Reviews

What an excellent film! Try not to dig too deep but this is classic eurotrash and when you've been away from eurotrash for a while you'll need a stunner like this to remind you how fantastic it can be. Jess Franco has let us down occasionally in the past, but this must surely be his masterpiece. Trust no American issues as they prefer violence to sex and edit accordingly. Don't analyse the plot because you'll miss the point.

Beautifully shot by Joan Vincent, this is serious erect-nipple vampirism, with all the longing and the loneliness that goes with belonging to the undead...although there are not many people who look as alive as Lina Romay does in this movie. Absolutely excellent and for a change coherent. Wistful, sexy, hypereal. Genuinely an extraordinary movie.

This is what happens when a film maker has money but no style. Laura Gemser is naked but she's a method actress and looks like she's in need of serious nourishment beyond raw fish and coconuts. Dead skinny, not sexy. Arthur Kennedy provides some acting backbone but ends up playing himself. The scenery is pretty but is prettier elsewhere, including The Blue Lagoon, whose stars are better fed; and Call Me Savage, whose stars are better looking. As far as erotic beach movies are concerned you're better off renting Our Girl Friday with Joan Collins. This director also made Trinity is Still My Name, one of the best spaghetti westerns. Both movies are aimed at, and will score well with 12-year-olds. This is not a derogation, just a statement of fact.

Terrific action adventure, opening with wonderful Max Steiner score. It's simply and economically told, a forerunner of Southern Comfort. Karloff is way over the top, a bit more subtlety might have worked out for him. It's also pretty talky and some of the dialogue is unconvincing but on the whole it's a minor classic. So why isn't this movie available on video?

By turns mysoginistic and feminist, this one has some spooky metaphorical comments on marriage, virginity and lesbianism. It also has the gorgeous cinematography, splendidly dreary autumnal locations and beautiful women going absolutely demented that we've come to expect from European horror movies of the time. Nudity is kept to the minimum, unusually, but the classically beautiful Alexandra Bastedo of cult TV series The Champions is the vampire this time, and the scene where she's discovered buried in the sand is totally surreal and inspired, almost Bunuelian. The movie flags a little in the middle, as most of them do, but the ending is suitably hysterical and subversive. It also seems to be almost a prequel for Vampyres, another stylish and sexy Spanish vampire flick.