Pretty Good

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This film starts out with a semi-clad female by the name of "Countess Irina Karlstein" (Lina Romay) walking in a forest in Spain on a foggy evening. She then comes upon a man who she easily seduces and then proceeds to kill him while he is in the throes of passion by drinking his blood. Although she clearly doesn't enjoy her actions, she knows that she cannot stop because she suffers from what she calls "the curse of the Karlsteins" which requires her to feed at regular intervals. And so, not long afterward, she seduces another man in her hotel room and kills him as well. Meanwhile, upon examining the first body, a man by the name of "Dr. Roberts" (Jesus Franco) begins to investigate and each day the evidence leads him closer and closer to the source of it all. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Not only was the entire film extremely slow and boring but the director (Jesus Franco) kept playing the same awful music to each scene over and over again which really got on my nerves. Likewise, although several scenes involved sex and nudity, none of them were in the least bit erotic. Quite the opposite. In short, I didn't care for this movie at all and I have rated it accordingly.

A beautiful female vampire (Lina Romay) lures men to their doom.Depending on which version you watch, you might get a more or less pornographic film with horror themes or a horror film with some sexual themes. I watched the Netflix version, which seems to be somewhere in the middle, or perhaps leaning towards porn (there were naked men and women within the first ten minutes, and a simulated sexual encounter). Not at all what I expected, and frankly it disappoints me that this version is not more horror.Concerning the sexual scenes, Franco has said, "There was a need to show it, like you must show how Dracula sucks his blood, you need to show how this Countess sucks the semen." I am not sure if I buy that.

There's no question that Franco was inept in many ways, starting with some unbelievably dumb stories. Not what the story is about but how, usually awkward, wooden, unnatural in anything that resembles life. Still, he led a pretty admirable life, shooting films, composing music, traveling around sunny locales, meeting and undressing some pretty women with his camera. I can think of ways much worse to spend my time on earth.And even more appealing to me, there's something to be said about his mentality towards films, probably immersed whilst doing it but quickly moving on, unattached. It's freeing to see. So when all is said, you have probably decided what use you have for any of these films. This isn't one of his best, far from it actually. For me, that's Eugenie De Sade and Vampyros. I rate it low, because it is bad in all the parts, even the sex which is neither erotic nor dangerous as he probably thought. What he explains about the 'world of pleasure' are childish notions.Still, what it is has its attractive aura. The very loose structure, a woman simply walks around having sex, the languid locations in Madeira, the vapid look on Lina Romay's face as she glides unattached in the nude, the overall air of casual commitment to dumb (as in inarticulate) passion. Oh, he's still the dull man from interviews but this improvised void endears. It's like we're on vacation, leisurely pacing around as we do some trivial stuff (shooting a softcore film) in order to be far from home.

What an excellent film! Try not to dig too deep but this is classic eurotrash and when you've been away from eurotrash for a while you'll need a stunner like this to remind you how fantastic it can be. Jess Franco has let us down occasionally in the past, but this must surely be his masterpiece. Trust no American issues as they prefer violence to sex and edit accordingly. Don't analyse the plot because you'll miss the point. Beautifully shot by Joan Vincent, this is serious erect-nipple vampirism, with all the longing and the loneliness that goes with belonging to the undead...although there are not many people who look as alive as Lina Romay does in this movie. Absolutely excellent and for a change coherent. Wistful, sexy, hypereal. Genuinely an extraordinary movie.