Deadly and enigmatic mute vampiress Countess Irina Karlstein (the sumptuous Lina Romay at her most bold, expressive, and uninhibited) lives a tragic life of depressing solitude and emotional detachment due to the fact that she feeds on her victims at the moment of orgasm.

Jess Franco not only does his customary adept job of crafting a strong and sensual, yet still brooding and melancholy atmosphere as well as astutely captures the wrenching loneliness of Irina's wretched plight, but also delivers plenty of tasty bare distaff flesh and oodles of unflinchingly raw'n'explicit sexuality that encompasses everything from fellatio to lesbianism to even bondage and discipline. Better still, Romay's singularly smoldering presence really keeps this movie humming: Walking through a mist-shrouded forest clad in a belt, flowing open cape, and long black leather boots, going full-throttle for several incredibly hot and graphic sex scenes (her solo masturbation set piece in particular rates as a definite arousing highlight),and never utterly a single word, but conveying a vivid world of unbearable sadness through her downcast eyes alone, Romay proves to be thoroughly mesmerizing from start to finish. Unfolding at a hypnotically deliberate pace, with often striking widescreen cinematography, a lush and elegant score by Daniel White, and welcome appearances by Franco regulars James Taylor, Alice Arno, and Monica Swinn, this typically outré Franco affair proves to be oddly affecting and captivating in its very unabashed strangeness.

Hmm. When watching this film you might be forgiven for forgetting that you're actually supposed to be viewing a horror film. I mean, yes, the theme is vampires, but there is no actual horror in this film - one graphic and a couple of implied deaths, yes, but nothing else that would disturb you. The fact is, that director Jess Franco was out to make a film where he could show the world as much of his wife Lina Romay in the nude as possible - and he succeeded. The horror, unfortunately, only comes second.

As you might expect from a director with Franco's reputation, this isn't a film for all tastes. Most film fans will likely be put off by the lack of an actual plot or story to THE FEMALE VAMPIRE - instead, it's just a number of scenes linked together with some added filler in-between to stand in for the plot. All of these scenes are sexual in nature, which quickly became boring for me but might appeal to other viewers. Romay is actually not bad as the vampire herself, a mute, waif-like figure who walks about in a see-through nightie. It's clear that Franco desperately wants to make a film in the style of Jean Rollin and he does succeed to some degree - scenes of Romay stalking the woods looking for victims are done quite effectively. It's just a shame there are only a couple of them.

One thing this film has in its favour is the music. There's a main theme which plays constantly, a kind of lyrical piece with a mournful woman wailing. It's actually very good and gives the film an effectiveness that it really shouldn't have. Aside from the passable Romay are some stock wooden actors and poor dubbing; turning up in one role is the director himself, playing a doctor who obviously models himself every night on Dracula's Van Helsing. Elsewhere we have some hairy French macho-types to give you nightmares and a character named Dr. Orloff but who is totally unrelated to the mad doctor of Franco's first horror film, THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF (this guy is blind, for a start).

Infuriatingly, just when it looks like something interesting is going to happen in this film, it abruptly cuts to the closing titles and fails to tie up any of the loose ends - in fact, nothing happens! Fans of female vampires should be sure to check out Hammer's Karnstein trilogy in place of this dull affair. It's clear that this film is a rip-off of that trilogy (the naming of the vampiress as KarLstein kind of gives the game away) but it lacks the necessary pacing and action to make it entertaining. A brief spot of gore or a cheesy special effect would have helped come to think of it. As sex films go, this explicit exercise in voyeurism would probably fit the bill quite nicely, but for a horror film, it just doesn't cut it.

A beautiful female vampire (Lina Romay) lures men to their doom.

Depending on which version you watch, you might get a more or less pornographic film with horror themes or a horror film with some sexual themes. I watched the Netflix version, which seems to be somewhere in the middle, or perhaps leaning towards porn (there were naked men and women within the first ten minutes, and a simulated sexual encounter). Not at all what I expected, and frankly it disappoints me that this version is not more horror.

Concerning the sexual scenes, Franco has said, "There was a need to show it, like you must show how Dracula sucks his blood, you need to show how this Countess sucks the semen." I am not sure if I buy that.