Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

moonspinner55 Director Stephanie Rothman also co-wrote this present-day vampire tale with a female bloodsucker named Diane LeFanu putting the moves on her two guests, a bickering couple whose car broke down just outside of Diane's estate in the desert. Although the picture garnered some good reviews, New World and Roger Corman failed to promote it and the movie died a drive-in theater death. The touches of humor are certainly welcomed and the locale is interesting--as is the vampire-in-the-daylight scenario--but the characters merit little interest, even with the flashes of eroticism. * from ****

John Seal The Velvet Vampire isn't a particularly good film, but it does feature four things in its favor: the alabaster beauty of Celeste Yarnall, here playing sexy desert-dwelling vampire Diane LeFanu; podgy Beyond the Valley of the Dolls veteran Michael Blodgett, cast as dimbulb horndog Lee Ritter; a yellow dune buggy, and a genuinely spectacular score. Credited to Roger Dollarhyde and Clancy B. Grass III, the score is an amazing blend of raga rock, pre-Dark Side of the Moon Floydian atmospherics, Joe Byrd-inflected electronica, and Fahey-esque guitar picking. I don't believe this score has ever had a commercial release, but soundtrack buffs would snap it up in an instant, so if anyone from Trunk Records or Film Score Monthly is reading this, buy the rights! The story revolves around fairly routine bloodsucking stuff, but director Stephanie Rothman's work reflects the influence of Antonioni with scenes reminiscent of both Red Desert and Zabriskie Point. That's something I never thought I'd write about a New World release, but I swear it's true.

BaronBl00d A vampire in the middle of the desert? That is just what is the subject of this somewhat forgotten, semi-erotic tale made in the only decade one would make a movie about a female vampire with inclinations toward both sexes: the seventies! Now before I get too far, let me say that this film is unique in several ways. It has as its vampire a vampire that defies almost all of the traditional myths about vampires. This one, named Diane, can go about freely in the sun. She can see her reflection in the mirror. She sleeps in a luxuriously large bed(all the more room to entertain her guests). She does feed on blood. She is reputed to be over a century old.. She has a deathly aversion to the Crucifix. What does all this mean? I really don't know, but I am of the opinion that the director and writer were portraying a real vampire rather than a mental vampire(one that believes herself to be a vampire). Diane, played deliciously by Celeste Yarnell, meets a guy and his wife while at a club in Los Angelos. They are invited to her house in the middle of nowhere in the Mojave Desert. Once there, we see Diane and company explore a mine shaft, visit a ghost town, have sexual relations in three different pairings, ride on a dune buggy, and see Diane suck the venom out of a bikini-clad Sherry Miles's leg. This is a strange film not always sure where it is going, but it does lots of things fairly nicely. The acting is pretty good. Yarnell, aside from being beautiful, gives a good performance despite the flaws she inherited with a script fraught with problems. The script keeps cohesive though never explains anything really and tries way too hard at the end. The sex scenes are really quite tame by today's standards. I liked the guitar score throughout much of the film. Though I believe the movie tried to heap much on its being seen as a risqué film in its favor, the film is much more than that. It is far from great, but it is definitely worth a look.

sdiner82 With the Womens Lib movement in full dudgeon in the early 1970s, a few horror movies reflected this revolutionary turn-of-events with varying degrees of success. By far the best was the ravishing Dutch thriller "Daughters of Darkness," with Delphine Seyrig's hypnotic portrayal of a bisexual, blood-thirsty modern-day vampire. But the little-known American trailblazer, Stephanie Rothman's "The Velvet Vampire," should not be overlooked. "B" actress Celeste Yarnall acquits herself beautifully as an enigmatic young temptress who lures a pair of blond, beautiful newlyweds (Michael Blodgett, from the unforgettable "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"; and Sherry Miles, an embarrassing actress but a certifiable voluptuary) to her isolated abode in the Mojave desert, where she plans to have her way with them. Or does she? "The Velvet Vampire" runs hot and cold--at once a camp hoot, then suddenly a disturbingly erotic example of a perhaps dubious genre. But it casts a unique spell of its own, thanks to Ms. Rothman's artfully detached direction, and the audacious performances of the three leads. Truely "a guilty pleasure" for fans of it's (perhaps) dubious genre, and a haunting oddity worth checking out.