(1970)

Synopsis: Soledad Miranda stars as Countess Carody, a rich, hedonistic vampiress living in seclusion on an island off Turkey with her mute servant Morpho. At night she flies off to perform an erotic nightclub act in an Istanbul club. A tourist named... Soledad Miranda stars as Countess Carody, a rich, hedonistic vampiress living in seclusion on an island off Turkey with her mute servant Morpho. At night she flies off to perform an erotic nightclub act in an Istanbul club. A tourist named Linda (Ewa Stroembnerg) is so transfixed by the performance she pursues the countess back to the island, where they get it on, and exchange blood. Meanwhile, Agra (Heidrun Kussin), the last victim/lover of Countess Carody is still recovering in Dr. Seward's (Dennis Price) sanitarium, and the doctor has plans to track the countess down and kill her. Surreal imagery and languid lesbian love scenes abound, captured in inspired zoom shots and enhanced with the famously psychedelic score by German composers Mannfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab. Director Jess Franco cemented his reputation as a genius of cinematic sex, drugs and death with this film, in which he also appears as a psychopathic killer. For aficionados of lesbian vampire movies, or just wild 1960s-1970s European cinema, this is an essential classic that begins to makes sense only with repeat viewings. [More]