moonspinner55 At a finishing school for girls in 1830 Austria, one of the students goes missing; the administration is in a quandary, not knowing that another beauty from the village was recently murdered and her virginal blood was used to reincarnate Carmilla, a female vampire of the devilish Karnstein family, who arrives at the school under the guise of a new student. Screenwriter Tudor Gates (again mining Joseph Sheridan Le Fanuand's novella "Carmilla" for inspiration) and producers Michael Style and Harry Fine all return from 1970's adequate Hammer horror "The Vampire Lovers", but results are tepid this time. With new restraints handed down by the British censors, the team has scaled back on the lesbian overtures predominant in their previous film. Worse, the bloodsucker action also seems toned down in favor of a corny star-crossed romance between the vampire-heroine and a handsome human, an author and Royal heir who falls hard for the blonde beauty (they have sex in a grassy field to the strains of a pop love ballad!). Under these conditions, crack horror director Jimmy Sangster (filling in at the eleventh hour for an ailing Terence Fisher) might be excused for his flaccid handling--and yet, amazingly, there is not one drop of suspense in this scenario. Sangster is probably responsible for the picture's strongest sequence, with smitten school co-founder Ralph Bates groveling at the feet of the new Carmilla/Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard), though this scene, too, finishes poorly. Strong-jawed Michael Johnson positively eats his heart out after making love with the girl and finding himself rebuffed the next day, while a police inspector is killed while sniffing around and nothing is mentioned of him again. The writer and producers tried their luck a third time later the same year with "Twins of Evil", the final chapter of the Karnstein Trilogy. * from ****

asrexproductions LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (Jimmy Sangster, 1971) was an adaptation of the legend of Carmilla the vampire from 1710 (here renamed "Mircalla"), where pagans at an English girls' finishing school must sacrifice a beautiful woman so Mircalla can inhabit her body and feed again. The film is full of gratuitous nudity, plays around with lesbianism, and is often cited as a sign of Hammer Films in decline. I saw this film in a class taught by critic Douglas Brode at Syracuse University, however, and was reminded that what I find great about B filmmaking is that as long as the filmmakers satisfy some mandate - in this case, gratuitous nudity, and the debut of a pop song ("Strange Love," as I recall) - they can make whatever movie they want. It also reminds me that for all of Hammer's greatness, it really was a B movie studio, beholden to the same mandates as every other. What Sangster and company here have done, IMO, is make a well-lit, well shot soft core porn movie that nonetheless has a compelling and interesting story. If you're watching it for the T&A, the cast and the cinematography will oblige you, IMO, but I feel that it will also give you more than the average movie of this type will. I've always felt that Joss Whedon later took this concept - creating works that were, on their surface, simple, lowbrow entertainment, but then writing them well - and made a career out of it, and in my opinion, this was one of the first examples of how that can be done. I evaluate every film based on if I think it will give its intended audience what they want, and if, like Woody Allen, you don't usually like your filth this clean, LUST FOR A VAMPIRE will disappoint. If you're a nerd, however, who is tired of seeing vapid B movies that don't even TRY to tell a compelling story, this movie will impress. Not for everybody, IMO, but honestly my favorite Hammer Horror Film.

jimpayne1967 I saw this film for the first time on television recently and do not know whether it was cut by the station or whether it had been butchered by the station or simply whether it had been badly edited in the first place but whatever it does not make much sense with a plot that has more and bigger holes in it than the average household sieve. The film is not remotely frightening, tense or spooky in the way that the earlier Hammer films often were and has none of the visual richness that the Terence Fisher directed films possessed - if anything it looks more like something made by Lew Grade's ITC around the same time. Most of the actors are familiar enough though I have to confess that Michael Johnson who plays the 'hero' Lestrange is somebody whose name and face has slipped my mind. He is not helped by looking a bit like Jason King would sans his moustache and as a dashing, romantic hero I can see why Johnson has proved to be so forgettable. His character doesn't attract any sympathy although he does seem to be fire and smoke proof if the finale is anything to go by. Yutte Stensgaard plays Mircalla the lesbian vampire/seductress role previously played by Ingrid Pitt in the previous year's Vampire Lovers. Stensgaard is no Pitt. She looks quite nice I suppose- in a sort of Raquel from Coronation Street sort of way- but has none of the allure that Pitt brought to the same role and quite why she has the hold over he classmates, Lestrange and Giles Barton I am not sure. Giles Barton as played by Ralph Bates is by far the best thing about the film- Bates was a fine actor who died far too young and here he gives the creepy. sexually and emotionally stunted teacher a depth the writers could not. The scene where he tries to seduce Mircalla has a pathos that nothing else in the film has. Sadly he is gone after forty minutes. The film came at a time when Hammer,like the Carry On films, was running out of steam and was unsure how to cope with the then prevalent new freedoms when it came to showing bare flesh. There is a lot less nudity and lesbianism on show here than in The Vampire Lovers and I guess that many who view this film will do so hoping to see more in the way of bare bosoms, bottoms and soft core Sapphism than is actually on show. As I said at the top of my review I am not sure how much of the flesh has been cut by either the TV Company ( Horror Channel) or the original censor but if you are expecting the films to be titillating- and the title suggests you might be entitled to think so- be prepared for a disappointment. But then so much of this poorly scripted, indifferently acted and shoddily directed film is a disappointment. 3 out of 10 is being generous and it is all for Bates.

Paul Andrews Lust for a Vampire is set in 1830 in England where fantasy writer Richard Lestrange (Richard Johnson) is staying in the village by the infamous Karnstein castle, it's been exactly forty years to the day since the Karnstein evil was last seen. Richard tries to prove to the locals that Vampirism is just superstition & decides to visit the castle himself, while there he meets a teacher named Giles Barton (Ralph Bates) three young girls whom he teaches at a nearby finishing school. While visiting the school Lestrange falls in love with new student Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard), however it turns out that Mircalla is actually the reincarnation of the evil Vampire Carmilla Karnstein & starts to seduce & drink the blood of the other girls at the school. As the bodies pile up & the police become involved Mircalla's secret is revealed...This British production came from Hammer studios & was directed by Jimmy Sangster who a last minute replacement for Terence Fisher after he apparently broke his leg, Lust for a Vampire was the second of trilogy of films made by Hammer that they adapted from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's short Vampire story Carmilla published in 1872 & began with The Vampire Lovers (1970) which was followed by Lust for a Vampire & ended with Twins of Evil (1972). I don't thin that Lust for a Vampire is a very good film at all, there are moments which make little sense or are barely explained. What, for instance, did that village girl see to make her scream & faint in the carriage at the start? Why was Carmilla at the finishing school anyway? I suppose her parents wanted her to be an educated Vampire, how did she keep sneaking out at night without being caught? I find it hard to believe that Lestrange would just fall in love with Carmilla after having only briefly seen her once, I mean they didn't even speak to each other yet he falls madly in love with her. It's a real stretch to believe & then when he does talk to her for the first time he says how much he loves her, talk about being forward. Carmilla seems to have no sort of plan or reason for being at the school & it's a mystery why she & her two guardian's don't just live in the castle together like a nice Vampire family, you know what I'm saying? Would an experienced police inspector really climb down a well by himself with no-one at the top to help if he got in trouble? Why not call for back-up? At over 90 minutes long Lust for a Vampire has a reasonable pace but not much happens if truth be told & it's hardly exciting, the central concept which had some potential of Carmilla being torn between her evil Vampire ways & her love for Lestrange is wasted.Lust for a Vampire was made with it's male teenage audience in mind as it's far more sexual than scary, an entire school full of attractive young girls who don't like wearing many clothes even when they go out at night in the cold they insist on the absolute minimum amount of clothing. There are a few topless shots, a couple of brief lesbianism scenes & a badly put together tinted montage during Lestarnge & Carmilla making love set to an awful song call Strange Love. There's not much blood or gore here, there's a bit of blood at the start as well as a decayed skeleton, there are a couple of biting scenes & a couple of staking scenes at the end. The sets look alright but the castle is a little cramped, the opening resurrection scene features some really bad incantations badly staged & close-ups of Count Karnstein's blood shot eyes (maybe taken from another film entirely) which are clearly not there in medium face shots.Probably shot on a low budget like most Hammer films the production values are decent enough if not amazing, it looks alright without ever being memorable. Danish actress Stensgaard is OK, Mike Raven was dubbed by someone else (Raven apparently walked out of the premiere because of this) while Ralph Bates is killed off early on, Peter Cushing was meant to star but didn't while Ingrid Pitt was apparently asked back but declined because she thought the script was terrible.Lust for a Vampire is minor Hammer to be honest, it doesn't really feature any of their main stars & is a fairly middling production in terms of concept & execution. Not one of Hammer's best, that's for sure.