Lust for a Vampire (4½ Stars)

Huh? I haven't watched this film since December 2010? What's wrong with me? It features the most beautiful vampire ever, Yutte Stensgaard as Carmilla Karnstein.

Strangely, a featurette on the Blu-ray I watched today calls 1970 a "blip" in Hammer Horror, a year in which Hammer lost its way. It says that the five films Hammer made that year were drifting away from the gothic horror that made Hammer popular with fans. The films are:

1. The Vampire Lovers
2. The Horror of Frankenstein
3. The Scars of Dracula
4. Lust for a Vampire
5. Countess Dracula

(I notice that I haven't watched the second or third film in the list since I began my blog).

That's a strange statement. I know that I greatly enjoy all five of those films. They were often repeated on television when I was a teenager. The Friday night horror films on ITV were a weekly highlight. I used to sit and watch them with my mother. Those were happy days.

The featurette says that the 1970 films also suffered from having smaller budgets than the earlier and later films. That's also difficult for me to see. I thought all the Hammer films were made on low budgets, compared to the American productions at the time.

Originally the film was to be called "To love a vampire". I think the change was a good idea. It makes the film sound raunchier. The word Love is used a lot in the film, but let's be honest: if you say you love someone at first sight, it's only lust. Love is something that develops as you get to know a person. That doesn't mean that love can't grow out of lust; it happens all the time. You just shouldn't try to justify your lust by calling it something it isn't.

Yutte Stensgaard is the most beautiful actress I've ever known. Her blonde hair, blue eyes and high cheek bones would be enough in themselves to make her beautiful, but her looks are made especially fascinating by the dimple in her chin.

Her face made me fall in love with her at first sight. Or shouldn't I say that?

Yutte Stensgaard auditioned for the role of Jo Grant in "Doctor Who", which was eventually given to Katy Manning. I don't know why she wasn't chosen. Mistakes happen.

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