A Level Dracula

[setsuled]

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What seems at first a perfectly innocent lesbian romance turns into naked girls screaming in convents, covered in blood. Such is the fate of characters in 1977's Alucarda, one of the many movies based on Le Fanu's Carmilla. This one has some amazing sets and beautiful girls but becomes overburdened with people screaming and running around.

Tina Romero plays Alucarda, this movie's version of Mircalla/Carmilla, and her first lover/victim is Justine, played by the beautiful Susana Kamini. They're terrific to watch, particularly Romero who infuses her role with reckless teenage passion. Many of the early scenes seem to be borrowed from Hammer's The Vampire Lovers, particularly a funeral scene, but from there the influences seem to be more Satanic nun movies like Mother Joan of the Angels and Ken Russell's Devils as the convent that raised Alucarda is overtaken by hysteria.

The sets are by no means realistic but sort of expressionistically grisly, like they were designed by Goya. It's a fantastic movie to look at but it becomes a bit cacophonous. I kind of like how Alucarda and Justine's pact with Satan means they're in a state of constant psychological torment from then on, so much so they have to constantly scream and writhe, but it does get slightly monotonous.