Two beautiful women, Fran and Miriam roam the English countryside. They lure unsuspecting men to their estate for orgies of sex and blood. But when an innocent young couple John and Harriett stumble into the vampires' lair, they find themselves sucked into an unforgettable vortex of savage lust and forbidden desires.
Cast
Production
Vampyres was shot on a modest budget of £42,000. Effective use is made of erstwhile Hammer horror set Oakley Court and interiors were shot in Harefield Grove, a grade-II listed, early-nineteenth-century country house in the London borough of Hillingdon. Eroticism and graphic violence are interspersed with poetic dreamlike sequences, as when Fran and Miriam, after showering away the blood from their latest victim, flee to a nearby cemetery at break of dawn. One of Vampyres' unique improvisations on the vampire genre is the decision for its vampires to feed out of a cut in the arm of victim Ted. Larraz explains his impetus behind this choice, saying, "I imagine my vampires turn almost to cannibalism, to eat somebody, to take the blood from anywhere, no matter if it is on the arm or on the balls!" Film theorist Barbara Creed called this wound "one of the most grotesque sights in the film." Anulka had been featured in Playboy's "Girls of Munich" pictorial in 1972, and appeared as the magazine's Playmate of the Month in May 1973. While Vampyres was her first acting role on film, Anulka went on to appear in Ken Russell's Lisztomania and Michael Tuchner's The Likely Lads. Prior to Vampyres, Marianne Morris had appeared in Corruption, Lovebox, Just One More Time, and Percy's Progress. Morris appeared naked in the October 1976 edition of British men's magazine Mayfair. The making of the film was briefly covered in the 1974 BBC documentary The Dracula Business.
Release
The film was bought by the British distributor Fox-Rank in 1974, who did not release it until 1976 as a double-feature with The Devil's Rain. Vampyres was distributed in the US by Cambist, who released it uncut with an X certificate. It was initially censored in the UK, with 2 minutes and 21 seconds of gory and sexual content cut. Larraz called this cut of the film "the Vatican version". Vampyres is now available uncut on DVD. The uncut Blu-ray was released by Blue Underground on 30 March 2010, and includes commentary with director José Ramón Larraz and producer Brian Smedley-Aston, interviews with stars Marianne Morris and Anulka, the international trailer, and the U.S. trailer.
Vampyres received a mixed reception, with many reviews focusing on the film's explicit depiction of female bisexuality. The Independent Film Journal suggested that the film "bares enough flesh and suggestive coupling to link it to the softcore circuit rather than the traditional horror market". Variety's Frank Segers wrote that the film "indicates b.o. potential in appropriate adult situations...combining lesbian predilections with the usual bloodthirsty vampirical ways." The UK press response also concentrated on the film's sexual content, despite its cuts. David Pirie wrote in The Monthly Film Bulletin, "it is rare for sex and violence to be so completely and graphically integrated in a British movie." Screen International's Marjorie Bilbow called Vampyres "A let down for horror addicts, with fringe benefits for voyeurs."
Remake
A remake, also called Vampyres, was directed by Víctor Matellano and released in 2015.
