Vampyres (film)

Lore & Background

The cast includes Anulka Dziubinska, whose first acting role this was, and Marianne Morris, who had appeared in several earlier films. Sally Faulkner, a Shakespearean stage actress, played Harriet and found the experience unpleasant, feeling Larraz was disrespectful. The film received mixed critical response, with many reviews focusing on its explicit depiction of female bisexuality. It has since been reassessed by film scholars in the 1990s and has a large cult following.

Reader's Guide

Vampyres is significant as a British erotic horror film that pushed boundaries with its graphic integration of sex and violence, particularly its depiction of lesbian vampires. The film was targeted by critics for its presentation of female bisexuality and graphic content. Its legacy includes a large cult following and renewed scholarly attention in the 1990s, when writers began reassessing 1970s British horror and sexploitation films. Film theorist Barbara Creed called the arm wound 'one of the most grotesque sights in the film.' Scholar Leon Hunt noted that the male heterosexual narrative is 'an explicitly masochistic one,' with male characters reduced to 'props' for the vampires' sexual encounters. The film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray by various distributors, including Anchor Bay Entertainment and Arrow Video, and a remake was directed by Víctor Matellano in 2015.

Did You Know?

• The film was shot over three weeks on a budget of £42,000.
• Anulka Dziubinska, who played Fran, had been a Playboy Playmate of the Month in May 1973.
• Director José Ramón Larraz called the censored version of the film 'the Vatican version.'
• The film was briefly covered in the 1974 BBC documentary The Dracula Business.