Director: Jess Franco (as J.P. Johnson)
Year: 1973
Country: France/Belgium
Alternate Titles: La comtesse noire; La comtesse aux seins nus; Les avaleuses; The Loves of Irina; The Bare Breasted Countess; The Black Countess; The Last Thrill; Sicarius - the Midnight Party; Jacula; Yacula; Insatiable Lust; Erotikill; Lustful Vampires in Sperm Frenzy
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Living alone on an island, a strange woman spends her time laughing off rumors that she's a vampire while enjoying the steady stream of gigolos who come for her before discarding them, furthering the rumors and forcing a local doctor to stop her before more turn up dead.
Review:
There’s quite a lot to enjoy with this one. Among its best aspects is the tremendous emphasis on bare flesh, with this one going for some absolutely insane work to come about focusing on this kind of content. As the Countess walks around in nothing more than boots, a cape, and a belt, thereby spending nearly every single second of the film naked, it becomes almost exclusively a showcase for Romay, who offers as uninhibited a performance as can be imagined. When she's not actively seducing her prey, she finds herself teasing her servant or attempting to pleasure herself, languidly rolling about on her bed and masturbating with abandon, and even performs an extended fellatio sequence on a bedpost.
That is to take nothing away from the several extended and quite erotic love sequences in the film. The long and extended affair near the end is especially memorable, for the hypnotic feel of the scene is simply powerful and manages to become the highlight of the film. The frequent lesbian encounters are just as erotic and steamy as the regular scenes, and the club scene is one of the best in the film. The early encounter is just as good, and the frequency and eroticism of them make them memorable. While hard to accurately select a favorite, the fact that there are so many makes this a real erotic masterpiece. With some really fantastic mood shots in here helping to play up the genre qualities present in the storyline that also enhance the dream-like atmosphere present, it’s not all that bad.
There's not a lot to dislike about this one. One of its biggest problems is its absolute willingness to play with the vampire rules. The titular vampire openly sunbathes, doesn't drink blood when she kills, and unless all the men have some freakish anatomical anomaly, the jugular is not involved at all. This strikes as somewhat unusual, as even the most basic stories of vampire films use these to their advantage, and that this one just up and changes the rules is quite surprising. That can lead into the issue of feeling like there's nothing happening, which can result in boredom. This is especially true of the middle of the film, where most of the sex scenes occur. As the lead is mute, it really drags on and at times can be a little slow-going, as nothing is really explained.
The film's other big problem is that, at times, the cinematography can be extremely annoying. Nearly every shot contains a series of zoom shots, then from wide to close-up back to wide shot, which becomes very distracting after about the twentieth time it occurs. Pans and zooms are also pretty jarring most of the time, which makes them stand out more than they should. Worse is that, on numerous occasions, the camera zooms in, then seems to be looking for something to focus on. It almost looks quite amateurish for most of the shots, lending it a really dissatisfied feel that can be upsetting to some not used to it. All in all, it's not that bad and is quite decent for what it is, even with these few issues.
Overview: ***.5/5
With its emphasis more on the erotic realm than the horrific one, it's got quite a lot to enjoy in that regard, even if it remains hard to recommend this one other than to the more adventurous fans of the extreme art form. That also depends on which version of the film is viewed, as elements of one are not there in others, depending on the nature of the version being watched.
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