REVIEW: FEMALE VAMPIRE

Ultra-prolific sleaze merchant Jess Franco has made films for decades under 30 or 40 different names, I've seen several of them, and I can't say that I'm a huge fan. His stuff is a bit too slow-moving and arty for my MTV-ized sensibilities, but one thing I can say for sure: his choice to cast Lina Romay in so many of his films was genius. Because Lina Romay is beautiful.

In 1973's FEMALE VAMPIRE, Romay plays the title character. This flick has been released under many different titles (including EROTIKILL and BARE BREASTED COUNTESS) with varying degrees of sex and violence. The version I saw contained countless scenes of Romay walking around wearing nothing but her vampire cape, black belt and boots. There were also several scenes where she's writhing in bed humping a pillow or whatever, complete with Franco's camera repeatedly zooming into her crotch. It's definitely not something I understood or was particularly entertained by, but Romay makes it all worthwhile.

It should be noted that the cover image of Romay with blood dripping from her mouth (the same one that adorns Andy Black's NECRONOMICON II) doesn't appear in this cut of the film. In the DVD extras there are scenes from the EROTIKILL version, and that's where you'll find it. I can't remember seeing a drop of blood in FEMALE VAMPIRE. But it has Lina Romay. You get what I'm saying?