A "Walk-in” is a description of a mysterious/supernatural event where the soul of one person
replaces the exiting soul of another is a generating factor in several important Jess Franco films,
most notably his 1974 LORNA, THE EXORICST (Les Possedees Du Diable) in which the
soul a modern female demon/witch invades a young girl (Lina Romay)
after she is murdered by the girl’s father (Guy Delmore).
There’s a lot more to this 20th Century version of Faust, retold in a downmarke
t environment as a near hardcore porn item. Soul transference/metempychosis
may also be a factor in Franco’s 1967 occult sexploitioner NECROMONICON/Succubus
in which Lorna Green (Janine Reynaud) is a disturbed nightclub performer who
is dominated by a menacing male demon (Michele Lemoine) who forces her to
seduce and murder a number of hipsters of the milieu. Soul invasion/mind control
also plays a role in SHINING SEX (1975) and is at the center of
MACUMBA SEXUAL (1981), a remake of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970),
in the latter two a powerful female dies and her soul invades the body
of an innocent female victim. Another film which could be linked thematically, stylistically
structurally to VAMPYROS LESBOS is the shot on HD video SNAKEWOMAN.
Jess Franco doesn't make "films" anymore, he makes video but the results are still,
even in glossy HI-DEF, 100% Jess Franco. I spoke to Jess during the conception
of this film and he was quite excited about attempting an updating of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970),
which this in essence is, but it's also more than that. Carmen Montes is the title character,
a female vampire who wears nothing but a long red lined black cape and a tattoo
of a double headed python which curls around her torso. She dominates a netherworld
{Malaga, Spain} where "walk-ins" appear and disappear as suddenly as her attacks.
Her most recent victim is a female reporter (FATA MORGANA), the Jonathan Harker character,
and Christie Levin is the demented female Renfield who is kept in a private asylum
by the mad Dr. Nostradamus (Antonio Mayans). The reporter has come to invesitage
the estate of the legendary actress-composer Oriana Balasz. The Snakewoman may be her
descendant or her continuation. It begins and ends and is often interrupted by
telezooms onto flocks of tropical birds which recall the kites in VAMPYROS LESBOS.
The music is spectral but will not enter the imagination in the same way as the ground
breaking score for that 1970 cult classic. Carmen Montes does evoke the late,
great Soledad Miranda and the film is filled with captivating images.
Franco's director credit appears over an old b&w photo of Marlene Dietrich and
this may be another subterranean hommage to the cinema of Von Sternberg.
There are a lot of lesbian interludes (Franco told me he wanted to call it VAMPIRE INTERLUDE
) but not as many as in some of his recent work and they don't smother the film.
The acting is above average and it's worth seeing on the SRS DVD where it is
coupled with DR. WONG'S VIRTUAL HELL and some still galleries
. (c) Robert Monell 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
replaces the exiting soul of another is a generating factor in several important Jess Franco films,
most notably his 1974 LORNA, THE EXORICST (Les Possedees Du Diable) in which the
soul a modern female demon/witch invades a young girl (Lina Romay)
after she is murdered by the girl’s father (Guy Delmore).
There’s a lot more to this 20th Century version of Faust, retold in a downmarke
t environment as a near hardcore porn item. Soul transference/metempychosis
may also be a factor in Franco’s 1967 occult sexploitioner NECROMONICON/Succubus
in which Lorna Green (Janine Reynaud) is a disturbed nightclub performer who
is dominated by a menacing male demon (Michele Lemoine) who forces her to
seduce and murder a number of hipsters of the milieu. Soul invasion/mind control
also plays a role in SHINING SEX (1975) and is at the center of
MACUMBA SEXUAL (1981), a remake of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970),
in the latter two a powerful female dies and her soul invades the body
of an innocent female victim. Another film which could be linked thematically, stylistically
structurally to VAMPYROS LESBOS is the shot on HD video SNAKEWOMAN.
Jess Franco doesn't make "films" anymore, he makes video but the results are still,
even in glossy HI-DEF, 100% Jess Franco. I spoke to Jess during the conception
of this film and he was quite excited about attempting an updating of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970),
which this in essence is, but it's also more than that. Carmen Montes is the title character,
a female vampire who wears nothing but a long red lined black cape and a tattoo
of a double headed python which curls around her torso. She dominates a netherworld
{Malaga, Spain} where "walk-ins" appear and disappear as suddenly as her attacks.
Her most recent victim is a female reporter (FATA MORGANA), the Jonathan Harker character,
and Christie Levin is the demented female Renfield who is kept in a private asylum
by the mad Dr. Nostradamus (Antonio Mayans). The reporter has come to invesitage
the estate of the legendary actress-composer Oriana Balasz. The Snakewoman may be her
descendant or her continuation. It begins and ends and is often interrupted by
telezooms onto flocks of tropical birds which recall the kites in VAMPYROS LESBOS.
The music is spectral but will not enter the imagination in the same way as the ground
breaking score for that 1970 cult classic. Carmen Montes does evoke the late,
great Soledad Miranda and the film is filled with captivating images.
Franco's director credit appears over an old b&w photo of Marlene Dietrich and
this may be another subterranean hommage to the cinema of Von Sternberg.
There are a lot of lesbian interludes (Franco told me he wanted to call it VAMPIRE INTERLUDE
) but not as many as in some of his recent work and they don't smother the film.
The acting is above average and it's worth seeing on the SRS DVD where it is
coupled with DR. WONG'S VIRTUAL HELL and some still galleries
. (c) Robert Monell 2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Jess Franco doesn’t make “films” anymore, he makes video but the results are still, even in glossy HI-DEF, 100% Jess Franco. I spoke to Jess during the conception of this film and he was quite excited about attempting an updating of VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970), which this in essence is, but it’s also more than that. Carmen Montes is the title character, a female vampire who wears nothing but a long red lined black cape and a tatoo of a double headed python which curls around her torso. She dominates a netherworld {Malaga, Spain} where “walk-ins” appear and disappear as suddenly as her attacks. Her most recent victim is a female reporter (FATA MORGANA), the Jonathan Harker character, and Christie Levin is the demented female Renfield who is kept in a private asylum by the mad Dr. Nostradamus (Antonio Mayans). The reporter has come to invesitage the estate of the legendary actress-composer Oriana Balasz. The Snakewoman may be her descendant or her continuation. It begins and ends and is often interrupted by telezooms onto flocks of tropical birds which recall the kites in VAMPYROS LESBOS. The music is spectral but will not enter the imagination in the same way as the ground breaking score for that 1970 cult classic. Carmen Montes does evoke the late, great Soledad Miranda and the film is filled with captivating images. Franco’s director credit appears over an old b&w photo of Marlene Dietrich and this may be another subterranean hommage to the cinema of Von Sternberg. There are a lot of lesbian interludes (Franco told me he wanted to call it VAMPIRE INTERLUDE) but not as many as in some of his recent work and they don’t smother the film. The acting is above average and it’s worth seeing on theD where it is coupled with DR. WONG’S V
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