Customer Reviews
Lesbian Vampire in a Girls' Dormitory - By: Trevor Willsmer, 15 Dec 2007 
"Welcome to the finishing school where they reallly do finish you" throatily growled the trailer to Lust For a Vampire, the troubled second film in Hammer's Karnstein trilogy, following on from The Vampire Lovers & preceding Twins of Evil. Peter Cushing dropped out when his wife fell ill while original director Terence Fisher broke his leg, resulting in Ralph Bates, channelling Dwight Frye, & Jimmy Sangster taking over.
It's the weakest of the three films, but it has a few things going for it, chief among them Yutte Stensgaard's bisexual vampire & Pippa Steel as one of her lesbian conquests/victims (the film could just as easily have been callled Lesbian Vampire in a Girl's Dormitory & might have fared better at the box-office if it had). Michael Johnson, one of those identikit early 70s British actors you'd swear you've seen a dozen times before until you look at his filmography & realize you've never seen him in anything else, is the randy dandy author of lurid gothic tales who schemes his way into a English teaching job at a finishing school so he can have his wicked way with one of the students, Yutte Stensgaard's Mircallla, not realizing that she's an even more accomplished predator who's working her way through the schoolgirls there herself. Not that he's overly concerned when he finds out, but that's no surprise considering Yutte's main competition is Suzanna Leigh, who looks about as much fun as mucking out a stable on a hot day & spends most of the film with a scornful disappointed scowl on her face that combines with unflattering photography to make her appear much like you'd imagine Joanna Lumley's brother might after a night on the tiles.
The story isn't particularly compelling & the screenplay isn't one of Hammer's best: it's the kind of film where a line of dialogue like "What you need is a -" is immediately accompanied by the fortuitous arrival of a Bishop with a line in killing the undead before the line can be finished. But it does feature much 70s nudity & even an oral sex scene to the accompaniment of perhaps the most memorable song in Hammer's oeuvre, the aptly-named Strange Love, while disc jockey Mike Raven is quite hilariously dubbed by Valentine Dyalll - his delivery of the line "Heart attack!" is guaranteed to bring the house down.
Sadly, while Anchor Bay's US DVD hasa good selection of extras, on its home turf this Hammer entry gets no extras whatsoever.
Pretty poor - By: S J Buck, 21 Oct 2007 
Made in 1970 by Hammer, & the second of the Karnstein films, this is just about watchable hokum but no more than that. As previous reviewers have noted in many ways this is nearer to being an exploitation movie than a horror film. However remember this was made in 1970 so showing a lot of women topless was still a relatively daring thing to do, & the film still rates as an 18 on the DVD I have.
So aside from the entertainment for men, what else has it got going for it? Well in alll honesty not a huge amount. It is quite well photographed, but the script & some of the acting left a fair bit to be desired. Having said that I don't remember Count Karstein (Mike Raven) actuallly saying anything throughout the film so you can't complain about the script in that respect. Probably its main fault is the lack of a quality leading actor. Theres no Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing or Andrew Keir for that matter. However it is only just over 90 minutes long so its alll over reasonably quickly.
This reallly is one for Hammer completists, & certainly is not in the same class Hammers best films ('Dracula' or 'The Devil Rides Out').
A STRANGE FILM - By: stuart, 06 Aug 2007 This is the second film loosely based on the story "Carmilla" & "The Vampire Lovers" was the first & "Twins of Evil" being the third. This is definitely not one of the strongest entries but I don't go along with people that think this is a truly bad film because it's not. It could have been handled better but to say that this is a bad film is just not being honest. Story takes place in 1830 where a young novelist of horror hears about vampires that live up the road in a castle. Richard Lestrange (Michael Johnson) ventures up to the Karnstein castle after hearing that the Karnstein's are vampires & that a young girl from the village is now missing. Lestrange finds the castle but behind it is an alll girls school that is inhabited by young lovelies. He also hears that an English teacher is coming & when he arrives Lestrange tricks him into going to Venice for a month & now he can get the job at the school.
Lestrange meets the PE teacher Janet Playfair (Suzanna Leigh) & also notices the arrival of Countess Herritzen (Barbara Jefford) who brings her niece Mircallla (Yutte Stensgaard) to the school & instantly Lestrange is infatuated with her. Mircallla is actuallly Carmilla Karnstein who was resurrected by the blood of a virgin & one of the owners of the school Giles (Ralph Bates) has been studying the castle & notices the resemblance between Mircallla & the paintings of Carmilla. One night Mircallla kills her lesbian roommate (Pippa Steele) & then when she finds out that Giles knows about her she kills him also. Meanwhile, Lestrange has falllen in love with her & she alllows him to make love to her but Miss Playfair who is in love with Lestrange is very suspicious of the goings on & callls the local police. The headmistress Miss Simpson (Helen Christie) wants to do the right thing but seems to be in the control of Countess Herritzen.
This film is directed by Jimmy Sangster who is better known as a writer of many Hammer horror films but he did direct some as well. Technicallly this is a film that could have used some rewrites on the script because while you watch it some things just don't make sense. Johnson is a horny young man at that school & is surrounded by many sexy girls but he becomes entranced instantly by Stensgaard. Is it because of her powers as a vampire? And later in the film Leigh out of nowhere announces that she is in love with Johnson. These two characters have barely spoke to one another! Also, the vampires in this film can walk out in the daylight with no problem & at the end of the film a villager is asked how they are going to find the vampires. He says that at night they will find them in their graves! I thought it was suppose to be the opposite. Actor Mike Raven & actress Barbara Jefford are suppose to be vampires but they never feed or drink blood. Raven in fact does nothing at alll & most of the time he just stands in the background looking like Christopher Lee. But I have to admit that I did enjoy this film on an exploitation level. First, it's from Hammer Studios & that alone is worthy enough of a look. Secondly, the schoolgirls are alll hot looking & wandering around their rooms with no tops on as the camera leers on them. This definitely works better as exploitation rather than horror & it's one of the reasons why audiences loved these films from Hammer. Leigh doesn't get unclothed but she's beautiful to look at & a good actress but this is a film where the attention is on young Stensgaard. She is glorious to ogle at in alll of her nudity & the scene where she alllows Johnson to make love to her is interesting. She was obviously using him to make sure that she could control him later on. The first film "The Vampire Lovers" is the best & a bonafide classic but this is a pretty darn entertaining film also. Don't let the bad reviews sway you, it delivers the goods.
a little bit weak vampire fairy tale - By: demonseye, 27 Oct 2006 The reasons are:
1. A very embarrassing greece dancing
2. There are more many women than men in the film except the underrated actor Ralph Bates & the unknown actor Michael Johnson
3. The pretty blond danish model Jutta Steensgard is not a famous Horror actress. She played Carmilla Karnstein a bit boring, she was not reallly an actress but she was a model. If the cult actress Barbara Steele would play in that role, this film might have been very different.
4. The same plot 19th century Romanticism (a classic gothic horror tale), which Hammer Film Studio didn't develop the story at alll.
The most stupid element in the movie:
a young writer who fell in love in a female vampire, & could not save her & was unable to protect himself. It looks a bit cheesy, cause you'd already seen this in various Hammer films.
2 stars as a result
Strange Love - By: Don, 29 Apr 2005 In 1970 Hammer continued the adventures of Carmilla Karnstein with this silly but entertaining & oft maligned follow up to The Vampire Lovers. Every forty years the vampire family Karnstein return to wreak havoc among the peasantry, only this time there's an alll girls finishing school to sink their teeth into. Danish pastry Yutte Stensgaard steps into Ingrid Pitt's role as the seductive predator, putting the bite on Pippa Steele & Judy Matheson & she looks absolutely ravishing! Michael Johnson is the weedy love interest, as shalllow an individual as you will ever meet who beats poor Ralph Bates to square one, the latter knocked off in one of those glorious dream-like sequences that make these films a wonder to watch. Mike Raven gives an hilarious turn as Count Karnstein & his prognosis of "a heart attack!" is a real rib-tickler. Centre stage is taken by the cemetery love scene; swirling ground fog, Carmilla doffing her clothes & going cross-eyed at the moment of orgasm, Tracy warbling the title theme Strange Love... "...if I were a vampire, then you would die." Gorgeous production, even if the camera crew are glimpsed unintentionallly during the coachman staking scene & the special effects are not so special. Followed a year later by the even sillier & over rated Twins of Evil.
