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Count Karnstein, not Dracula.

Plot: Bored of his womanizing and occasional satanist rites, count Karnstein accidentally revives an ancestor and is turned a vampire. With his new urges controlling him, he sets his eyes on the nieces of a local puritan, one innocent and the other one anxious for escaping their restrictive household.

Comments: Although I enjoy Hammer films inmensely, it's been a while until I've checked the so-called Karnstein trilogy. This one is actually the third of the films, bein a prequel of sorts (or so I've been led to think) to "The Vampire Lovers" and "Lust for a vampire".

One of the reasons it took me so long to check this one out is that I didn't enjoy some of the earlier Hammer vampire films outside of the Dracula saga, like "Vampire's Kiss". And then there's the exploitation aura that surrounds this film as well as some other Hammer films of the 70s. I even read Hammer cast the two young girls that star in this one after seeing nude pictures of them in an adult  magazine! To make things even more outrageous, the film was titled in Spain "Dracula and the twins" in order to lure fans of Christopher Lee into the theatres.

So imagine my surprise, because this has to be one of the best Hammer films of the 1970s. Although Hammer had started to become thrifty in their film budgets by those days, the film looks gorgeous. Even better, unlike some of their earlier stuff it is fast paced and generously doused with gore and erotism.

The cast is a mixed bag. The girls are OK... Maltese in origin, they were dubbed and look great in corsets. Apart from that, nothing to mention, neither in the right or wrong sides. Damien Thomas is entertaing as the vampire Count Karnstein, but he won't makes us forget Christopher Lee. The hero (David Warbeck) is a bit bland. The best in the cast is Peter Cushing, who thankfully is given plenty to do, from burning alleged witches to sulking at pretty much everything for not being Christian enough. As one reviewer aptly put it, he is scarier than the villain and braver than the hero, and this could be one of his most effective performances.

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Ahem... symbolism. Or something.

Before Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897, there was J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla in 1871. All 3 of the films in the Karnstein trilogy--The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, Twins of Evil--being based on that novel. With the 1st one The Vampire Lovers, apparently, adhering most closely to the novel. And while I have seen many of the vampire films made by Hammer, I am afraid I have never seen those 3 films.

A film I have seen is a version of Le Fanu's much filmed novel Uncle Silas. The 1947 version with the title changed to The Inheritance.

There is suppose to be another film version of Carmilla, supposedly out this year. Hopefully, it won't be as sexed up as some of the other film versions of the novel, but tell the story, which is quite good, in a more straight forward manner.

What do you mean, 'the girls are... OK'?  They are freaking gorgeous.  Mary and Madeleine Collinson, British twins of Maltese origin, and they appeared in Playboy magazine to boot!  Sadly, Madeleine (the vampiric one in the movie) passed away in 2014.

I thought the VAMPIRE LOVERS was better. Ingrid Pitt is  the VILF!  :twirl:

I meant their acting xD I also mentioned that they look great in corsets.


Forgot to mention I just watched that one... I though it was a bit worse than Twins because it doesn't look that great.. it has that low budget seventies Hammer look, if you know what I mean. And Cushing is underused again. I do agree that Ingrid Pitt is a joy to watch, though, and that the prologue depicting the destruction of the Karnsteins (yeah, right) is amazingly cool.

I kinda like the low budget Hammer 70's feel,because it gives it that sleazy edge. And for a 1970  movie about lesbian vampires...perfect!

My thoughts exactly. 

The low budget 70s Hammer stuff had a look that was all it';s own.  it was equal parts gothic classy and cheap sleaze.  Add to that blood that was too red to ever look real and some really great headlining actors, and they just perfected the vampire movie.   

Maybe we don't mean the same by "low budget Hammer 70's feel"... my issue is with faded colors and settings that look real rather than filmed inside a studio. It's a thing that permeates 70s films, not just Hammer's. It works better in some genres, like thrillers, but for horror I prefer a stylised look, with rich colors and unrealistic settings.

One of the best late-in-the-day Hammers and a great performance by Peter Cushing as religious fanatic Gustav Weil, burning girls in the name of "purity". He's as big a threat as devil worshipping vampire, Count Karnstein. Boobalicious Collinson twins as Weil's nieces certainly fit the bill, although neither is a real actress.

Wonderful stuff for a cold, rainy Saturday night's viewing. :smile: