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.
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.