Spikeopath Lust for a Vampire is directed by Jimmy Sangster and written by Tudor Gates who uses characters written by Sheridan Le Fanu. It stars Ralph Bates, Barbara Jefford, Suzanna Leigh, Michael Johnson, Yutte Stensgaard, Helen Christie and Pippa Steel. Music is by Harry Robinson and Technicolor cinematography by David Muir.The second part of Hammer Films Karnstein Trilogy, Lust for a Vampire seemed destined to be miserable from the get go. Peter Cushing had to leave the production when his darling wife fell gravely ill, Hammer's best director Terence Fisher had to also bail out, while Gates had his original romantically literate script jettisoned for one more concerned with nudey prod games. What eventually plays out on screen is a tepid and confused movie, more concerned with bosom baiting than anything resembling a coherent and dramatic horror story.Pretty much everyone involved with making it disowned it, and it's not hard to see why. From production goofs to the inappropriate cheesy pop song that assaults the ears during a love making scene, the film is badly constructed and just lives to show some buxom flesh in the hope that that will be enough. A couple of scenes are smart, particularly the resurrection of main vampire babe, and the colour and costuming is up to Hammer's high standards, yet you can see Hammer straining for inspiration to take the 70s by storm, the cracks in their magnificent armour just starting to show.The only real surprise is that Robin Askwith isn't in it, he could have used it as a warm up for his "Confessions Of" series of films that were soon to surface… 4/10

gizmomogwai As of last night, I've now seen all of Hammer's Karnstein Trilogy, three '70s erotic horror movies based on the legendary lesbian vampire Carmilla. I have the Blu-ray of the first film, The Vampire Lovers (1970) on pre-order. The follow-ups aren't quite as good, and I concur with others who say Lust for a Vampire is the weakest of the three. That said, it's not nearly as bad as made out to be.Most of the acting (except from the girl at the very beginning of the film) is passable. Carmilla is played in this movie by the Danish Yutte Stensgaard, who has a sinister smile when she kills off one character, but otherwise doesn't quite measure up to Ingrid Pitt. The story and writing are passable as well. It may be nothing special, but it makes sense to follow up on The Vampire Lovers by sending Carmilla to an all-girl school. That said, she does have an affair with a man in this movie, but elements of lesbianism are still visible.Lust for a Vampire features some gratuitous nudity- and for that, I thank Hammer. One thing that struck me as odd is that this movie has to go out of its way to explain how Carmilla is resurrected (she is definitely killed at the end of The Vampire Lovers) and yet instead of keeping her alive, the second movie kills her in the end too. A flaming stake happens to fall down and coincidentally hit her in the chest- a total accident, and not quite a satisfying ending. This time she appears to stay dead, as the third film in the trilogy, Twins of Evil, is likely a prequel rather than a sequel. As well, this movie blunders in making Carmilla the vampire's true name, whereas in The Vampire Lovers it's an alias.All things considered, Lust for a Vampire is a guilty pleasure, even if guiltier than the rest of the trilogy.

Henry Kujawa Okay, Peter Cushing's not in this (Ralph Bates is), but it was in the middle of a 3-film tape, and I was too lazy to fast-forward over it. Anyway, who'd want to miss the naked glories of Yutte Stensgaard, the Danish blonde cutie who filled in for Ingrid Pitt while she was off filming COUNTESS Dracula (a film that has nothing to do with Dracula or vampires)? The Count and Countess Karnstein, both left unaccounted for in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, return, and bring Carmilla back from the dead (again). Then they enroll her in a girls' school... you know, this almost sounds like something Roger Corman should have made. Bates is pathetic as a pansy teacher (the only kind the strict headmistress seems to hire to teach all those innocent young things), but he's got an interest in the occult, and soon finds out "Mircalla" is really a vampire, but all HE wants to do is become her willing servant, and servant of THE DEVIL! Instead of taking him up on his pathetic, wimpering offer, she OFFS him. I'm beginning to think Bates' career as a Hammer star was self-destructing before he ever managed to get it off the ground...Meanwhile, a writer cons his way into becoming the school's new English teacher, but while it was the gym teacher he initially was interested in, once he lays eyes on the blonde, his heart's gone. And even though he begins to suspect she IS a vampire, he hopes he can somehow "save" her with love! Truth to tell, of the 3 members of the Karnsteins in this flick, she's the only one who does seem to have a mixed nature-- part of her seems to WANT real love in her life, but the other part keeps killing innocents, and at one point we see her in bed with an all-too-willing fellow student, who seems to go into ecstasy whenever she's having her blood drained out of her.Things go sadly STUPID at the end, when the villagers becoming a murder-crazed mob, and then, more so when they IGNORE the clear instructions of a priest that fire will NOT kill these vampires, and they set fire to the castle anyway. (Anyone know how you can set fire to a STONE building anyway?) Mircalla winds up dying in an unusually spectacular way for a vampire-- a FLAMING wooden stake thru her heart (moments after trying to save her straight boyfriend's life-- what kind of lesbian IS she, anyway?), but as the end credits come up, the Count and Countess are STILL seen to be among the living! WHAT TH'...? Apparently, the ending was intended to set up another sequel... but absurdly, the 3rd film in the series, "TWINS OF EVIL", turned out to be a PREQUEL to "THE VAMPIRE LOVERS". Go figure!! Supporting actors to watch out for: David Healy, one of the best (and unsung) Dr. Watsons, from the Ian Richardson "THE SIGN OF FOUR" (1983); Christopher Neame, who played Johnny Alucard in "DRACULA A.D. 1972", the villain in the unfinished DOCTOR WHO story "SHADA", and an angry British agent in "LICENSE TO KILL"; Erik Chitty as the pathologist, who played the Matrix Coordinator Engin in the DOCTOR WHO story "THE DEADLY ASSASSIN"; and the VOICE of Valentine Dyall, who appeared as "The Black Guardian" in 2 different seasons of DOCTOR WHO.Not the smartest flick ever made, but fun all the same!

preppy-3 Sequel to "The Vampire Lovers". Vampire Camilla from the first film is resurrected from the dead (played by Ingrid Pitt in the first film and here played by Yutte Stensgaard). She changes her name to Mircalla and attends a nearby finishing school full of nubile young girls and begins to put the bite on them.Pitt was supposed to recreate her role in this one but she (understandably) passed after reading the script. "Vampire Lovers" was an OK horror movie but this is just terrible. I had to watch it three times to get through it all--I fell asleep the first two times! The script is OK but the acting kills this one. Stensgaard was certainly a beautiful woman with a great body--but couldn't act at all. Her line readings were so wooden it was embarrassing to watch. In an interview the director of the film said he tried to get her to emote but she couldn't (or wouldn't). Everybody else is poor too--even the usually wonderful Ralph Bates! The seduction scenes and blood scenes are boring and the production values are pretty low. The WORST scene has to be when she bites Bates and a SONG (called "Strange Love") starts playing! This is one of the last films Hammer made and easily one of their worst. Watch "The Vampire Lovers" or "Twins of Evil" instead.