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| Daughters of Darkness | 
 enlarge | Director: Harry Kuemel
Actors: John Karlen, Delphine Seyrig, Danielle Ouimet, Andrea Rau, Paul Esser
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.99
Buy Used: $5.00
You Save: $19.99 (80%)
New (3) Used (12) from $5.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 58707
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 100
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 6304970463
UPC: 013131049497
EAN: 9786304970461
ASIN: 6304970463
Theatrical Release Date: 1971
Release Date: August 25, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Art-movie goddess Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad) slinks through the plush Eurotrash settings as the deathless Elizabeth Bathory, Vampire Countess, in Harry Kuemel's minor Dutch classic of lesbian erotic-gothic. Blood mingles with water during the languorous shower scenes. Set at an upper-crust seaside resort, the 1971 film recounts Bathory's plot to replace her current consort (Andrea Rau) with a fresher specimen, an abused newlywed whose brutal young husband is an inconvenience waiting to be eliminated. Although both the bi-sex and the neck-biting violence are tame by today's standards, the film has a graceful, gliding sense of pace that gets under your skin; something unspeakably kinky always seems to be just about to happen. It never quite does, but the mood lingers. See it with someone you love--or would like to. --David Chute
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 Brilliant vampire flick November 7, 2004
36 out of 38 found this review helpful
Since I've been watching a ton of Eurohorror classics lately, now is as good as a time as any to say a few words about "Daughters of Darkness." I made a vow some time ago to ignore vampire films as a general rule. It's not that I strongly dislike all vampire films, mind you, but I just feel like the genre has been done to death over the years. How many versions of Dracula can you watch before your eyes start rolling over the predictability of it all? The plots are all essentially the same, right? You've got the obligatory virgin, the dashing young lad, the wizened vampire hunter, and good old Drac himself ambling around in the dark tormenting the others. A bunch of people fall prey to the vampire, the hunter teams up with the young man in an effort to save the young girl, and a stake through the old ticker pretty much wraps the whole thing up. Well, a bit of experience reveals quite a few films that play around with this tried and true formula. One way to accomplish something different, if these European flicks are any indication, is to punch up the proceedings with a generous helping of bare flesh. There's nothing like a bunch of gals trooping around in revealing outfits, or no outfits at all, to perk up the dreary old Stoker legend. And if you can make the head vampire a woman, that certainly can't hurt either. Welcome to "Daughters of Darkness."
Something weird and wonderful is going on in this movie, but you have to wait awhile to see it. The picture starts out by showing us two freshly wedded lovebirds, Valerie (Danielle Ouimet) and Stefan (John Karlen), heading to the European coast on a train. Ostensibly, the two married in secret and are now going to head over to England to meet Stefan's domineering mother. Valerie worries whether the woman (ha!) will accept her since Stefan makes it abundantly clear that his beloved mother is quite picky about her son's girlfriends. Stefan assures Valerie all will go well, but it soon becomes apparent that he isn't hurrying to get to England. While waiting for the ship that will take them home, the two check into a massively creepy hotel on the coast. No other guests are staying in the building since it's out of season, so Valerie and Stefan have the beautiful building all to themselves. That is until Countess Elizabeth Bathory (Delphine Seyrig) and her beautiful companion Ilona (Andrea Rau) arrive on the scene in a vintage automobile. Most of us are aware that Elizabeth Bathory was a notorious sixteenth century Hungarian noblewoman who supposedly kept herself eternally young by bathing in vats filled with the blood of young maidens. Unfortunately, Valerie and Stefan don't make the connection.
Still, the newlyweds grow increasingly aware that something isn't right with the beautiful countess. First, it's rather odd that the hotel manager claims that he remembers Countess Elizabeth showing up at the hotel nearly fifty years before looking exactly as she does now. Second, she's downright creepy. There's something hidden behind her horrific grin that makes you want to scream. Second, the Countess Elizabeth takes an incredible interest in the activities of the couple. She always seems to appear whenever Stefan and Valerie leave their room, grinning that horrible grin and cooing like a cat over the two newlyweds. Bathory seems to have an eye for the beautiful Valerie, too, which makes sense when we discover exactly why Ilona follows her around like a puppy. It turns out history made a mistake about the blood vats, not recognizing or refusing to record that Bathory was really a vampire with a penchant for young gals. She's roamed Europe for over three hundred years playing the same bloody game, a game that now threatens to rip apart forever this hapless couple. In no time at all, Elizabeth manages to drive a wedge between the Stefan and Valerie, recruit the latter to her thirsty cause, and wreak a whole heck of a lot of havoc in the hotel.
You just gotta love this film. "Daughters of Darkness" is one of the best vampire films I have ever seen for a multitude of reasons. The primary reason the picture succeeds is due to the amazing talents of Delphine Seyrig. Who is this enchanting woman and where has she been all my life? I love this lady! She manages to make her character insanely gorgeous and metaphysically eerie at the same time. She slinks around in shimmering outfits dropping suggestive comments, tells horribly gory stories, winks, and grins with the greatest of ease. And her fate at the end of the film is gruesome and disturbing. Just as good as Seyrig is the oppressive atmosphere of the hotel and the desolate surroundings. Characters move around outside under overcast skies and through pouring rain. Forests nearby are dense and spooky. Every set piece seems to telegraph a sense of impending doom for the film's participants. Finally, you simply won't believe your eyes when Stefan calls his mother on the phone. What was director Harry Kumel thinking here? What an incredibly bizarre scene to insert into the picture! Oh man, you just won't comprehend the insanity of it!
"Daughters of Darkness" deserves five stars for its amazing performances and over the top antics. I can't thank Blue Underground enough for releasing this treasure on DVD. While the print transfer occasionally suffers from some minor blemishes and fading colors, most of the movie looks great. Extras include two commentary tracks, radio spots, a trailer, stills, and an interview with Andrea Rau. Run, don't walk, to pick up a copy of this underrated gem.
Top-notch Euro Horror April 11, 2005
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
The notion of "vampirism" has always had ties to dark and forbidden sides of human sexuality, and has served as metaphor for homosexuality, nymphomania, and maochism. The sexual revolution of late 60's and early 70's produced a bevy of erotic, "lesbian" vampire films, in which their creators were able to graphically exploit all manner of sexual taboos that had only been hinted at previously. DVDs have given us a wonderful cross-section of these forbidden fruits from Jess Franco's psychedelic Vampiros Lesbos to the surreal-dreamy trappings of Jean Rollin's Shiver Of The Vampires, but Daughter's of Darkness is for many (myself included) is the cream of the crop.
Daughter's is kind of a hybrid between Sheridan Fornau's often-filmed vampire story, Carmilla, and the many legends and exploits of real-life "vampire" Elizabeth Bathory. Brought into the present, the film begins with the arrival of two newlyweds, Stephan & Valerie (John Karlen & Danielle Quimet), to a gloomy and mostly deserted beachfront hotel in Belgium. From the onset we observe all is not right with this union, Stephan refuses to tell his "mother" of their marriage and is revealing an aloof and sadistic temperament, which Valerie mournfully tolerates. Out of the night arrives the Countess Elizabeth Bathory (Delphine Seyrig) and her sultry companion/accomplice Ilona (Andrea Rau). The Countess takes an immediate, carnal interest in the young newlyweds, and especially in Valerie. Meanwhile there seems to be a rash of murders in the nearby villages in which the young female victims have been drained of all their blood. Before long the countess and her reluctant companion have seduced the troubled newlyweds, and this is where the fun begins.
Though many erotic vampire films of the time boast tantalizing visuals & copious nudity, director Harry Kummel clearly meant Daughters of Darkness to be more than a thinly veiled soft-core "art film". Not that it's minus these elements, Daughters' is quite explicit, but it's also a sophisticated and highly styled horror film laced with bewildering moments of black-comedy. In short, it's delightfully European.
As the ageless and decadent Elizabeth Bathory, Euro-star Delphine Seryig is without peer. More often than not, female erotic-vampires are portrayed as baleful, unwilling victims of their own desires, but not Elisabeth. The Countess takes great pride in her wickedness, and done-up like a thirties Marline Dietrich, Seyrig is believable and amusing, but never corny as she gleefully corrupts all that she touches.
Blue Underground's anamorphic transfer of Daughters is a vast improvement over the early Anchor Bay edition. Though utilizing the same source, Blue Undergrounds mastering is sharper, the colors are more stable and it's free of the bleeding and artifacts that plague the previous release. It still contains the commentary track with male lead John Karlen, but raises the stakes greatly with an additional commentary track with director Harry Kumel, an onscreen interview with actress Andrea Rau, an excellent theatrical trailer, radio spots, and a poster and still gallery. Priced at $20 (or less) this is an essential up-grade for Euro-horror fans and an excellent entry for the Euro-curious.
 Four Stars for the Movie... November 1, 2006
19 out of 30 found this review helpful
Two stars for the version. I was heartened to see that this was a two-disc edition, as I figured it meant both the original version and the less-effective director's cut would be available. Alas, there is just a completely different movie on the second disc, and the headlining film is the lesser version. If you want to see this movie properly, with Delphine Seyrig's sung theme song, and tighter, more effective editing (why do we always suppose that meddling is an improvement?), you're going to have to get on EBay and find the original VHS, with the big, oversized box (not to be confused with the VHS of the original release of the director's cut). [NOTE: according to the comment below, the longer version came first, not second, as I had thought, so make of that what you will, although that hardly changes my opinion of the two versions.] It won't be DVD, and it won't be widescreen, but it will be worth it. When I first saw the director's cut, I was surprised by how saggy it made the film (and the dropping of that theme song is criminal). What a disappointment that the second DVD release of this film has not remedied the error, or at least given us both versions.
By the way--what is with giving an "unhelpful" review to reviews that don't recommend something, regardless of whether they have been helpful or not? It's kind of weird. I don't care if my review is tagged as unhelpful, esp if you actually think it is, but if you read a review and it doesn't say what you wanted it to say, that is not "unhelpful," it is "something you disagree with," and there is no rating system for that.
 Last Year at Ostend November 19, 2000
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
I would be hard put to come up with a better example of misleading cover art than the picture Anchor Bay chose for DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS. Leading you to expect low-budget trash, pitched at a peak of sustained hysteria, perhaps garnished with a few self-consciously Op visual effects, it gives you no clue of the arty artifact the film actually represents. DAUGHTERS is indeed trash, but of an ultra-refined, expensive variety. Aside from THE HUNGER (whose makers must have seen this film), I can't think of another vampire movie so obsessively focused on the sexy, chic trappings of the genre. The slight story is an excuse for a lushly erotic, forebodingly elegant atmosphere. The actors traipse around in high fashion outfits, rattle about empty hallways left over from LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, struggle with deciding whether they want to be vampires, lesbians or sadomasochists, and drive around the Belgian seaside resort of Ostend during the off season in a fey, antique roadster. The images are framed, lit and cut so carefully, they practically sparkle. (In fact, they literally sparkle in one sequence as the lame dress worn by Delphine Seyrig turns her every movement into a dance of refracted light.) The hotel where most of the action takes place is worthy of some of Helmut Newton's steamier fantasies. Certainly Seyrig has been made up, accoutred and posed with enough care to be ready for him if he arrived. I suspect she was chosen for the part precisely because her most famous performance, in MARIENBAD, consisted of little more than similar photogenic posing. She does indeed look superb, and I wouldn't be surprised if half the budget paid for her wardrobe. With its kitschy pretensions, DAUGHTERS almost inevitably has to tread a thin line between utter silliness and insufferable pomposity. Trying to art up a genre usually associated with quick, resourceful filmmaking, it ends up being about nothing so much as the skill and money lavished on it. I liked the film, but there were times when I longed for Christopher Lee to jump out of the shadows to show how's it done. Vampirism isn't made into art by dressing it exquisitely, but by making the legend live, by exploiting our childish fears of the dark and the foreign, by momentarily making us believe vampires exist. DAUGHTERS only makes you believe that, assuming you've got the money and the style, Ostend might make a good weekend vacation stop.
A MUST for the film library of any serious horror movie fan September 4, 2005
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
This is one of those movies from the days when local stations ran horror movies on Saturday afternoons, stations that -- alas! -- have since aligned with upstart networks and now run infomercials all day. Mostly they'd run the great films from Hammer Studios, the Japanese monster movies like "Godzilla," and, of course, the '50s B-movies like "Them." Every now and then, though, they'd show this truly creepy little gem. Now, of course, as an adult I recognize this as an 'Art Film' but then it was just eerie, creepy, and totally different -- especially when compared to the typical vampire and other monster movies where the hero gets the girl and the monster gets killed/destroyed. A horror movie done as an art film, there's a lot going on that the viewer either has to guess, assume, or be left wondering about. In that sense, "Daughters of Darkness" foreshadows the modern Japanese horror films like "Ringu" or "Uzumaki" where you're left with unanswered questions, the kind that make you check to make sure the doors are locked. Blue Underground did a fantastic job with this DVD transfer, and it's great to be able to see this movie in its entirety instead of edited for TV. The only thing missing is Delphine Seyrig singing the title theme at the beginning of the movie ("...Don't let the sunlight find you, or you may fade and die."). Where'd that go?
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