Tacticalin
An absolute waste of money
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin
The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Cassandra
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
imbluzclooby
I vaguely remembered this movie from watching Elvira ( Mistress of the Dark) back in the early 80's. So this movie must have been categorized as a low-budget amateur production for being featured as a relic on Elvira. But it did strike a chord with me since I remember the creepy villain, Lemora, and her prurient obsession with this nubile girl. Perhaps it was the sexual innuendo that drew my attention. But I was only a teenager at the time so I was undergoing the early stages of my sexual awakening and couldn't form my thoughts about this theme.Fast-forward 30 plus years later and I notice this movie on Youtube under some 1970's Horror video of some sort. It was then I had to watch this movie to satisfy that vague memory that left me latently curious. I have to say that the overall idea of the Vampire lesbian was enticing. The atmosphere, as noted numerous times by other reviewers, is remarkable considering the production's meagre budget. But the plot has a couple of problems that don't follow through with the initial setting. The gangster fugitive never gets resolved. It only serves as a premise to lead our nubile character, Lila Lee, into an inexplicable and random world of evil and witchcraft. The zombie characters that roam the forest and attack readily are unclear to me. Are they helpers of the Vampire Lemora or are they just wandering mutants to serve as haunting background? I understand that this is a morality tale that shows how the holy are tempted into sin and that evil can ruin anyone's salvation, but the meandering pace and deliberate tempo seemed to drag. The standout of the film is the presence and performance of Lesley Taplin, Lemora. She has a truly unnerving and frightening presence. Her skeletal features, deep-set eyes and black coif are enough to affect the most unshakable viewers. Watching her overpower and seduce the fragile Lila is curiously sinister and uncanny. Her purpose is to make this young and angelic girl her bitch and transform her into one of her everlasting victims. The set designs, lighting and camera angles are quite effective as well. The sound effects are horrifying and chilling, if not a bit over the top. Cheryl Smith's performance is adequate if not totally bland. But she is too pale and thin to pass off as some sexually enticing dish. Sorry, but this was a miscast. The finale was just a ridiculous mess. It simply didn't work. Watching those vampires, dawned in black cloaks and brim hats, bounding over church goers in slow motion didn't make sense on a logical or even a symbolic level.
GL84
Returning to her hometown to tend to her father's death, a young woman finds the area overrun by a vampiric cult of witchcraft practitioners and their zombified slaves and forcing her to find a way out of town alive.This turned out to be an interesting if severely flawed effort that has some good stuff going for it but is ultimately overrun by it's flaws. One of it's biggest flaws is the absolutely irritating inability to understand what's going on through it all since the entire film's dream-like atmosphere and pacing make it impossible to know if we're in a dream world or reality, and as nothing really prescribes to an established set of rules or preconceptions it makes for a hard time getting into this one, especially since there's a lot of time spent where nothing happens and we follow her around doing absolutely nothing. This makes it pretty hard to understand the villains motives and purposes since they never really explain them, and as a whole it's pretty hard to make anything out in here. That said, the positives are really good, as the dream-like atmosphere here is perfectly played and creates a rather haunting quality that makes this imminently watchable. Also, the sheer creativeness of it all, incorporating a virgin-like heroine with vampires, witches and zombies in a decrepit town makes for a real blast, and overall it's generally good parts are found when those are being utilized, especially the climax where the vampires appear as hallucinogenic fragments of her imagination and begin launching a vicious attack on her that makes for a really rousing time. Still, though, they're not enough to make this overcome it's flaws.Rated R: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.
poe426
This one borders on brilliance, with echoes of everything from VAMPYR and LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH to THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS (not to mention LOLITA)- to mention but a few. The straightforward approach helps; but when The Queen Vee (Ms. Gilb)gives one of her cornball speeches, the movie teeters on the verge of just plain lame: SILENCE would've sufficed, in most instances (in their banality, her speeches remind me of the downright comic book-bad monologues by the king vampire at the end of Stephen King's 'SALEM'S LOT- the book, not the movie). The hulking "mutant vampires" that give chase to anyone who happens to set foot in the forest are not unlike the manimals in the H.G. Wells classic, THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, and give LEMORA that little something extra. The CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI/CARNIVAL OF SOULS/JACOB'S LADDER ending leaves a bit to be desired, but it's the journey that counts in this one- even if it's nothing but a daydream.
goods116
Seems to me a bit overrated on IMDb based on the reviews I have read. I did not get around to seeing this movie until recently, even though I am a veteran movie buff who has seen many hundreds of 70s films and most of the horror ones. Lemora has some OK atmosphere and lots of things jumping out of the screen, but it will ultimately have little impact on today's modern movie viewer. The action and the scenes become quite redundant after about 20 minutes, and the ending is obvious and inevitable. I did like some of the "70s horror atmosphere" and the curiosity/cultish feel to the whole thing, but again, unless this alone can carry a film for you, which for me it increasingly does not, I would skip it or watch it while doing something else. 5 out of 10 rating means below average to average.