If this wasn't the second of a trio of vampire films, I would think that this was greatly influenced by the life of Countess Elisabeth Bathory, the subject of several films made around the same time. In fact, Ingrid Pitt, who was offered a role in this (presumably the countess) starred the very same year in "Countess Dracula", a horror film loosely based on Bathory's legend. Of course, Bathory had lived in another part of Europe centuries before, and this is set 40 years after "The Vampire Lovers" in the mid-1800's. The opening scene shows a peasant girl getting a ride in a glamorous carriage, and when she gets in and it takes off, she begins screaming, realizing her fate. The next thing you know, blood is dripping out of her into a chalice, and it is poured onto the corpse of a woman who then sits up, with her back to the audience, obviously having come back to life and regained her youth. Very Bathory in legend. The good thing is you do not have to have seen "The Vampire Lovers" to understand what is going on here.
Much of the action centers around a prestigious girls school where the students begin to disappear and various men are attacked. Barbara Jefford is the countess cone back to life, with Suzanna Leigh as her niece, and Helen Christie as the school mistress who seems to know more than she's letting on. Ralph Bates and Yutte Stensgaard CoStar, and they are surrounded by a very convoluted script that often substitutes eroticism for story, meaning that a lot of the footage is rather pointless and a lot of time wasted on things that could have cut this down to 80 minutes rather than 95. But it is a handsome production, making good use of castles in the mountains and beautiful buildings and the lush countryside. With so many vampire films out around the same time, this just fades into the abyss of that genre, and is ultimately nothing special.
Much of the action centers around a prestigious girls school where the students begin to disappear and various men are attacked. Barbara Jefford is the countess cone back to life, with Suzanna Leigh as her niece, and Helen Christie as the school mistress who seems to know more than she's letting on. Ralph Bates and Yutte Stensgaard CoStar, and they are surrounded by a very convoluted script that often substitutes eroticism for story, meaning that a lot of the footage is rather pointless and a lot of time wasted on things that could have cut this down to 80 minutes rather than 95. But it is a handsome production, making good use of castles in the mountains and beautiful buildings and the lush countryside. With so many vampire films out around the same time, this just fades into the abyss of that genre, and is ultimately nothing special.