Review of Vampyros Lesbos (1971) by Evan B — 10 Sep 2007

After years of reading about this landmark film in the history of lesbian vampire cinema, ultimately I suspect that its recognition is due almost entirely to the extremely literal title. It merits its single star only for the nifty score, the ineluctable enchatment of Soledad Miranda's eyes, a few liines from Miss Miranda mid-way through the movie as she reflects on how she became a vampire, and one neat gross/erotic moment of Miranda drooling blood over her victim.

Otheriwse, vapid characterizations and muddled plotting become an excuse for some of the most poorly executed camera work in the history of professional feature film making. I specify the execution of the camera work because frequently one can see exactly what they were attempting with the shots, but the framings are invariably off (rendering compositions that are at times difficult even to look at), and the camera movements and zooms are incompetently jerky.

One recurring problem is that a lengthy shot with elaborate movement of characters and actors will be staged to end on an effective composition, but will leave everything mis-framed, sometimes for minutes, until they land in that final position, which will rarely hold for an entire second.