LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971)
In 1970, Hammer Films released The Vampire Lovers, the first film about the sadistic and Satanic Karnstein family. The three movies, known as The Karnstein Trilogy, have become infamous for titillating scenes of nudity and their through-the-male-lens depiction of lesbianism. The films are based on the novella Carmilla by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu. Polish actor Ingrid Pitt was the first to wear the shroud of Carmilla Karnstein, who destroyed families with her ravenous desire for budding flesh. In Lust For A Vampire (directed by Jimmy Sangster from Tudor Gates’ script), blonde, Danish Yutte Stensgaard takes up the Karnstein, blood-stained funerary garments and heads off to school.
