Young and attractive newlyweds, Stefan and Valerie, are approached while on their honeymoon by the mesmerizing Countess Elizabeth Báthory and her lovely companion, Ilona. Spoiler alert: the Countess and Ilona are vampires! There are many cheap, unremarkable, and just plain bad vampire films from the 1970s (and I myself love almost all of them). But one of the truly great titles populating this very crowded Dracula’s castle is Harry Kümel’s Daughters of Darkness (1971). This film marries the erotically charged and bloody exploitation elements to the thoughtfully arty in such a compelling way that it has pleased film fans looking for both astonishingly well for decades now.

When I heard that Kat Ellinger, the editor-in-chief of Diabolique magazine and author of All The Colours Of Sergio Martino, had written a book about Daughters of Darkness, I jumped at the chance to check it out. While it clocks in at just 98 pages, Ellinger’s thought-provoking and insightful analysis of Kümel’s hypnotic film is very thorough, featuring exclusive interviews with both the director and actress Danielle Ouimet, who played the beleaguered bride, Valerie. The stories behind this film’s production -including behind-the-scenes tension between Kümel and Ouimet- and the brief bios of the cast and crew are fascinating. Any fan of Daughters of Darkness will find a lot to nerd out on as Ellinger’s knowledge is vast and her passion for the subject at hand is infectious. This book is one of my new favorite analyses of a European horror film. Highly recommended.