Female Vampire (1973)

Interesting facts

Female Vampire is a horror film written, directed, and co-edited by Jesús Franco. It was produced in 1973, but was only theatrically distributed in 1975. The film is set in Madeira and stars actress Lina Romay as Irina von Karlstein, a vampire who has sex with both male and female victims. In an unusual variation of the vampire myth, Karlstein performs oral sex on her victims until they die, draining them of their sexual fluids.

Production

In director Jesús Franco's productions from 1972 and onward, his films became more inclined towards themes involving female sex and zoom in shots on female genitalia. After the death of Franco's previous preferred lead actress Soledad Miranda, he cast 19-year-old actress Lina Romay as the Countess Irina. Romay was more open about her sexuality than Miranda, which allowed Franco to focus on his more sex-based themes in his films.

Franco felt that The Bare Breasted Countess was an erotica film as opposed to a pornographic film. Franco compared the use of sex in his films to the film In the Realm of the Senses by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima whose film contained sex with social and political commentary. Franco compared his film to Oshima's, stating "there are lots of hardcore shots but nobody would say 'Oh, it's a porno film!' No. It's a very important story.

The film was edited by Franco and Ramon Ardid (Lina Romay's then-husband) under the combined pseudonym Pierre Querut.

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