Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2017
Images from the Internet
Lust of the Vampire Girls
Produced and directed by Matt
Johnson
Some Hero Productions / Wild
Eye Releasing / MVD Visual
77
minutes, 2014 / 2017
As
with everything else, there are multiple levels of cinema: the big budget and
the lower end. This was also true of the Euro-trash films of the late ‘60s into
the late ‘80s. For every Dario Argento there was a Jesse Franco. This release
models itself more after the latter than the former.
There
certainly is a trend over the past few years to mostly honor and sometimes
lovingly mock these now classics, be it the ones that were so-good-it’s-good or
the so-bad-it’s-good. Most of these, though filmed before its fame, came to
prominence in the Western Hemisphere with the rise of (i.e., a quick need for new product)
video stores during the 1980s.
Most
of the more recent batch of “throwback” style to Euro-horror is over the top in
dialogue, in reading by actors and in style, such as purposefully putting in extremely
obvious errors like the sound boom in the shot, or a crew member being in the
background. A superb example of this is Richard Griffin’s recent Seven Dorms of Death.
While
Lust of the Vampire Girls [LothVG] also does a lot of that, it does
it a bit more subtly, so it actually
looks like errors, rather than a nod-nod-wink-wink
shared with the knowing audience. As I will describe later, it actually took me
a while to catch on that this is what they were doing, so kudos to the
production team.
 |
| Victor Medina and Amy Savannah |
The
basic story is that Pretty Girl (Amy Savannah) and Man (Victor Medina), as they
are billed in the credits, are having a fight. She wants to go to a party, and
in a very douchey and controlling way, he refuses, insisting she should be
happy spending her time just with him. She goes anyway, and apparently her
“friends,” all of whom wear party masks, are a cult led by a Romanian Nazi named
Gunter (Dave Nilson) who worked beside Mengele in the camps. While there,
Gunter invented a serum that turns women into snarling (there is a lot of snarling) vampires who do not
age. The drug only works on women, but Dr. Gunter is still working on it.
Pretty
Girl is kidnapped by the group, and Man goes to rescue her, in a passive-aggressive
manner (“I’m here risking my neck for her tedious ass”). Meanwhile, Man falls
for one of the more sentimental vampire women, Lead Vamp Girl (Ashely Eliza
Parker).
 |
| Ashley Eliza Parker |
One
of the many interesting choices made by the director is to have one of the
camp’s growling, nightgown clad (very Hammer Films style) vampires be African-American;
note that I use that specific term because even though they were supposed to become
vamps while in a Polish concentration camp, this was filmed in Utah. Don’t remember
hearing much about people of color in the camps. But I digress…
The
film takes place somewhere in the late-1960s or very early ‘70s, considering
the cell phones, typewriters, and magazine covers (e.g., Look magazine from 1986…yes, I do my research). There are some
anachronisms, though, such as a nose piercing or modern artistic tattoos on the
backs and wrists of more than one character.
Now,
when I started watching this, I thought perhaps they were trying too hard to get the feel of the style,
with bad acting and one lead character that is a creep and another that is too –
err – girly, but about a third of the way through, I had a realization that
changed my mindset and actually made this film make more logical and additionally
fun. Now, I’m not sure this is intentional,
but simply put, I was comparing it to the likes of Italian releases by Argento or
even Franco, but in actuality it makes more sense to see the likeness in the even
lesser B-versions, if you will, such as Spanish/Mexican films starring Paul
Naschy. Not as low as the Luchador
ones with, say, Santo or Mil Mascaras, but yet not quite classic giallo.
One
thing that is consistent with Italian giallo, though, is the humming and stepping-on-nerve
soundtrack, which is more like an electronic pulse. There are also some
intentional errors (again, I’m assuming), such as occasional shots that are
actually in reverse (is there a reference for that for which I don’t
remember?). Then there is the time padding of other clips, such as long and
drawn out bits of said snarling vampire women, or someone walking through the woods.
 |
| Dave Nilson |
Relying
on the macho/feminine ethos of films from the period this is supposed to take
place (i.e., when it is supposed to be shot), the gendered roles are heightened
and exaggerated in hyper-sexualized ways: think of Jane Fonda in 1968’s Barbarella or Steve McQueen in…well, just
about anything).
For
example, Man comes home to an empty apartment and complains that Pretty Girl has
smoked a joint while at the same time he came drunk and carrying a bottle. Then
he smokes the last of her joint! He’s very controlling, not wanting her to see
her friends. It’s hard to like him: he’s clearly unfaithful and ambivalent
about rescuing her. He also falls for Lead Vamp Girl way too quickly. She’s unlike the other vampires in that she’s
sweet, needs a man to love her, and is a bit too clingy and needy, unlike that
damn Pretty Girl who has a mind of very own and wants something beyond the company
of Man. The nerve! Damn those
feminists (yeah, this is sarcasm on my part, and arguably on the film’s, as
well).
The
bad guy, Gunther, has a haram of vampire women that he created with his formula,
like a Nazi Superfly; that is devotion-wise, rather than prostitution, though the
vampire women definitely show their cleavage and beauty with their flowing
nightgowns, as mentioned earlier.
The
extras are a bunch of Wildeye Releasing trailers (always fun), including for
this film, and a 4+ minute short showing how LofVG’s storyboard translates into the film. Not very deep, but
fun.
My
uptightness as the film unspooled was because of my own blindness. LotVG is so close to what it’s trying to
reflect, that it took me a while to realize what it was doing. That is not the
fault of the director, but of my own subjectivity. That is the reason I started
it over after about 15 minutes, to watch again with a new set of eyes, as it
were. I smiled a lot more, and it was much more of an enjoyable experience. Fans
of either Euro- or Mexi-horror are bound to find much to like, especially if
you are familiar with the paradigm Johnson used to build his story.
