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Daughters of Darkness

Daughters of Darkness (1971)

October. 02,1971
|
6.5
|
R
| Drama Horror Thriller

Ostend, Belgium. In a decadent seaside hotel, Stefan and Valerie, a newlywed couple, meet the mysterious Countess Báthory and Ilona, her secretary.

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Reviews

Steineded
1971/10/02

How sad is this?

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Maidexpl
1971/10/03

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

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Neive Bellamy
1971/10/04

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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Darin
1971/10/05

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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dogcow
1971/10/06

This movie might be the epitome of "mixed bag". Lush production, beautifully photographed, sexy girls, adequate acting,, creepy locations, a decent premise. All the elements for a really fantastic vampire film are here but somehow the film fails to hang together. I put the blame on the script which introduces some really interesting elements but never really does anything with them. At one point the film looks like its going to introduce a sort of murder mystery or suspense type plot when the character of a retired detective is introduced, but he is quickly forgotten. There are hints of John Karlen's strange sexual proclivities but they never amount to anything. The movie does not try to be scary, but never really manages to be atmospheric or creepy either. Despite the perfect setting (the newlyweds are trapped in a deserted hotel in a deserted resort town) you never feel an air of menace or claustrophobia. Seyrig does a passable job, but never really feels menacing or threatening at all. There are some sex scenes which never quite cross the line into erotica but are not really exploitation either. I think the director was trying to go for a "Martin" vibe where you are never quite sure if something supernatural is going on or not. The problem is its so poorly executed it just comes off as boring and nonsensical. I feel this film actually could be a great candidate for a remake, although a lot of what charm it does have comes from early 70s nostalgia. I would really love to see what a better screenwriter and director would be able to do with the same premise.Fans of Giallo may enjoy this simply for the lush productions, locations, and a few weird sleazy scenes, but it is probably not lurid or sleazy enough to satisfy hardcore giallo fans either.

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Leofwine_draca
1971/10/07

A slow-moving art film dealing with a pair of women who are vampires - except not in the typical sense. I'll make it clear from the start that I'm not a big fan of art-house films - I'm more of a traditionalist myself. This accounts for the film's average rating - the rating is of how much I enjoyed the film, not of how good the film is. I admit that the film is very good and deserves 5/5 for its merits, however, I only enjoyed it partially because I'm not really into these slow-paced, character-focused movies.It's a film which makes good use of some European locations - the photography is wonderful and reminds me of DON'T LOOK NOW. The acting is also above average, with standout performances from Delphine Seyrig as the hypnotic Countess and John Karlen as the violent, hypocritical husband. It's only Danielle Ouimet who spoils things with her wooden performance - she may be beautiful, but she's no actress. There is very little action in the film, apart from the finale, making this one hard to sit through for some impatient viewers.Throughout the film, the key focus is that of relationships - between the two couples, and how they interact with each other. Although billed as a lesbian vampire affair, it's actually quite subtle, with only a couple of kisses here and there - don't worry, there are no explicit scenes in this film. The basis is the story of Countess Bathory, the real-life woman who bathed in virgin's blood and who was also the inspiration for the Hammer film Countess Dracula, starring Ingrid Pitt. Indeed, the blood is kept to a minimum too, and the blood-drinking is tastefully portrayed. The film succeeds in enchanting the viewer and wrapping them up in the vampire's spell, becoming almost hypnotic. There are a couple of shocks - the sudden, brutal whipping, or the bloody bathroom death - but these are few and far between. For the most part it's a subtle, understated, dreamy affair. Only occasionally dipping into unintentional comedy - the murder of the bicyclist was unexpected and amusing - DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS is otherwise a well-made, but only moderately enjoyable film.

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Panamint
1971/10/08

A mile wide and an inch deep. Typical of the many "soft sleaze" films cranked out by the hundreds for a couple of decades in Europe. Some disrobing of the cast just for the sake of having skin in the film. Lip-service is given to the Elizabeth Bathory legend but they could have substituted any old legend because no depth is explored here in any way.Fine cinematography, great fashions and a faux expensive look are achieved. Good winter seacoast atmospherics but to what end? No substance is to be found here- Delphine Serig looks attractive in an expensive, shallow Euro-aristocrat sort of way. Can she act? I dunno- that's really not why she was hired here. Her purpose is to appear attractive, Euro-aristocratic and shallow. In other words, pretty much just superficial.The leading man is indistinguishable from all the other hundreds of mediocre Euro film guys of the era. I don't know his name- does it really matter? Danielle Ouimet is the only cast member who manages to impart any humanity onto the screen during these proceedings- I would say that she shows promise as an actress, although its hard to tell because not much acting is required here by anyone. I would watch more of her films if I ever happen to run across them.If you like to use up hours of your time viewing shallow European pretty pictures this film is OK for you. But it is.... a mile wide and an inch deep.

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chaos-rampant
1971/10/09

Beware as you go into this, it may sound like Hammer but it's nothing like it. It's a chic, stylish vampire film dripping with the most wanton aestheticism. The whole thing exudes the scent of an absinthe dream, the contours of a flowing red dress.Superficially it is about a couple of newly-weds - but who, as the film opens with them having sex in a train cabin, openly declare that they don't love each other - who find themselves stranded in Ostande and move in to a strangely empty hotel for a few days. A countess Bathory arrives there with her female companion, there's also the baffled concierge who tries to stay out of passion's way.I say superficially because the dynamics between the couple is what at first sight seems to be driving the story. The woman is desperate to break out from the limbo of anonymous sex and be introduced, thus be legitimized as a wife and woman, to the man's mother, an aristocrat back in England. The man, on the other hand, is content to derail those expectations and savour the erotic dream he has concocted to inhabit.But of course we come to understand that the narrative is powered from outside. The countess courts both, seducing in the emotional space between them. She personifies that wanton aestheticism right down to her body language. It is important to note that she is played by the actress who starred in Marienbad for Resnais, which this film alludes to; in the mysterious hotel setting with its expansive balustrades, in the twilight wanderings, in the sense of time revoked and sensations amplified.She is the architect of all this, building around these people the desires that will yield them to her. So it is the man's semi-conscious world of secret pleasures, but it's she who is slowly, slyly perverting them. She does this with the malevolent purity of a femme fatale.It does not matter that she is Bathory, or that blood is eventually savored from wrists, this is merely the desire made visible in a way that would appeal to a niche audience. So even though Jess Franco borrowed the velvety sunsets and decadent air from this for Vampyros Lesbos, this operates deeper. It matters for example that she seduces the man into a new obsession with violence, the destructive flipside of eros. It further pries the woman apart from him.Gradually what was a matter of taking pleasure from flesh is spun into something else entirely; again involving flesh but now literally draining from his.It ends with a stunning sequence across countryside roads; a lot of the imagery recalls L'Herbier - who also inspired Resnais - but here more pertinently. The soul has been so withered away from inside, so consumed from the fever of passion, that mere sunlight sends it reeling. Of course we can explain away by falling back to our knowledge of vampire lore, but we'd be missing on the finer abstractions; how, for example, the femme fatale is magically cast into the circumstances that, as we know from our knowledge of this type of film, would precipitate her demise. Nothing else would do after all.If we follow the set of reactions from what at first sight appears like an accident, it can be plainly seen how it all flows from her desire to control the narrative.It's marvelous stuff just the same, the colors, the desolate aura. I just want to urge you to see as more than just an 'artsy vampire flick'. Save that for Jean Rollin.

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