I think I’d only come across The Velvet Vampire (1971) with some critics citing it as a reference point to Anna Biller’s The Love Witch (though I don’t think it was an actual influence on Biller’s film; it exists in the same milleu and vibe that The Love Witch is creating). That, and as one of the few American Roger Corman produced exploitation movies of the 1970s era directed by a woman, Stephanie Rothman (who also directed The Student Nurses and Terminal Island). Set up to cash in on the allure of European erotic vampire thrillers like Daughters Of Darkness (which having now seen, I can appreciate how it copies that film’s costumes and looks), that lurid quality is transplanted and sanded down to have a trippy ‘free love’ Californian desert vibe. After turning the tables on a biker that tries to assault her, the red-clad Diane LeFanu (Celeste Yarnall) steps into Stoker’s Gallery (wink, wink – Stoker, eh?) and finds an interest in a blonde, tan, (kinda dim) couple in Lee (Michael Blodgett) and Susan (Sherry Miles). With an obvious attraction sparked between Diane and Lee’s wandering eye, Diane invites them to her house out in the desert for a weekend. Cue a secret bedroom mirror to spy on the guests’ lovemaking, strange shared dreams of a bed out on the sandy dunes, and conversations about dune buggies with plenty of double entrendes (“Diane, I think I’d like to drive your dune buggie.” “I think I can teach you how.”) And a fair bit of soft-focus nudity and bedroom writhing. There’s also a nearby grave with Diane’s husband and her assistant Juan (Jerry Daniels) who helps to supply local hunks as a form of blood supply. Oh, did I not mention Diane is a vampire? This is given away by her tendency to always wear red and to wear a big hat when she is dune bugging during the sunny day time. Look, this is a low budget flick tantalising audiences with a bit of violence, a bit of skin, in the classic Roger Corman marketable B-movie mode. Yet alongside its enjoyably campy qualities with its fashions, interior decorating and latent leftover counter-culture hippie energy, I found The Velvet Vampire a lot of fun. Particularly Yarnall’s performance, which is suggestive though measured, and there’s a dreamy quality to the movie that is pretty and pleasurable, if never as horrifying or strange as the European movies it is taking from. Definitely for those who dig a colourful, lurid aesthetic as rendered by the lovely restored copy available to stream on the Criterion Channel. Recommended.
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