Female Vampire

One can look at this movie as Lina Romay's coming out party as Franco' newest muse, or as an atmospheric Eurotrash movie with lots of beautiful naked woman. I prefer to view it as one of the best movie examples of existential angst. I've seen this enough times that I fast forward through the sex scenes and enjoy all of the philosophical musings that thread its way throughout the course of the movie. Jess Franco weirdness, beautiful women AND philosophical commentary - what more can you ask for!

Jess Franco’s euro-trash epics are an acquired taste, like oysters or self-flagellation. I’ve seen my share and freely admit to being happy when most of them were over. But even his least perfect efforts contain sublime moments, and this curious fact has rendered me a long-time explorer of his “out-there” oeuvre. If you’re not a convert to Uncle Jess’s peculiar brand of dreamily erotic pulp cinema, “The Female Vampire” will seem unfathomably awful. For fans though, this is a signature Franco effort.The film is largely without plot and unfolds like a fetid, fever dream. Lina Romay (R.I.P.) features as the silent Countess Irina Karlstein, obligated to feed on the life force of others for her own survival. This staple horror concept is never explored in depth though. She does do plenty of feeding - and gets naked a lot – but the film is largely devoid of typical vampire movie atmosphere. The young Romay was a stunner – she is captured on film here at the peak of her beauty – and her fetishistic attire (or lack thereof) is appropriately enticing. If you’re buying this for her, you’ll get your money's worth.Franco’s filmic sensibilities tend toward the expressive (“Lorna the Exorcist” is a good example of this) and some attempts at visual style are evident here. The widescreen photography is lush, and there’s an atmospheric sequence in a forest with Romay framed by the surrounding woods which is nicely evocative. You’ll also see arresting shots of her taking “bloodbaths” (literally), but that’s just about it for inspirational imagery. Franco himself pops up in a cameo, and Jack Taylor appears as Jack Taylor.I had hoped that the Blu-ray version of this film would offer eye-popping clarity, but it isn’t really a huge improvement on the old Image DVD. The print is a little rough and kind of flat, and the audio is functional enough for you to become well-acquainted with the repetitive soundtrack. You do get video interviews with Jess (and one of his collaborators) as a supplement though - always a treat and one of the reasons I seek these releases out. And so we are left with the Jess Franco conundrum. If you like vampire movies, you probably won’t like this. (Unkind souls might suggest that if you like movies in general you won’t like this). The vampirism is really more of a theme – a hook to hang the erotic content on. And if your tastes run to the erotic, well, maybe you still won’t like this. The sex is clunky, not particularly erotic - and despite the obvious attractions of Ms. Romay - rather banal. So by any objective standard, “The Female Vampire” is not very good. The film exists in a strange netherworld where unique cinematic sensibilities meet the constraints of 70’s low-budget movie making. The result: an erotically twisted hallucination from the land of lost souls. It’s exactly the sort of thing you thought was playing at the drive-in when you were too young to go. And that is the essence of Franco and the reason why fans should add this to their collections.

If you like B movies this ones for you! Really, no pretense just great bad cinema!

I initially watched this on Amazon. I figured the bluray would be of higher quality. If they did any 'remastering' or clean-up of the movie they did a real bad job or at least should have done better. I'm considering this was shot in the early seventies. I have a lot of music video from that era that have really been cleaned-up and remastered. Contrast is terrible. Shadows and dark pubic hair are just blurry black spots. There's a lot of drops. I suppose it could be worse, but I expect more for an HD version. Although right now anyway the bluray is cheaper than the regular dvd!As far as the movie I enjoyed it as I have other Jess Franco movies. There's graphic nudity and softcore sex that equals todays cable softcore. It just isn't as clear.The "Erotikill" version doesn't make sense. The whole idea of this movie is sex. Lina sucks the cum out of men and women until they die. Erotikill takes out all those scenes.This can be watched in it's original French with or without English subtitles or in dubbed English.There is an interview with Franco after Lina's death in 2012. There is also an interview with Lina's co-star in this movie, Jean Pierre Bouyxou, done after Lina's death. (I'm not sure if it was before Franco's death earlier this year, but he does mention thinking Franco was the one he was concerned about the last time he saw the two.)Then there are trailers for other Franco movies: Female Vampire, Exorcism/Demoniac, The Rape of the Vampire, The Nude Vampire, and Requiem for a Vampire.One other note, the women in this movie, including Lina, would never be in contention for any beauty pageant award. That said there's something Franco brings out in them that make them sexy, especially his wife, Lina!Hope this helps.

Lina does awesome. The only thing that disturbs me is she doesn't talk. Makes you wonder what she is thinking. The theme is haunting and hard to get it out of your head. Great movie. The only question is what did she see in the old man Jess Franco. Lina sorry your gone I would liked to have got at you.

get all blu ray classic sci-fi and horror movies before corps start phazing dvds and blu rays out in the near future .

The Transfer is no improvement whatsoever. If You have access some Apps like TenMovie Entertainment on Roku have Female Vampire. With ads though . But it's the explicit extended version and the transfer is degraded like this Bluray. I was really disappointed. I like the film and thought this would be a Nice transfer but it's not . If You really want to own it then settle for regular DVD.

I liked that it had a good story line and I love classic movies anyway so I thought this was a great find!

Spett.le Amazon. Sono rimasto soddisfatto del servizio e del DVD. Un saluto da Vittorio

Lina Romay, toujours jolie et si érotiquement ensorcelante, est exquisement mystérieuse comme une vampiresse éthérée - ô, telle beauté voluptueuse/Lina Romay, ever lovely and si erotically bewitching, is exquisitely mysterious as an ethereal vampiresse - o, such voluptuous beauty!

I liked Franco as a director and more importantly Lina Romay. This is probably one of Francos better known efforts, however I find it drags in places as it has a dreamy and surreal quality to it. Lina is great as always as the countess Irina, but don't expect lots of blood and scares. There are two versions of this film on the bd, the "bloodsucking" version known as "Erotikill" , and the more adult orientated most well known version of "Female vampire". Both are ok but unfortunately the print used here is still pretty bad, I believe though its the best available at this time. For those who need to know, the version featuring the h/c inserts is not on this edition. Advertised as region 1, it will in fact play on uk players.

日本で発売されたDVDと同一。というか、BDにしては映像が汚い。そもそものマスターに問題あると思うが、どうせならもう少しと思った。ネットで見れる動画の方が綺麗。。。　期待していたぶん、スカ感がいなめない。

Though I liked many of Franco's films, such as 99 Women and Eugénie, and I love sexploitation and vampire movies like The Blood-Splattered Bride, Daughters of Darkness and Vampyres, I cannot say I'm not a little disappointed with Female Vampire. But I can't say I didn't like it either and it was definitely worth buying, at least for me. As usual with Franco, there's a lot of atmosphere to be enjoyed. I thought the opening scene was great, though a little cheesy. The music was nice and no need to say the locations were beautiful. Lina Romay is absolutely gorgeous and Jack Taylor is good as always, though I wish he played a more important part. I would have also gladly appreciated more dark romance and foggy woods and bloody kills and less porn and endless sex scenes. Unfortunately the picture and sound quality leaves a lot to be desired, but I guess that's to be expected with these old low-budget films. So overall it's an interesting little movie and you have to take it for what it is, but it's not really my cup of tea. Still I can see why so many people like it and how important it is in Franco's career.