The Velvet Vampire

Invited out to a strange mansion, a married couple arrive at a strange woman's home in the desert where she shows them around the area, but when she suspects something is wrong with the host they eventually come to believe she's a vampire and tries to get away alive.

Overall, this was a decent enough if flawed genre effort. What gives this the most to like here is the nearly ethereal approach to the main vampire this takes. The whole ruse about getting them out to the desert mansion and then baiting them against each other with her secret lustful looks, spying on the couple in bed from her hidden chamber behind the mirror, the straight seduction scenes on the husband, or the visions shot through the slow-motion style which is all incredibly enjoyable. This here makes the trip feel more suspenseful the longer they stay knowing what the end game here eventually leads to. That becomes quite fun as the film goes along as the gradual realization of what's happening is brought out. While the looks and remarks she gives hint at the seduction, the oblivious nature of her vampiric tendencies offers a lot of great scenes featuring her attacking and killing others to feed on their blood. This even makes the finale quite fun as the seduction tactics are revealed for some unexpected targets signaling some shocking revelations that take place, and when combined with the closing epitaph and nicely done sleaze in the seduction scenes has a lot to like about it. There are some issues with this one. One of the biggest factors here is the lagging storyline that tends to switch into numerous plot points whenever it's convenient to do so. The couple goes from hating each other to loving depending on the nature of the scene, the ruse to keep them there is wildly inconsistent and plots are dropped at random intervals merely because it sees fit to do so, almost as if it were all made up on the spot. This also explains the inconsistent vampire lore, being out in the daylight, and other factors that ignored tropes for no reason which all brings this one down.

Rated R: Nudity, Violence, Language, and sexual scenes.

Okay, first things first, Velvet Vampire emphasizes neither Vampires, nor Velvet. This film has much more in common with that strange sub-sub-genre of 70's sexual awakening films where a person, or couple, meets an unusual and erotic woman, or man, and travels to a far off place secluded from the reality of everyday life never to return home the same again. In this case it is a couple made up of beefy bodied, effeminate-featured Lee, and his extremely awkward wife, Susan. They travel to the middle of the desert as guests of the weird, beautiful and eccentric Diane LeFanu, the Velvet Vampire. Most of the film involves the erratic far-out shenanigans of these three and slowly but surely the vampire angle builds.

While VV may not involve a lot of hissing, pointy teethed nightcrawlers - it does weave a strange entrancing spell mainly due to the sheer utter weirdness of the trio of folks at its core. These are three actors you would never normally see in a film. Coupled with a very unusual vampire location - a dessert villa - this is tale of the undead that likely has not been seen before or since. And again - it is very 70's!! For this reason alone, I highly recommend a viewing to all fans of Gothic, Vampire or Strange 70's Flicks - as it offers a slightly skewed version of each.

Uneven pacing and some bad acting detract from The Velvet Vampire's bizarre and dreamy tone as a modern vampire lures a young married couple to her isolated desert home for a weekend of debauchery and neck biting.

Thematically very similar to the better Daughters of Darkness, but there's a lot of new stuff here. For one, the titular vampire has no problems with sunlight or mirrors. For all we know she might not even be a real vampire and could just be some insane woman.

There's not a lot of narrative drive in the film, so if you're someone more interested in plot driven horror films, you might want to think twice before giving this one a spin. If you like slower, more dreamlike films, you'll like it a lot.

At first, this looks to be another of the "erotic vampire" movies that were so popular in the 1970's, especially in Europe. But this American movie is actually quite different from Hammer's "Carnstein trilogy", the Rollins and Franco vampire films, and other European cult classics like "Vampyres" and "Daughters of Darkness". It doesn't really have the lesbian vampire angle that was often the bane of many of the European films. It's more of a love triangle with a free-spirited hippie couple (Michael Blodgett and Sherry Miles) finding their swinging lifestyle tested by a mysterious and very seductive woman (Celeste Yanell). There is one incredible polymorphously perverse scene where Yanell sucks snake venom out of the Miles's leg, and there are several heterosexual scenes between Blodgett and each of the women (usually while the other is secretly watching), but the plot is never completely overwhelmed with softcore groping,lesbian or otherwise.

The movie also has a very unusual (and very American)setting. It takes place in the Mojave desert near an abandoned mine and an old graveyard (where there are hints of cannibalism and necrophilia). It is atrociously acted (with Miles being the worst offender), but surprisingly well photographed, really making the most of its non-traditional horror setting. The vampire herself is also quite non-traditional. She has a reflection, is not overly adverse to sunlight, and may not really even be a vampire but instead someone suffering from insanity or a rare blood disease a la "Martin" or "Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary".

This movie may not quite compare some of the European vampire classics of its time, but it's better than some (Franco's "Female Vampire", for instance),and it's miles ahead of recent, derivative crap like "An Erotic Vampire in Paris". I'd rank it among the more interesting American vampire films of the period such as "Count Yorga" and "Lemora, Lady Dracula".

Stephanie Rothman's "The Velvet Vampire" is an intriguing slab of erotic vampire horror.The desert setting with the ghost town the characters visit provide plenty of unsettling atmosphere.Stunningly beautiful Celeste Yarnall plays the mysterious beauty Diana who after meeting married couple Susan and Lee Ritter at an art gallery lures them into staying the weekend at her Mojave Desert home.Soon both husband and wife find themselves sexually drawn to their mysterious host who suffers from a rare blood disease."The Velvet Vampire" was one of the first horror movies released by Roger Corman's company New World.The female vampire played by Celeste is a fascinating and deeply sensual character.The only known master print belongs to Quentin Tarantino's private collection and he is graciously lending it for the occasion.8 out of 10.