Vampyros Lesbos

I’ve complained a few times in past reviews about the idea of enjoyable sleaze and exploitation. I know that my criteria is wholly subjective and unfortunately, I cannot fully explain what I mean by enjoyable exploitation and sleaze. However, I can give an example. Vampyros Lesbos is the kind of sleaze I am totally here for.

As almost all of these movies go, the main plot of this film is about a seductive vampire luring a mortal into lesbianism and general sin. In this case it is Countess Nadine Carody. The countess is luring a woman named Linda to a beautiful tropical island where she lives. Then some men show up and trying and put a stop to all the gayness and bloodshed. All of this is interspersed with super weird scenes of Nadine doing extended strip-tease type dances involving a mannequin.

This review is going to be coloured by the fact that I absolutely am biased in director Jesús Franco’s favour. This is despite several reasons I perhaps should not be. Jesus Franco is one of the most prolific makers of WLW films. He’s an exploitation filmmaker which means that none of these films are going to have unproblematic depictions of women, let alone queer women. But on the other hand, he’s made at least 23 movies with major WLW content dating as far back as the 1960’s, a time when cinematic WLW content was pretty thin on the ground. Franco has also made more than one queer lady vampire film including this one, Vampyros Lesbos. I’m totally supportive of such things.

What’s fun about Vampyros Lesbos is that the inevitable male heroes who rescue Linda from metaphorical radical feminism are not out and out heroes. They’re as bad if not worse than Nadine and intentionally so. In fact, it seems like Linda might actually go the metaphorical radical feminism route as She does intentionally turn herself into a vampire. She does kill Nadine because predatory lesbians must die. But hey, I could still make an argument that this is still a film about Linda taking control of her own destiny and other vaguely empowering statements.

I won’t pretend Vampyros Lesbos doesn’t suffer some pacing problems because it totally does. The striptease scenes drive the plot to a halt for something that I personally didn’t find that sexy. However, the sex scenes and blood drinking scenes however are very sexy. Some of the best I’ve seen from 70’s exploitation vampire films. They also don’t advance the plot in anyway but they are a staple of the genre and they’re done pretty well in Vampyros Lesbos so I’m not too mad.

Vampyros Lesbos is a little thin on substance so there’s not much to review. It’s about the look and the feel of the film more than any fancy concepts like story or character development. In its stylistic ambitions however, I think it succeeded. I liked the look and feel of Vampyros Lesbos so it succeeded in its major priority.

Vampyros Lesbos is just good fun. I love this sub-genre of film so much that I can overlook most of its flaws. Trippy, sexy and bloody, Vampyros Lesbos is a good example of the kind of exploitation film I like. It might not be for everyone, but if you like vintage horror or weirdly charming sleaze or ladies doing strip teases with mannequins, give Vampyros Lesbos a try.

Overall rating: 6.4/10

Other WLW films in similar genres