Female Vampire (1973)

hyped garbage

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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.

It's no big secret that I'm not too fond on Jesus Franco movies. His movies are often a mixture of horror and erotica, with as a big problem that none of his movies really stand out as either horror or as porn.Jesus Franco does again a great job at keeping a story hidden, somewhere deep down in his movie. Seriously, there just really is no story. The movie is basically Lina Romay walking around naked and literally bumping into the camera, while she is also occasionally having sex with both males or females. It doesn't has really anything to do with horror or vampirism, though this is also still dependent of what version of the movie you're watching.There are so many different versions of this movie out there. The one I watched was unfortunately the longest one available, which was the German version of this movie, which also had all of the hardcore porn sequences in it. And that's of course also how old porn should be watched; with German synchronization.But still I would recommend it more for people to watch the soft-core version of this movie instead. All of its hardcore moments are incredibly poorly filmed and actually look like it comes straight out of Jesus Franco personal home shot videos. It looks completely different from the way the rest of the movie got shot. It only consists out of extreme close-ups and the camera never moves or cuts away. Basically it all are some long, hairy shots, that all end with an (fake) orgasm. It slows down the movie extremely and at least the rest of the movie is somewhat better looking because it got filmed with some more taste and quality to it.But as far as Jesus Franco movies go; I didn't hated watching this one, which is probably the most positive thing I could ever say about a Jesus Franco movie. I can't understand it either how people could actually like and enjoy watching it but there apparently is a big market for it out there. So if these kind of movies are your thing, you probably aren't going to care what I think and have to say about this movie anyway, since it clearly just isn't my thing.3/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Personally, I am a huge fan of Jess Franco, who has enriched the world of Eurohorror/Exploitation by a vast variety of films, including masterpieces such as "Gritos En La Noche", ("The Awful Dr. Orloff", 1962) and Miss Muerte" ("The Diabolical Dr. Z", 1966), a vast amount of entertaining sleaze, as well as big-time stinkers (such as "Sadomania"). With a repertoire of over 190 films, Franco must be the most prolific Exploitation director of all-time; and while I can understand those who do not share my admiration for the Spanish Trash-deity, one has to give it to Franco that even his lesser films always have a certain weird style, which is almost impossible not to like for a cult-cinema fan. Take this film, for example: "Les Avaleuses" (aka. "Female Vampire"/"Bare Breasted Countess"/"Erotikill") of 1973 is, without any doubt, an incredibly nonsensical film that is more Porn than it is Horror and ranges among the most shamelessly plot-less Euro-Exploitation features ever produced. And yet I cannot claim I didn't enjoy it.The main attraction is Franco's Nr. 1 muse (and real-life wife) the stunning Lina Romay. Sexy Lina plays Countess Irina Karlstein, a female vampire who walks around wearing only a cape and a belt, who kills her victims (of both sexes) during sex, and who does not limit herself to sucking blood exclusively. Then there's also a weird-looking pathologist (played by director Franco) who desperately tries to convince the police that the mutilated corpse are victims of a vampire, not a madman... This may not sound like a proper plot-description, but fact is that this confused little film does not really have a proper plot. About 90 per cent of the film are soft-core porn (or hard-core porn, depending on which version you see), sleaze, and shots of beautiful Lina Romay walking naked through the forest. The 'Horror' is quite ridiculous, and the dialogue ranges among the most nonsensical things ever written. Lina Romay's leading character is mute, but her communicating through body language is quite welcome! There is also a character named Professor Orloff (is it Franco's own Dr. Orloff?) who only talks truly bizarre nonsense. The rest of the cast includes Eurocult regular Jack Taylor (who was in many Franco films, and also starred in many other Spanish Horror productions including many films in which he played alongside the late Paul Naschy), as well as the weird-looking Franco-flick bit-part-player Luis Barboo.Basically, this film is recommendable for two reasons, the first and most convicting one being Lina Romay who walks around naked for almost the entire film. The second reason is that it is a Jess Franco film, and therefore delivers the nonsensical plot in a particular, stylish manner. It is obvious that Franco didn't even bother about the plot, and he certainly doesn't give a crap about people nagging about the lack of it. In typical Franco-fashion, the film is atmospheric, nicely shot in beautiful locations and accompanied by a nice score. The plot may be almost non-existent, and the film may be a mere repetition of sleazy sequences - one still doesn't get bored. The sequences shot in the car, by the way, are a nice tribute to Tod Browning's 1931 "Dracula" with Bela Lugosi.Overall, I can only recommend "Female Vampire" to my fellow enthusiastic fans of Jess Franco. To anybody not familiar with Franco, I would recommend to check out his brilliant early works, such as "The Awful Dr. Orloff", "The Diabolical Dr. Z" or "Venus in Furs" and skip this one. While it does range in the lesser half of his repertoire, it isn't the worst film he has ever made, though. Once asked about the reason for film-making, Franco replied: "Showing the female body naked." How can one not appreciate such honesty?