A low budget horror film that has inspired moments and a true sense for dark fairy tales but cannot sustain them and is let down by the budget. A female vampire lives in remote impenetrable woods surrounded by zombies that wander looking for prey and hordes of ruthless roaming vampires. She draws a young, innocent girl to her and gently corrupts her into the night world of the vampire. There are many excellent scenes of grasping zombies and vampire groups as well as the girls father who has become a zombie himself. Lemora is effectively played hinting at the seductive elements as well as horror. In individual scenes, the film delivers strong moments of impending horror, such as when the girl bursts out of a coffin into a group of vampires.
However the film cannot carry the narrative effectively at a reasonable speed. While it may add to the surreal fairy tale feeling, the slow laboured pacing reduces viewier interest. When not dealing with the set pieces such as the zombies attacking the bus taking the girl through the woods at night, the director has little sense of developing a story or of where he wishes the film to go. The conclusion is fine and inevitable but has not come from within the film itself but is a sudden ending to the film. The dialogue is atrociously recorded and some of the performances are amateur at best. We should not be too cruel though as getting a film such as this made at all in the early 1970s was not easy and the moments of horror are achieved to a high standard. The viewier who perseveres is rewarded but you cannot help feeling that with a tighter plot and pace the film could have been a minor classic. 7/10.
Special Thanks to Mark Coyle for this Movie Review.