The Velvet Vampire 1971

The Velvet Vampire directed by Stephanie Rothman from 1971 is our offering to the Halloween Countdown gods today.  Aaaaand I gotta tell you I'm not sure how I felt about this one.  Celeste Yarnell, who was discovered by Ozzy Nelson of Ozzy and Harriett fame and mostly known for being gorgeous, plays Diane LeFanu, the titular female vampire.  The name LeFanu is a nod to author Sheridan Le Fanu who wrote Carmilla about another female vampire.  The novel predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by 26 years.  Speaking of Stoker, the art gallery featured in the film is named The Stoker after the owner Carl Stoker.  Another reference to The Velvet Vamipire's vampirical roots.  Is "vamprical" a word?  I don't think so but it should be!      

Also starring is Michael Blodgett (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and There Was a Crooked Man) and Sherry E. DeBoerm as Lee and Susan Ritter a married couple who Diane has set her sights on to add them to her flock.  Flock?  Gaggle?  What's a group of vampires called these days anyway?  The three meet at The Stoker where Diane invites them to her estate which is located somewhere in the Sahara apparently.  Once there, the couple begin to have dreams or nightmares (depends on how you look at them) about a bed in the middle of the desert where they do "stuff" with Diane.  The fun begins soon thereafter.      

The main issue with The Velvet Vampire is it's neither your normal vampire rampage gore fest nor is it a full blown exploitation film.  A commercial flop originally, but later a cult favorite the film was Rothman's follow up to her acclaimed 1970 film The Student Nurses.  Roger Corman (producer who was also her mentor) wanted something similar from her released next.  Rothman wanted to do a vampire story; more specifically a vampire story with a  strong female lead.  This is it.  All in all it's not a bad film it's just not a very memorable film is the problem.  The sex scenes although very seductive are what you would expect them to be just very short and tame compared to some sexploitation horror films.  And there's the rub because Rothman thought there was enough of it.  This of course coming off of a sexploitation film (The Student Nurses as mentioned before) that she made and had no idea what a sexploitatioin film was until after it was released.  Enough nudity to entertain the 14 year old boy inside of me but not enough scary vampire story to appease the 50 something horror fan.  That I mostly am.  Just enough to scrape together three dune (DOOM) buggies out of five for it.      

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