The Vampire Lovers

The Vampire Lovers is the third film in Hammer Horror’s trilogy of films based on Carmilla Karnstein. I went into The Vampire Lovers having already seen the other two movies in the trilogy. Both had burned me. Twins of Evil and Lust for a Vampire have little lesbian content. This is fully unacceptable for movies based on Carmilla Karnstein. As such, I was hesitant to watch this one. I should not have been. The Vampire Lovers is both hella gay and incredibly enjoyable.

The Vampire Lovers focuses on the OG lesbian vampire, Carmilla Karnstein. Carmilla spends the movie seducing and killing beautiful women. Her main target is Emma, whose residence she stays at through the majority of the film. Of course, a woman who not only kills people but also does gay activities must be caught and brought to justice. As such, some boring-ass dude named Carl starts investigating and ruins my fun.

I think having no expectations going into this film helped a lot because The Vampires Lovers was just constantly a pleasant surprise. There’s actual ambition and talent on display in The Vampire Lovers. The thing that surprised me the most was how nice looking it is. Aspects like art direction and costume design are well done. There’s a general impression that people actually gave a shit and that some money was spent. The Vampire Lovers is absolutely a sleazy exploitation film. But if you look past the never ending parade of topless women, there is some really good film making and artistry to be found in it.

I just love Carmilla as a character. Despite actress Ingrid Pitt’s performance being a bit weak, this character is just such a delight in this and any other piece of media that allows her to be gay. Some versions of Carmilla remove her lesbianism or relegate it to subtext. This sure as hell isn’t one of those times. Carmilla is clear in her intentions. Both characters and audience have no choice but to understand this she likes girls. And not just in a friend way but in a sexy, gay way. I know she’s the bad guy of the piece but I admire her gumption of constantly successfully going after shelter, presumed straight girls. Also, The Vampire Lovers kept in the bit from the original novel about Carmilla being able to turn into a giant cat and that’s just excellent.

However, I cannot say The Vampire Lovers is a perfect film. For a horror film, it is not at all scary. The pacing can be a bit slow and frankly, very little happens in it. I also would’ve liked Emma to be less of a passive participant in the gay, sexy times she gets up to with Carmilla. She just sort of lays there and lets it happen. The third act also gets disappointingly heterosexual. Feel free to skip the last twenty minutes when things get less gay and also Carmilla dies. Nobody needs to see that.

Ultimately though, I just had a really good time watching The Vampire Lovers and that’s all I really want from a film. The costumes are lovely, it’s got a whole lot of gay content and there’s a completely unexplained scene where a man on horseback laughs maniacally. He hadn’t been introduced before this scene and is never heard from again. I love it! The Vampire Lovers is such a fun movie. It’s not as good as The Hunger because it has neither David Bowie nor skeletons but it is still one of the top three WLW vampire movies I’ve seen.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Other WLW films in similar genres