Well, I'd gotten it into my head that I wanted to see some kind of Southern vampire movie, even after last night's... abberation. So, tonight's movie was Lemora, aka Lemora A Child's Tale of the Supernatural and Lemora: The Lady Dracula. It was like... Tennesee Williams gone wrong. Set in the 1930s South, the kind of South where The Reverend has taken sweet, innocent thirteen year old Lila (except the actress is totally legal) under his care – in the wake of Lila's mobster father killing his adulterous wife and lover. Lila sings in church for The Reverend, his congregation made up seemingly exclusively of women. Totally creepy. He cares for her a little too much, in that classic southern gothic manner, if you know what I mean.
Lila gets word that her father's dying in a town called Astaroth, so she goes to him. The bus driver to Astaroth tells her about the town, how the people there are wrong- some are violent, animalistic, some are vampires. They have the “Astaroth” look, he tells her. This was a treat for me, as the scene was practically lifted from HP Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
Once she gets to Astaroth, it's revealed she's been lured there by Lemora, the leader of the vampires, who wants her as her new special friend. So it's kind of like Twilight... on Nyquil.
Apparently, the lesbian and ped0 overtones got this movie banned for decades. Which is a shame, because as far as early seventies drive-in horror movies go, it's got a lot going for it. Rich atmosphere and just a general WTF-edness make it fun.
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