Daughters of Darkness [DVD]

For all fans of the lesbian vampire genre, forget Vampiros Lesbos, this is THE film to get.
Gothic in its settings, a darkly fascinating Delphine Seyrig as the Vampire Countess Bathory.
Also the kinky part about the 'oh so innocent' bridegroom who is far too eager to see dead girls and has a secret transsexual lover.(Great: John Karlen as the bridegroom, more well known for his role as Harvey, Mary Beth Lacy's husband in 'Cagney & Lacy')
Outrageous for its time and still a very kinky and bizarre film. Worth purchasing.

A young eloping couple arrive at a coastal resort in the off season & book into a large hotel, the only other guests being a mysterious countess and her maid servant. Then grisly murders start to happen in the vicinity and the countess is taking a very close interest in the young couple....

A low key DVD release for what was once an infamous cult horror film. The Belgian director Harry Kumel was a maverick figure who didn't really belong in any particular genre. Apparently Daughters of Darkness was marketed in Europe as a mainstream commercial horror film & flopped, but in America it was distributed to select art house cinemas & cleverly marketed as a sophisticated decadent "continental" movie - which happened to be about lesbian vampires. Needless to say, there were queues around the block & I've read that the film went on to become one of the biggest grossing "foreign" films of the early 70s.

In fact, watching it on DVD now, it does seem much closer to art house than exploitation. It stars art house queen Delphine Seyrig - very good as the countess, bringing a sinister pathos to her role. Seyrig starred in Last Year at Marienbad & the large labyrinthine hotel with its "mad" inhabitants in this film is one of several possible allusions to Marienbad (as other reviewers have mentioned). The young couple are maybe a bit weak, but for the most part the film sustains a polished art house sensibility and a chilly glacial ambience.

Although the film probably seemed quite kinky & grisly to audiences in 1970, it is unlikely to strike today's viewer as especially erotic or shocking. Yet the film remains unsettling, perhaps even disturbing in its icy amorality. Daughters of Darkness is quite unlike British, American or Italian horror. It represents a curious one-off example that the horror genre never took up.

The film (or this version) is in English, not subtitled. No extras but the DVD is ok.

I vaguely remember this being shown on television many years ago but couldn't remember the title. However, thanks to Mark Gatiss's recent programme about horror films, the memories came flooding back and I decided to add the DVD to my collection.

The film will be too tame for fans of the "1001 ways to slice and dice an oversexed American teenager" genre, and would probably be best regarded as more of a thriller in this day and age, but for afficionadoes of European horror the film is definitely a must.