Ms Kathleen's

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“Beyond being Jess Franco's masterpiece, ‘Vampyros Lesbos’ is a highpoint of the lesbian vampire film genre. Vampyros features an extremely hot vampire, Countess Nadina Carody (Soledad Miranda), who dances at strip clubs in her spare time. In a brutally sexy opening scene, Miranda hypnotically seduces audience member Linda Westinghouse (Ewa Strömberg), calling her to her castle in Anatolia, on business from which Westinghouse never returns. Linda's boyfriend, Omar (Andrés Monales), eventually finds Linda institutionalized, cared for by one Dr. Seward. To dwell on the convoluted plot is clearly missing the point. With arguably the best horror movie soundtrack every released, ‘Vampyros Lesbos’ revels in the sultry aspects of vampirism. Franco's other films, like ‘She Killed in Ecstasy’ and ‘Venus in Furs’, serve as sequels, so see this first. In fact, see this film period.”

This synopsis rekindled my interest in Jess Franco, therefore I decided to order all three movies.

I viewed “Succubus” first (didn’t care for it) and “Vampyros Lesbos” second (a little better but still not my cup of tea). Finally, and with much hesitation, I forced myself to pop the “Venus in Furs” DVD into my player. Since I had seen the movie a few years prior, the first thing I watched was the Jess Franco interview. This gave me an entirely new perspective on the movie, and a new respect for Franco as a film maker.