundaries this film pushed for the time in showing lesbian relationships in cinema at a time where homosexuality had only recently been decriminalised. However; this era of Hammer is often referred to as ‘Playboy Hammer’ and thats kind of what puts me off. theres a lot of clearly staged out ‘Glamour’ moments that arnt relevent to the plot, take away from the weight and tone of the overall production and are quite literally just there because sex sells.

I wont begrudge anyone who DOES enjoy that kind of thing. but for me? it pulls me out of the action, because its so blatently just…THERE for the sake of being there, that it almost becomes comedic when the cast will, for VERY little reason, randomly start just taking their clothes off. the shift into ‘soft focus’ mode and the somewhat border softcore porn dialogue shifts only further pull me out of this one. I had similar issues with ‘Twins of Evil’ and if anything, its even more overt in this one.

I dont think it ruins the film at all mind, but it did stop me from outright loving this film entirely, because those moments (combined with the ending which is supposed to be an incredibly dramatic and tragic event…but due to lack of budget and a ropey set of cuts makes it accidentally hilarious) snapped me back into the room and made me realise that someone, somewhere in the production of this film decided to hard turn it into a ‘male gaze’ feature…and thats a shame.

Otherwise? Barring the finale bad edit. I loved everything about this film. the direction feels EXACTLY like what Hammer should have been doing all along, pulling modern 70s film making styles into gothic style storytelling and mixing them together into a ‘best of both worlds’ type scenario. It looks fresh, feels great, isnt afraid to experiment and the cast are clearly having fun with a less strict environment to work with.

The cine is rich, vibrant and delightful. rock solid composition, hearty amounts of B-roll, experimentation with processing and film effects. and, for the most part, some decent sequence building. No notes, I loved it.

Michael Johnson as Lestrange is about a strong a leading man Hammer has had since Cushing and Lee. He’s believable for the most part, which, in this studio is honestly a rare thing. he delivers his lines with solid and powerful emotion, has a great sense of physicality and gets a good range of emotions to work with across the runtime. he’s great!

Yutte Stensgaard as Carmilla gave me a case of the ‘Hammana hammana hammana’s’ a genuinely delightful performance again with solid range and she really nails the vampiric elements. Definitely one of my favourite ‘Hammer girls’.

the rest of the cast..well, they’re just kind of your standard Hammer background fodder…fine enough, but a mixed bag of fun and believable performances, to the downright awful. im into that kind of thing though so its all good.

Add to that a VERY refreshing soundtrack that really enhances the visuals of the piece and has some fantastic timing in terms of how its utilised across the films runtime…and I have very little to complain about honestly. Its a film thats maybe a little on the slow side to get going, but once its up and whirring. its about as solid a work as Hammer produced during its first wave.

Very much enjoyed, Very much recommended.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/lust-for-a-vampire/