Pulpmovies Reviews

From 1976 to the end of the 1980s, Don Dohler wrote, directed and produced several science fiction and horror films. To say that the budgets for these films were low would be a bit of an understatement. Don Dohler was effectively making direct to video films before there was a video to go direct to.

But these films, such as The Alien Factor, Fiend and The Galaxy Invader had a real heart and, if nothing else, reflected Dohler’s real passion not just for genre cinema but also the process of making films. These weren’t the greatest films ever made but Dohler did manage to secure an international distribution for every one of them and built quite a loyal following of fans who recognised and enjoyed these films for what they were.

In 1988 Dohler decided he’d had enough and didn’t make another film for eleven years. He returned in 1999 with Alien Factor 2: The Alien Rampage, during the shooting of which he met Joe Ripple. The two men began to collaborate with Ripple taking on the directing duties, allowing Dohler to concentrate on cinematography and editing.

However, the world had moved on during Dohler’s hiatus and, with direct to video films coming to dominate the independent landscape, he found himself having to include more exploitative elements in order to secure the distribution deals he needed. All of which brings us to Vampire Sisters.

This is the story (a term I use very loosely here) of three lesbian vampires (Darla Albornoz, Jeannie Michelle Jameson and Syn DeVil) who – taking advantage of the internet – have set up a porn website to lure unsuspecting schmucks to their lair. Again, and again and again.

To be fair, there are some good ideas in this film and a couple of scenes that are genuinely painful to watch. But the whole thing is dragged down by the sheer repetitiveness of the titillation followed by violent death – endlessly repeated – structure of the film.

If, from the above couple of paragraphs, you have the impression that this film is entirely plot-free you’d be right. Almost.

There is a rather desultory attempt to give us the semblance of a plot in the form of a couple of vice cops (Mark C. Lassise and Leanna Chamish) who notice that the website is offering special favours to local men and decide to keep an eye on it. Eventually they cotton on to the fact that lots of people are going missing and they all have the girls’ website bookmarked. So they decide that they should… go undercover.

And there really is a lot less here than implied by the above.

Unambiguously exploitative films can be a huge amount of fun but only when the people making these films have a sense of fun which they can bring to the screen. In the case of Vampire Sisters, the film feels far too much like a by-the-numbers exercise and, even with this much flesh and blood on show, the whole thing very quickly grinds to a creaking halt.

Writer/director Randy Greif certainly has a very unique vision, as is amply demonstrated in The Three Trials, the story of Catherine (Molinee Green), a nun with a unique form of narcolepsy.

Catherine’s troubles start when she stumbles across the priest of her church (Michael Q. Schmidt) indulging in fetish sex with the convent’s dominatrix Mother Superior (Sirena Scott). Aroused and in trouble, her troubles start when she is sent to the wonderfully grimy basement of a nearby cathedral to face the first of her trials.

The film starts very firmly in nunsploitation territory, but quickly takes a very surreal turn and becomes much, much more as Catherine is forced to confront and accept her sexuality.

Moving beyond the religious life, by way of a montage that reflects both the reality of her secular life and the submissive fantasies that are now – and maybe always were – a part of her being, Catherine finds herself living in Blackheart’s Castle.

In terms of narrative, this is the most explicitly dream-like part of the film. No attempt is made to explain how she arrived here, or even where ‘here’ is – and, as such, it works more as a fantasy, and a deliberately adolescent one at that. Catherine the nymph, like Catherine the nun, has a deep desire for devotion but this time around the desire is more romantic than religious.

Although the narrative here is the most dream-like, the imagery in this part of the film is the least. And Greif does manage to come up with some very striking imagery that does manage to very effectively convey the eroticism of Catherine’s personality. The imagery is also often quite erotic in its own right.

It also has to be noted that, regardless of the description of the synopsis so far, the film does not follow a linear narrative. It is divided into three broad sections, each of which deals with a different aspect of Catherine’s submissive sexuality. But, as with both personality and sexuality, these aspects do impinge on each other and – consequently – the events in the three sections do refer, backwards and forwards, to each other.

The end of the second section of the film sees Catherine being rescued by Beast (Maximilien Herholz), a sasquatch-like creature who, by the beginning of the final section, has become a man. And, as this man is more than happy to accommodate Catherine’s desires, we see her relationship with him becoming increasingly extreme and masochistic.

More than anything, this part of the film made me think of The Story of O and really does capture the same sense of utter submission that is portrayed in the novel. And, as with O, Catherine’s journey is one that follows an unrelenting logic of its own and one that is engaging, erotic and more than a little disturbing.

Where The Three Trials is unique, however, is in Greif’s use of a surreal and genuinely dream-like approach to narrative, along with some deliberately absurdist elements, to obscure the boundaries between reality and fantasy. And, although the imagery does become a little self-indulgent at times, it does come together to generate a very striking, and very memorable, visual experience.

This is a film that doesn’t sit comfortably in any genre but one that very effectively pulls together elements from a variety of influences to create something that both unique and very powerful indeed.

Tendres Cousines starts with a monologue – a very long monologue – in which Julien (Thierry Tevini) introduces us to still images of the characters that we will meet over the course of the film. A lot of characters – some of them very minor – are introduced at this point, and too much information is dumped on the audience for anyone to take it all in. All you really need to know at this point is that everyone in this French country house fancies someone they shouldn’t.

And then we’re off.

This film is a bit of an oddity in that it tries to straddle several, not entirely complementary, genres. It’s essentially a sexploitation tinged coming of age story in which Julien and his cousin, Julia (Anja Schüte) discover their sexuality and their feelings for each other – as well as the rest of the household – against the background of a very pronounced class divide. While the middle class members of the two families are repressed, refined, frustrated and often predatory, the servants of the household are both raunchy and open and a lot more straightforward.

Of course, when hormonal teenagers find themselves in an environment packed with upfront shagging the opportunities for broad – very broad – humour, and the film does include some farcical scenes of the type that wouldn’t be out of place in a typical Carry On film. Apart from the explicit nudity, of course.

And, if this was all that the film had aspired to – a sexploitation comedy - I would have probably enjoyed it for what it was. However, watching this left me with the rather unfortunate impression that director, David Hamilton would like us to take the film more seriously than it deserves.

The film is set in 1939, just before the outbreak of war, and we do have a few references to events going on in the wider world. But if this was a stab at injecting some drama into the film, it’s a rather half-hearted one and one that undermines both the comedy and sexploitation elements that make up the rest of the film.

The result is a film which, while being pretty to look at doesn’t really work as a film. It’s mildly titillating rather than erotic, silly rather than funny and pedestrian rather than dramatic.

David Hamilton is quite well regarded as a photographer and I don’t doubt that his soft-focus style works perfectly well on the page. Unfortunately, being a competent photographer doesn’t necessarily translate into an affinity for either character or narrative, as this film amply demonstrates.