Best movie of this year hands down!

Really Surprised!

Great Film overall

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This story begins with "Lee Ritter" (Michael Blodgett) and his wife "Susan" (Sherry E. DeBoer) meeting a woman named "Diane LeFanu" (Celeste Yarnall) at a nightclub and then accept her invitation to visit her house in the desert over the weekend. When they get there Susan becomes somewhat jealous of Diane due to Lee's increasing attraction to her. Yet the longer they stay the more reluctant Susan becomes to leave. Likewise, even though both of them are having strange dreams and observe strange events neither of them are able (or perhaps willing) to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film resembled a late-60's, low-budget, counter-culture movie at times which, when combined with the poor acting on the part of Sherry E. DeBoer, caused the movie to seem really cheap and trashy. Additionally, the film also had an uneven quality to it as well. In any case, I rate the film as below average and recommend it only to those who enjoy movies of this type from this particular era.

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.

THE VELVET VAMPIRE is really one of the most underrated vampire movies, and well worth searching for a copy. Not available on DVD, the film's long out of print VHS tapes have sold for high amounts on eBay. Directed by 70s cult director Stephanie Rothman, THE VELVET VAMPIRE is a very low budget, yet very well done movie. I saw it screened in a theater once, in 1981, on a double bill with DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS. It was a perfect double feature, yet THE VELVET VAMPIRE does not have anywhere near the strong cult following DAUGHTERS OF DAKRNESS has achieved. A young couple meet a beautiful, mysterious woman in an art gallery in downtown Los Angeles. She invites them to spend the weekend at her desert home. They both have dreams of being seduced by her, and the dreams, in one way or another, become a reality. Celeste Yarnall is outstanding as Diane, The Velvet Vampire, and it always puzzled me that she did not achieve greater success as an actress.

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.