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Directed by Roy Ward Baker, this is the first in Hammer Film’s series of female-centric/ lesbian Vampire stories surrounding the Carmilla Karnstein trilogy– though Captain Kronos is in the same universe, technically making it 4.
Ingrid Pitt plays a countess’s daughter who seems to find the eye of every young girl in every noble house they come across. Strangely enough, every one of those young girls turns up dead or missing. They are slowly building an army of young, seductive lesbian vampires.
A cast of young, beautiful women, including Pitt, Madeline Smith (who would later appear as a Bond Girl in “Live And Let Die”), and Kate O’mara, supplement the erotic feel. John-Forbes Robertson plays the enigmatic man in black with no background given. We never get any answer about who he is, but he is creepy and foreboding. The general, portrayed by Peter Cushing, is on a mission to stop a creature responsible for murdering young girls. Cushing delivers a strong performance in this role, but Cushing could play these characters in his sleep. The general is strong and assertive and will stop at nothing to stop his foe. He plays it similar to some of his more intense Van Helsing roles. Pitt is unbelievably alluring, and it’s easy to understand how anyone would have been seduced by her mannerisms in this universe and why Hammer would use her for many later films in this style.
This film helped Hammer open up a different market and relaunch a new angle for early erotic horror. It also popularized the lesbian vampire erotica genre but retained a certain amount of class before Hammer’s later, more extreme catalog.
