Vampires, eh? Those guys will never go out of fashion, it seems. Surely the man on the street’s bogeyman of choice, even if they are more likely to be found sulking in their bedrooms a la the Twilight kids or getting their heads kicked in by Wesley Snipes these days…

While Dracula is undoubtedly the most famous bloodsucker of them all, and a true screen icon from Nosferatu to Christopher Lee, many of my favourite vampire films are based upon a tale which actually predates Bram Stoker’s seminal story; Sheridan Le Fanu’s novella ‘Carmilla’, in which the chief creature of the night is female. Lady vampires were a very big deal in the 60s and 70s, and with Gogol’s similarly pre-Dracula short story ‘Viy’ also providing inspiration, these seductive tales full of sensual danger were a perfect fit for practitioners of classy Euro-horror. Roger Vadim gave us Blood and Roses, Mario Bava chipped in with Black Sunday, France’s Jean Rollin and Spain’s Jess Franco were very interested in inter-vampire lady love indeed, and even the Soviet Union produced its first ever horror film in the form of an adaptation of the aforementioned Viy.

Daughters of Darkness is perhaps the best femme vampyr film of them all, however, and represents everything that’s brilliantly atmospheric, sly and provocative about this beguiling subgenre. Kumel’s film introduces us to Stefan and Valerie, newlyweds stopping off at an isolated Belgian hotel, en route to visiting the groom’s family in England. There they rather spookily remain the only guests until the arrival of the glamorous and mysterious Countess Bathory, who manages to not only enthral and unsettle our honeymooners in equal measure, but who also may just be responsible – along with her similarly shady sidekick, Ilona - for a recent spate of bizarrely vampiric murders in the surrounding area.

If you’re looking for a brainy, artfully erotic vampire film for your Halloween viewing next Monday, Daughters of Darkness has so much to recommend it that it’s hard to know where to begin. It is beautifully shot and designed (in particular the icily grand hotel interiors), and the cast are uniformly superb, with Nouvelle Vague icon Delphine Seyrig absolutely spellbinding as the eerily charming Countess. Kumel, who co-wrote the screenplay with a few nods to ‘Carmilla’, keeps us guessing throughout, and the film has more than a few juicy ambiguities to roll our way, including several enigmatic question marks lingering over the Countess and even a few over supposedly trusty Stefan himself – all resulting in a sophisticated bloody vintage that gets better with age.

You can see a bit of what I’m banging on about if you check out the trailer from Blue Underground (who put out a terrific DVD release) below.

Tags daughters of darkness delphine seyrig halloween harry kumel horror spooky film of the day vampires