Vampyres [Blu-ray]

Just wanted to add a brief comment on the Blue Ray version of this film. As I have the orignal Anchor Bay and Blue Underground DVD versions I was very interested in what the Blue Ray version would be like. I pre-ordered the item from Amazon about 6 weeks ago when I saw it listed and received my copy yesterday and watched it last night. All I can say is WOW. What a transfer. The colors are extremely vivid. It looks like it was filmed yesterday. An exceptional job. Oddly, the Blue Underground DVD version has a few extras not on the Blue Ray but no big deal. If your a fan of this film and are into Blue Ray buy this immediately. You will not be disappointed.

For an old movie this continues to entertain surprisingly well. I credit the explicit lesbian sex.

***** This blu-ray is the finally released uncensored version!

It's bloody good. It looks great in uncompressed 1080p. For an old underground movie, this hottness was far ahead of its time. Yes. It has about as much story as Mrs Pac Man--and a simular theme. But my understanding is that the hot vampire girls in this weren't even actresses, more like models. But they come across honest. Kind of like high class amateur pornography--which is hard to find on blu-ray. I think if all the Twilight girls were watching this instead of New Pose, the world would be a much more interesting place. In any case, don't check out Vampyres for the story or the horror or the action. Check it out for the FUN. Like my wife said, and it's true, this is a flick to watch with a hot girl whose pants are unbuttoned. Now I rented this hottness from my favorite mail-it-to-me blu-ray company, so I can't speak to its value as a purchase, but I'm glad I watched it once, and I can see my wife and me maybe watching it again some day. If I wasn't price-sensitive I would buy it new on blu. If you're remotely interested, I encourage you to take a whack at it. This is the kind of movie Hollywood should be remaking. Give me some naked explicit lesbian vampire huge-boob movies in 3D! And then maybe I'll start going to the cineplex again. But if you still need a nudge and a wink, think of it like this, set the impressively-breasted naked lesbian vampires models aside, and look at it as Classic Film History. Watch it for pure cinematic education--because life experience is beautiful and Knowledge is Power!

I give Vampyres... Two Singing Nipples Up!

Okay, 1974's VAMPYRES admittedly has numerous nude scenes--full-frontal female nude scenes, in some cases--that were a prerequisite for the sexploitation horror pouring out of Europe in the 1970s. And yes, the two female players have hourglass figures, ample bosoms, and beautiful faces. However, this British indie film, directed by Spanish auteur José Ramón Larraz, has a cinematic aesthetic that makes it stand out above its contemporaries as a horror film of true quality. Larraz does a fantastic job of directing, working in close conjunction with cinematographer Harry Waxman to ensure that nearly every shot of every scene is a balanced, well-framed image. In keeping with the spooky atmosphere of the moldering English manor house and surrounding grounds used for location shooting, production designer Ken Bridgeman maintains the perfect ambiance throughout. And unlike many other buxom sexploitation actresses of the era, erotic stars Marianne Morris and Anulka (Dziubinska) can actually act, and they do a superb job in making the eponymous characters both scary and sympathetic.

In addition to the outstanding efforts of cast and crew, the tight, well-written script is refreshingly new--even from the vantage point of some thirty-five years hence. Avoiding the usual vampire clichés, these vamps are really more like ghosts who have some inexplicable but insatiable desire to feed on the blood of the living. They don't have fangs, they can tolerate moderate sunlight, and instead of resting in musty old caskets, they sleep in a wine cellar during the brightest of the daylight hours. They also can eat, drink liquids other than blood, and seem to genuinely enjoy sex. And they even sometimes have sympathy for their victims, a characteristic that may lead to their ultimate downfall.

The myth of the vampire has always been regarded as sexual in nature, especially the intimacy of the flesh-penetrating bite on the neck. VAMPYRES carries this metaphor to the extreme, with heterosexual vampiric coitus portrayed as an intensely passionate, rigorous event that includes feasting on the blood of the non-vampiric partner. And the eponymous characters in VAMPYRES don't gently suck from two pricks in the neck; in the midst of sexual passion, they tear open their victims and lap up the crimson liquid with ferocious, writhing pleasure.

In short, VAMPYRES is an excellent British erotic horror flick that is superior to most others from its era of origin, and it can even stand up against many straightforward, non-sexploitation horror films. It is well written, well acted, and has high production values throughout--and all this in spite of a low, low budget. Director Larraz and his co-scripters have take an idea that they could play for camp or sheer sexploitation and, instead, deliver a thought-provoking look at indiscriminate and promiscuous sex, physical obsession, and guilt. And on top of that, they still throw in lots of delicious T&A.

The blu-ray from Blue Underground is a great buy. Not only does it present a restored director's cut of this excellent film (transferred primarily from the original negatives), but it also has cool extras that include a feature-commentary track with director José Ramón Larraz and producer Brian Smedley-Aston, interviews with stars Marianne Morris and Anulka Dziubinska, the U.S. and European trailers, and more. This is a piece of erotic artistic cinematic history that any serious horror fans will want to add to their collections.

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