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Ms. Pitt was that great rarity, a sex bomb that could actually act, and she's wonderful in this lush adaptation of "Carmilla". She's very sexy -- another reviewer here used the word "feline" and that's an apt comparison -- and director Baker uses her nudity wisely, just giving us a glimpse here and there, now and then, and always photographing her in such a way that emphasizes her sleekness. (The seduction sequence with the governess is I think the highlight, although we see more of Ms. Pitt elsewhere.) Pitt, though, is also quite credible as the vampire, by turns seductive, frightening, frightened and yearning. This is one of the better examples I've seen of putting the human face on the monster: Pitt herself, with her exotic accent and air of mystery, was kind of different from the start, and of course that helps. But the most credit goes to Pitt's acting, and her ability to show the shadow of the girl within the monster. Often Pitt gives the impression that she doesn't really like what she's doing, which is tough to do in these kind of roles.
As you can see, I think Pitt's the main reason to see this. Outside of her, this is a fairly traditional Hammer vampire movie, with Pitt worming her way into households and then vampirizing the nubile young ladies (yes, there's one hell of a lesbian subtext here) and Peter Cushing as the vampire-hunter out to get her. Not particularly scary, although everyone gives it the old college try.
A minor classic of it's type, which helped fix in the public's mind the relationship between vampires and eroticism.
score /10
dj_bassett 8 March 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1035753/ |
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1-12-2019 05:57:39