Cult Movies (and Not Only): Vampyros Lesbos

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“Vampyros Lesbos” released on 15 of July 1971 in West Germany. The film directed by the cult Spaniard director Jesus Franco. As its title indicates, this film is a lesbian erotic horror story, advertises as “A Psycho-Sex-adelic Horror Freak-out” !

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The storyline in a few words is about Linda Westinghouse (played by Ewa Strömberg), a lawyer who works in Turkey and travels to meet Countess Nadine Carody (Soledad Miranda or Suzann Korda, both are stage names) about an inheritance from Dracula. Into Linda’s nightmares a brunette woman appears. She soon realizes that this woman have the face of the Countess. Finally, Nadine is a vampire who seduces Linda and drinks her blood. Franco also appears in the film as a creepy hotel worker. 

By some opinions the film is badly directed, as the cameraman makes frequent zooms, so dream and reality scenes mixed in a “terrible mess”.  By others the film is a masterpiece and a must-see for fans of sleazy horror, filled with “hallucinatory atmosphere and sensuality”. No matter on which side someone may find himself, my opinion is that no one can denies  Soledad’s hypnotic performance and also her fragile beauty.

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Soledad Rendón Bueno(”Soledad” translates as “solitude”) was born in Seville, Spain by Portuguese parents on 9 July 1943 (more about her bio here).  Unfortunately, she died in a car accident near Lisbon on 18 August 1970. Shortly before her death, she had been offered a contract by the major German producer Artur Brauner who discovered her into Franco’s work.

In addition, equally important about this film is the music score. The main musical theme is a David Khune’s composition (nickname of Jesus Franco). The rest of the compositions came by Manfred Hübler and Siegfried Schwab. Schwab and Hübler wrote music for three Franco’s films. The other two were the “Der Teufel Kam Aus Akasava” (1971) and “Sie Tötete In Ekstase” (1970). Schwab was a German guitarist and among others a member of the German band “Embryo”. The psychedelic-funk-jazz compositions of the album indicate the musical meaning of exploitation movies of the early 70s. Speaking about exploitation, in Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” a Manfred Hübler’s synthesis of sounds can be found which was written in 1971 and titled “The Lions and the Cucumber”.

With no doubt, “Vampyros Lesbos” is a cult film and its soundtrack is a “must” for garage-psychedelic music fans and maniacs of “ruthless” farfisa themes.

See also:

• Cult Movies (and Not Only): Zabriskie Point
• Cult Movies (and Not Only): “S’était Un Rendezvous”
• Cult Movies (and Not Only): Get Carter
• Cult Movies (and Not Only): Sweet Movie