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Released by: Shock Entertainment
Released on: August 31, 2011.
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, Madeleine Smith
Year: 1970
The Movie:
As the sixties turned into the seventies, England's Hammer Studios was going through a bit of a restructuring. They'd scored hits in decades past with war movies, crime thrillers and other films that don't exactly fit in the horror movie mould but it seemed to be the horror films that were winning at the box office. With censorship loosening a bit, it was decided that an adaptation of LeFanu's Carmilla might make for a good addition to the studio's catalogue, and thus was born The Vampire Lovers, a fantastic blend of gothic horror, vampirism and racy sexy thrills.
The story follows a woman named Carmilla (played by Pitt) who has managed to retain her youthful vigor and good looks despite the fact that she is, in fact, hundreds of years old. Her secret? She's a vampire, of course, and she becomes under the command of the equally beautiful Countess Karnstein (Dawn Addams) and a mysterious man dressed all in black (John Forbes-Robertson). By chance, she becomes welcomed into the home of General Spielsdorf (Peter Cushing) who lives with his gorgeous young niece, Laura (Pippa Steele), who takes a liking to Carmilla but soon turns up, her life taken suddenly by what Spielsdorf assumes is an illness. Closer inspection reveals to puncture wounds in Laura's pale skinned neck, however - and you know what that means.
Carmilla, no fool, disappears without a trace but soon shows up again, this time in the home of Mr. Morton (George Cole), who also shares his home with a beautiful young woman in the form of his only daughter, the stunning Emma (Madeline Smith). When Morton has to travel, Carmilla is left alone with Emma and her true intentions soon start to show and when Morton returns, he finds his daughter looking gaunt and pale. Though he assumes she's ill, there's more going on here than he realizes, and when Spielsdorf and a vampire hunter named Barton Hartog (Douglas Wilmer) show up, Carmilla's game seems to be up.
Despite the fact that, according to Marcus Hearn's The Hammer Vault, producer Harry Fine wanted Bond Girl Shirley Eaton to play Carmilla and initially dismissed Polish born beauty Ingrid Pitt due to her age (obviously not realizing Eaton was, in fact, older than Pitt!) this movie would not have been the same without Ingrid in the lead. Here the actress makes the most of the role she's since become best known for, vamping it up and exuding more sex appeal than any Hammer starlet before or since. She's seductive, mysterious, alluring and beautiful but also powerful and frightening in the role - in short, she's perfect for the part and it's easy to see how she's able to seduce the various characters in the film, male and female alike. Of course, Cushing is great here too, he and Wilmer make a great team and both Dawn Addams and John Forbes-Robertson are both great in their supporting roles as well, but this is, first and foremost, Pitt's movie - let there be no doubt about that.
This is also a well paced and slick looking film, with Roy Ward Baker at the top of his game, keeping the action moving at a good pace and balancing the macabre vampiric elements with enough sex to make crowds of the day stand up and take notice (the age restriction on the UK's X certificate had just been raised to eighteen years and Hammer was clever enough to take advantage of what that would allow them to show). There's loads of atmosphere here, lots of great sets and period costumes and while the budget was low, comparatively speaking, all involved do a fine job of ensuring that every penny winds up there on the screen. The end result is a slick, sexy film that looks far more lavish than it probably should have and which would pave the way for Hammer to enter a resurgence of sorts in the early seventies. Pitt would follow this up with Countess Dracula for Peter Sasdy and then leave the Hammer fold but would later appear in Amicus' The House That Dripped Blood as a female vampire, playing a role similar to the two Hammer parts that earned her a place in horror movie history. Sadly, both she and director Roy Ward Baker would pass away in 2010.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Shock Entertainment brings The Vampire Lovers to Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080i transfer that takes up roughly 12 GBs of space on the disc - meaning that this has got roughly four times the disc space of a standard single sided/single layered DVD but that it's not even close to the Blu-ray format's standard. Compression artifacts are present, though surprisingly not overpowering as you might expect - you'll mostly spot them in the darker scenes. Detail is improved over DVD versions, though by how much will vary from scene to scene. Close up shots fare the best, with wide and medium shots looking a little softer. Texture is decent and is most noticeable on clothes and background items like the curtains in a bedroom and things like that. Colors look good and there are no signs of heavy noise reduction to note, but the image probably could have been cleaned up a little more than it has been as minor print damage is present.
So while the transfer is decent (not mind blowing, but decent), the audio on this disc is not. The lossy Dolby Digital Mono track suffers from constant defects, the most obvious being what sounds to this writer like tape stretching. Did you ever listen to a cassette tape after the tape had been pulled in it? That sort of warbling occurs throughout the film, not just once or twice but all the way through the film. It's more frequent in the first half hour than the last hour but it is a constant issue and a serious distraction. On top of that, the levels periodically spike and drop so you'll wind up reaching for the remote to adjust things from time to time.
Extras included here are not exclusive, in fact, they've been ported over from the previous North American DVD release that came out as part of MGM's Midnight Movies line a few years ago. Regardless, what you'll find here is good, particularly the commentary track with director Roy Ward Baker, actress Ingrid Pitt and writer Tudor Gates that covers a lot of ground. Moderated by Jonathan Sothcott, the discussion covers the importance of this role to Pitt's career, script changes, the sexuality in the film, casting, location shooting and much more. It's pretty much an invaluable resource for those who want to know more about this particular film and this period in the history of Hammer horror.
Additionally, you'll find excerpts of J. Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla read by Ms. Pitt (roughly twelve minutes worth) and the film's original theatrical trailer, along with standard menus and chapter stops.
The Final Word:
Though this is certainly an upgrade over previous DVD releases, Shock Entertainment's Blu-ray debut of Hammer's classic leaves plenty of room for improvement with a compromised transfer and noticeably poor audio. The film itself, however, is a classic and one completely worth owning - let's just hope another studio gives us a better option to do just that.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
