{"id":6660,"date":"2016-11-05T08:55:44","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T07:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=6660"},"modified":"2016-11-13T10:24:51","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T09:24:51","slug":"vampyres-styria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2016\/11\/05\/vampyres-styria\/","title":{"rendered":"Vampyres + Styria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"styria-1\"<\/a>
Styria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nVampyres<\/i><\/B>

\nFormat:<\/B> DVD

\nRelease date:<\/B> 5 September 2016

\nDistributor:<\/B> Soda Pictures

\nDirector:<\/B> Victor Matellano

\nWriters:<\/B> José Ramón Larraz, Victor Matellano

\nCast:<\/B> Caroline Munro, Ver\u00f3nica Polo, Marta Flich, Almudena Le\u00f3n

\nSpain 2015

\n82 mins

\nStyria<\/i><\/B>

\nFormat:<\/B> DVD

\nRelease date:<\/B> 11 July 2016

\nDistributor:<\/B> High Fliers Films

\nDirectors:<\/B> Mauricio Chernovetzky, Mark Devendorf

\nWriters:<\/B> Karl Bardosh, Mauricio Chernovetzky, Mark Devendorf

\nBased on the novella by:<\/B> Sheridan Le Fanu

\nAlternative title:<\/B> Angel of Darkness<\/i>

\nCast:<\/B> Stephen Rea, Eleanor Tomlinson, Julia Pietrucha

\nUSA, Hungary 2014

\n89 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Kim Newman rummages through the straight-to-DVD treasure trunk<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This double bill of European vampire movies revisits oft-told stories. Indeed, the ghosts of earlier incarnations hang as heavily over the films as the curses of the past affect their mostly doomed characters. <\/p>\n

José Ramón Larraz\u2019s Vampyres<\/i> (1974) is among the most minimally-plotted horror films \u2013 a fusion of the Spanish director\u2019s sensibilities with the last gasps of the British Gothic boom as a pair of lesbian vampires who might have come from a Jesús Franco or Jean Rollin film (or a Halloween layout in Knave<\/i> magazine) bloodily prey on feeble men in that familiar decaying mansion that turns up in so many UK-shot horror films. Contemporary Spanish director Victor Matellano shares his script credit with Larraz on Vampyres<\/i> (2015), a close remake \u2013 it even restages some gore\/sex scenes shot-for-shot as in the Gus Van Sant Psycho<\/i>, though a few new ones are thrown in (the ever-popular Bathory-inspired human blood shower is featured). 1970s genre fixture Caroline Munro gets a non sequitur role as a hotel owner and seems as out of place in these surroundings as she did in the New York sleaze of Maniac<\/i><\/a> in 1980. Spanish horror star Lone Fleming, heroine of the first Blind Dead<\/i> films, also pops up. Further evidencing Matellano\u2019s interest in genre history, new passages of the script have the hapless Harriet (Veronica Polo) \u2013 reduced to a tent, since this even-scantier production can\u2019t stretch to the camper van of the original \u2013 discover a copy of Théophile Gautier\u2019s vampire story \u2018La morte amoureuse\u2019 and ponder how it might feed into the current situation. Marta Flich and Almudena León replace Marianne Morris and Anulka as vampire vixens Fran and Miriam \u2013 they are pretty, and willing to do nude splatter scenes with abandon, but Matellano doesn\u2019t get out of them what Larraz did of his stars. It\u2019s a case of the direction being at fault rather than any thespic lack: Morris and Anulka were nude models rather than actresses and their performances were entirely shaped by Larraz (and professional dubbing). As properties suitable for remaking go, Vampyres<\/i> was an odd choice \u2013 a film distinguished by approach and ferocity rather than any particular strength of concept or story. Transplanting the whole thing to contemporary, non-specific Spain from the tatty, fraying edges of 1970s Britain cuts away much that makes Vampyres<\/i> interesting. It\u2019s a remake that feels like a footnote, and \u2013 though it\u2019s scarcely an hour and a quarter long \u2013 your attention is likely to wander quite a lot while it\u2019s running.<\/p>\n

Writer-directors Mauricio Chernovetzky and Mark Devendorf\u2019s Styria<\/i> (released on UK DVD as Angel of Darkness<\/i>) tells an even more familiar story. It adapts J. Sheridan Le Fanu\u2019s much-filmed \u2018Carmilla\u2019, with moments that explicitly evoke many of the story\u2019s earlier incarnations (Carl Dreyer\u2019s Vampyr<\/i><\/a>, Roger Vadim\u2019s Et Mourir de Plaisir\/Blood and Roses<\/i>, Roy Ward Baker\u2019s The Vampire Lovers<\/i>, Vicente Aranda\u2019s La Novia Ensangrientada\/The Blood-Spattered Bride<\/i>) and such Carmilla-by-association efforts as The Moth Diaries<\/i> and Byzantium<\/i><\/a>. In a more sophisticated manner than the simple Gautier-read-aloud sessions of Vampyres<\/i>, Styria<\/i> draws on a wealth of pre-Bram Stoker vampire stories to present a version of the myth that\u2019s unusual and distinctive. Carmilla films often seem odd because the Stoker\/Lugosi\/Hammer vampire myth is so entrenched in pop culture that Le Fanu\u2019s more nebulous, ambiguous creatures appear somehow \u2018wrong\u2019 in interesting ways. Even the very physical Ingrid Pitt in The Vampire Lovers<\/i>, Hammer\u2019s own take on the story, does some ghostly vanishing that wouldn\u2019t do for Christopher Lee\u2019s Dracula. <\/p>\n

Styria<\/i> sets the story in Hungary in 1989, and pares away much of Le Fanu\u2019s plot and most of the supporting cast. Dr Hill (Stephen Rea) comes to a shuttered castle to examine murals that have been papered over, working under the threat of the collapsing communist regime levelling the building. Lara (Eleanor Tomlinson, who has now taken the Angharad Rees role in the remake of Poldark<\/i>), his teenage daughter, has just been expelled from school after a violent incident. The sulky girl\u2019s interest is piqued when she learns the castle once belonged to the family of her absent mother, whom Dr Hill doesn\u2019t like to talk about. In the forest, Lara sees Carmilla (Julia Pietrucha) escape from a car driven by a bullying official, General Spiegel (Jacek Lenartowicz), and befriends the blonde, peculiar girl, who becomes a major influence in her life. <\/p>\n

Though there\u2019s a kiss that mimics a scene in Blood and Roses<\/i>, Styria plays down the lesbian eroticism \u2013 too often taken to be the only interesting feature in Le Fanu\u2019s extraordinarily complex story \u2013 and makes Carmilla possibly the protagonist\u2019s alter ego, imaginary friend, sister, incarnated wild side or reincarnated mother. The film mostly stays in the crumbling castle to concentrate on the two girls \u2026 only venturing into the village near the end, to show the gruesome depredations of the vampire (whoever she may be) among the local population. It\u2019s a successful evocation of the approach Euro-horror took in the 1970s rather than simple pastiche, and there are creepy, fresh scenes: a night-long sleepover on a bare mountain, which ends with Lara waking to find a bloody smiley face scrawled on a rock, a midnight swim with cold fingers that might be dumped statues or petrified corpses brushing Lara\u2019s feet. The performances are all pitched slightly high \u2013 and Lenartowicz goes over the top as a malign take on the fearless vampire killer \u2013 and there\u2019s attention to d\u00e9cor and atmosphere rather than shock, though the last reel (which borrows a lick from Hammer\u2019s Kiss of the Vampire<\/i>) is eventful and gruesome. Following The Moth Diaries<\/i> by blurring the roles of vampire and victim, Styria<\/i> gives Tomlinson (who is excellent) as much to play with as Pietrucha. This gets around the persistent problem that Le Fanu\u2019s heroine, Laura, is a passive doormat who tends to be the dullest part of any film adaptation, even when played by Elsa Martinelli or Madeline Smith. Arty and sometimes too elliptical for its own good – Carmilla draws art film attention as much as commercial horror \u2013 Styria<\/i> is nevertheless an interesting, unusual vampire movie. <\/p>\n

Kim Newman<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This double bill of European vampire movies revisits oft-told stories.
\nReview by Kim Newman<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,3,1374],"tags":[1388,905,729,1389,75,97,906,177],"class_list":["post-6660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-check-it-out","category-dvds-and-blu-rays","category-kim-newmans-nightmare-movies","tag-bram-stoker","tag-carmilla","tag-dracula","tag-euro-horror","tag-hammer","tag-horror","tag-sheridan-le-fanu","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"Kim Newman\u2019s Nightmare Movies","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/purUP-1Jq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3763,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2013\/11\/03\/daughters-of-darkness\/","url_meta":{"origin":6660,"position":0},"title":"Daughters of Darkness","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"November 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Harry Kümel\u2019s film depicts vampirism (and lesbianism) as a reasonable alternative to stifling or perverse male desires. 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Romero\u2019s atypical counterculture drama is an excerpt from horror luminary Kim Newman\u2019s new book Video Dungeon. Review by Kim Newman","rel":"","context":"In "DVD and Blu-ray releases"","block_context":{"text":"DVD and Blu-ray releases","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/category\/dvd-and-blu-ray-releases\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Theres Always Vanilla","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Theres-Always-Vanilla-594x334.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Theres-Always-Vanilla-594x334.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Theres-Always-Vanilla-594x334.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6684,"url":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2016\/12\/01\/the-veil\/","url_meta":{"origin":6660,"position":2},"title":"The Veil","author":"Pam Jahn","date":"December 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"For this edition of Nightmare Movies, Kim Newman looks at a recent film from the busy Blumhouse boutique genre production label. 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