Review for Daughters of Darkness

I have always been a fan of the semi-erotic, dream-world vampirism of Jean Rollin ('Shiver of the Vampires') which seemed to take the sexy promise of Hammer and Amicus and leave a whole lot less to the imagination. The only downside to this particular stream of unconsciousness is that it's often a little dreary; slow moving and ponderous in attempts to appear poetic and other worldly. Well, there's no such problem with 'Daughters of Darkness', a film often associated with the euro-trash-horror of Jean Rollin and Jess Franco.

'Daughters of Darkness' is much better than just that. It's the film that the much later 'The Hunger' hoped to be; bewitchingly dream-like and perfectly art-house in its execution with no opportunity for the darkly erotic atmosphere lost.

I should also confess that the casting in the movie was an immediate plus point for me, with John Karlen playing Stefan, the male lead, a role for which he had much training as the subservient and reluctant assistant to vampire Barnabus Collins in the long-running American vampire soap 'Dark Shadows' (a personal favourite of mine).

Add to that the brilliant casting of Delphine Seyrig as the infamous Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory. (She is perhaps best known 'Last Year at Marienbad' which the film borrows heavily from and which was made a decade earlier).

The film opens with a passionate encounter between Stefan (John Karlen) and his new wife Valerie (Danielle Ouimet) on a train bound for Ostend. The happiness is short-lived though as we learn of stefan's reticence to introduce her to his family in London (later we get a hint as to why this should be the case).

Despite this initial glimpse of Stefan as a normal young man happy to be married, it becomes apparent that he suffers from violent mood-swings and well as what appears to be a necrophiliac fascination with death. Whilst sight-seeing in nearby Bruges, we see Stefan become strangely excited by the death of a young girl, hitting his young wife violently in the face as she tries to pull him back.

When they make up on the bus back to the hotel, Valerie gives mixed signals about her initial disgust at the potential revelation about his proclivities by reaching for his fly, a move which he (curiously) rejects. The film is full of sexual ambiguities like this.

The real star of the show is the vast, empty gothic hotel overlooking the sea in Ostend (actually the Hotel Astoria). From their arrival at the hotel, with just the one member of staff and no other guests, something is off-key. With the arrival of the Hungarian Countess, the film turns up a notch. Decadently sophisticated, the dark countess seems at once normal, yet darkly unbalanced.

Director Kumel was firstly a film historian before becoming a Director, and Bathory could easily pass as a 1930's Marlene Dietrich, no doubt in homage to one particular obsession of his. Bathory's innocent looking side-kick servant and lover, Llona (Andrea Rau) looks like a dead-ringer for Louise Brooks too. Kumel shrewdly recruited Rau from the soft-core porn industry, guessing that she would be uninhibited in her predatory role. As it transpired, her acting skills were considerable and though her role had little dialogue, she was quite a presence in the film. Her fear of water turns the Hitchcockian shower scene into something quite unique.

Eduard Van Der Enden's cinematography is superb throughout, even in the notoriously difficult night scenes. The transfer here is really top-notch so the carefully constructed directions and cinematography can be enjoyed in full. Audio is mono but very adequate and Francois De Roubaix's music score is a perfect and eerie complement to the atmosphere of the piece, despite nudging the late sixties 'freak out' zone once or twice.

Sadly, despite an American version doing the rounds with an audio commentary, this comes with no extras. However, this is the full uncut 87 minute version and is an excellent print.

For lovers of early seventies Hammer vampire movies, or the euro-sleaze version pedalled by Jean Rollins and Jess Franco, 'Daughters of Darkness' is an absolutely essential purchase and this release means that it can now be acquired without paying silly money for an over-priced import. Thoroughly recommended.