Vampiress Review: "Blood Splattered Bride"

The Gist: A young newlywed bride is being haunted by the ghost of a distant relative of her husband who happens to be a vampire.

Female Vampire Factor: Alexandra Bastedo in this film plays Carmilla/Mircalla Karnstein

Mircalla is the long dead relative of the man of the house.  She spends most of the film as a mysterious woman in white stalking young newlywed Susan.  Eventually she finds her way into the home as a woman found buried on the beach going by the name Carmilla that he saves and brings home.

Once she finds her way in the house she spends her time seducing Susan.  She bites Susan putting her under her spell eventually leading to her hating her husband and going on a bit of a killing spree.

Eventually Susans husband starts to finally believe that Carmilla isn't who she says she is (after spending the movie not believing the multiple warnings from Susan and the daughter of their servants Carol). After one day following Susan to find where Carmilla's tomb is he heads back to the tomb where both Carmilla and Susan were both sleeping and he goes on a shooting spree killing both of them.  

 Young twelve year old Carol also appears and after showing that she was also one of Carmilla's slaves, he shoots her as well.  The film ends telling us he is jailed for the murders.

Final Opinion: This movie is super freaky.  A lot of random girl parts and super rough sex sprinkled throughout.  In fact the whole lesbian vampire deal doesn't start until about an hour in as the first hour is pretty much Susan's rough sex habits and fantasy's with her husband.

As far as a vampire film I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 2 out of 5.  Mircalla is a vampire though but that's treated as more of a matter of fact type of situation.  There are two bite scenes where she drinks from Susan but other than that it's not much of a supernatural vampire film.  She doesn't have fangs and her murdering is with a dagger. It's closer to the film Vampyres than it is any of the other Carmilla Karnstein inspired films.

Vampiress Review: "Terror in the Crypt"

The Gist: An old world count is worried that the spirit of an ancient witch in their bloodline is taking over his daughter.

Female Vampire Factor: I call this a vampire movie without being a vampire movie even though the films other title is indeed "Crypt of the Vampire".  The whole movie makes you believe that Laura Karnstein is unknowingly blacking out and sucking peoples blood.   The only bite scenes in the film are in first person so you never actually see who bites the women.

The bulk of the movie furthers this idea by having Laura act a lot like Carmilla Karnstein (this film could quite easily be a sequel to the Vampire Lovers even though it came out 6 years before it as Hammer also delved into the "Carmillas spirit possessing people" story in their trilogy).  She spends the bulk of the film attaching herself to a woman named Ursula with their relationship coming off many times as more than friendly.

Adriana Ambesi as a vampire is a thing of beauty and she is perfect for the role IF it happened because she is drop dead gorgeous.

 In this case it doesn't happen as the ending swerve ends up being that the girl she's seducing "Ursula" ends up being the spirit of Carmilla and has been manipulating Laura the whole time to make her believe she was the vampire. Eventually Count Karnstein and his crew find Carmilla's crypt just in time and opens it.  All pictures of Carmilla had been destroyed after the original was executed for being a witch so there was no way for them to recognize Ursula as Carmilla prior to opening the crypt and finding her perfectly preserved body.

After opening her crypt they sever Carmilla's heart just as Ursula was trying to take Laura away.  As Carmilla's body is destroyed Ursula shrieks in pain then vanishes into thin air only leaving her dress.

Final Opinion: I LOVED this film.  As Laura more and more starts to believe she's a vampire she begins to kind of act like Carmilla who was a straight up lesbian seductress for those who don't know the story.  If this had fangs even if just one scene it would've been perfect but I easily give this one a Vampire Beauty Rating of 4 out of 5 none the less. 

Adriana as a vampire isn't lost though.  She does sport fangs in another film I loved "Fangs of the Living Dead" five years later.