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Female Vampire
 cast: Lina Romay, Jack Taylor, Alice Arno, and Monica Swinn

director: J.P. Johnson (alias: Jess Franco)

101 minutes (18) 1973
widescreen ratio 2.35:1
Arrow DVD Region 2 retail
Also available to buy on video

RATING: 4/10
 reviewed by Ian Shutter
Hugely prolific director, Jesús Franco, the mad Spaniard with at least 175 movies on his incomparably schlock résumé, made this sleazy horror with Lina Romay as softcore erotica so badly directed it's funny. Female Vampire (aka: The Bare Breasted Countess) tells of Irina Karlstein, a mute immortal who has no problem with daylight, haunting the island of Madeira. She drains her victims of potency, when not failing around in throes of orgasmic frustration on her hotel bed, and is surprised to be approached by a fatalist poet demanding to spend eternity at her side.
   Awful out-of-sync dubbing, full-frontal nudity so much stronger than Hammer would ever dare, uninhibited camera angles with overuse of zoom lenses... yes, it must be another Franco flick. Dr Roberts (played by director Franco himself) fails to convince the local cops that murders on the island are the work of a vampire. A blind doctor named Orlof finds teeth marks in a dead girl's crotch; evidence that the Countess preys on both the sexes. Can this female vampire be stopped? Does anyone want to try?
   DVD extras: alternate title sequence, four deleted scenes (mostly explicit links between sex and violence), original European trailer, and Arrow films list.
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