#lemora

My Top 25 First Time Watches of 2024!

1. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984) 2. Série noire (Alain Corneau, 1979) 3. Christine (Alan Clarke, 1987) 4. La morte vivante (Jean Rollin, 1982) 5. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973) 6. Les Nuits de la pleine lune (Éric Rohmer, 1984) 7. Quatre nuits d'un rêveur (Robert Bresson, 1971) 8. La prima notte di quiete (Valerio Zurlini, 1972) 9. Céline (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 1992) 10. Angel Dust (Sogo Ishii, 1994) 11. Duelle (Jacques Rivette, 1976) 12. Les chambres rouges (Pascal Plante, 2023) 13. You Can’t Take It with You (Frank Capra, 1938) 14. Smooth Talk (Joyce Chopra, 1985) 15. Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (Richard Blackburn, 1973) 16. The ’Burbs (Joe Dante, 1989) 17. Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger, 1947) 18. Road (Alan Clarke, 1987) 19. Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998) 20. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) 21. Little Odessa (James Gray, 1994) 22. The Company of Strangers (Cynthia Scott, 1990) 23. The Black Tower (John Smith, 1987) 24. Ocaña (Ventura Pons, 1978) 25. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jireš, 1970)

(My list in Letterboxd -click here-)

Movie of the Day: Lemora

Movies about female vampires are so interesting to me because so many of them seem to come from the basic question of "What if women had the same freedom we afford to men?"

Taking place in the Prohibition era, this movie is about a 13 year-old girl (played by 17 year-old emerging exploitation star Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith) who travels to a strange small town to visit her gangster father, who has been shot and is dying. What she uncovers is a nest of vampires led by a mysterious woman named Lemora (played by Lesley Taplin).

The film was dismissed as amateurish upon its release; it was made by UCLA students who had seen Count Yorga, Vampire and wanted to make a similar movie. It premiered on April 30, 1973 in Claremont, California at the Scripps College campus. The audience response was so poor that the filmmakers sold it as quickly as possible to recoup their money.

Seen today, the avant garde touches and the slow creep into shock has been rightfully reassessed by modern critics as something artful and ambitious. It's not exploitative or gimmicky, but almost like a fairy tale allegory of growing up in a world of danger.

EN ESPAÑOL: LEMORA, un Cuento Sobrenatural (VOSE)

There are so many vampire films that I am starting believe that vampires actually exist. Hahahaha

Lemora is a 1973 American horror film written and directed by Richard Blackburn, and starring Cheryl Smith, Hy Pyke, and Lesley Gilb. It follows a young girl in Prohibition-era America who travels to a mysterious town to visit her father, and uncovers a coterie of vampires. It was also released under the alternate titles Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural, The Legendary Curse of Lemora, and Lemora, Lady Dracula.

LINK https://ok.ru/video/8005038312099 Lemora - Wikipedia

My Conclusion and Take on Lemora

Lemora is not just a vampire film—it’s a dark fable about innocence devoured by the very forces that claim to protect it. Lila Lee’s (the 13 year old child, protagonist of the story) descent into the grotesque world of Astaroth mirrors a twisted rite of passage, where purity is both fetishized and punished. Her transformation into a vampire and seduction of the Reverend flips the moral order on its head with a pedophilic overtone, leaving us with a chilling question: was salvation ever truly possible, or was corruption inevitable?

The film’s unsettling themes didn’t go unnoticed. Upon its release, Lemora was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency as “anti-Catholic”—a reaction that underscores its bold critique of religious authority and moral hypocrisy. That denunciation only amplifies the film’s power: it dares to expose the shadows lurking beneath sanctified surfaces.

And yet, Lemora was born from the margins. Shot on a shoestring budget so tight it scraped the bottom, director Richard Blackburn and his team crafted a hauntingly surreal world with limited resources and boundless imagination. The film was passed from distributor to distributor like an orphaned reel, retitled multiple times in a desperate bid for recognition. Despite its obscurity, it endures as one of the most uniquely poetic horror films of the 1970s—a testament to what can be conjured when vision outpaces budget.

LA SECCIÓN EN ESPAÑOL

Lemora: un cuento sobrenatural fue el título con el que se distribuyó en España esta película cine de terror de principios de los años setenta. Fue rodada en Estados Unidos, y en el mercado anglosajón se distribuyó bajo títulos como Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural; Lemora, the Lady Dracula o The Legendary Curse of Lemora. Su eslogan publicitario fue: "Inocencia corrupta". Podría considerarse que trata el paso de la ingenuidad infantil a la edad adulta, con el despertar de la sexualidad. Lemora, un cuento sobrenatural - Wikipedia

VOSE (VERSION ORIGINAL SUBTITULADO EN ESPAÑOL

https://ok.ru/video/4327755155972

Mi conclusión y opinión sobre Lemora

Lemora no es simplemente una película de vampiros; es una fábula sombría sobre la inocencia devorada por las mismas fuerzas que prometen protegerla. El viaje de Lila Lee (la niña protagonista de 13 años) al mundo grotesco de Astaroth representa un rito de paso distorsionado, donde la pureza se convierte en objeto de deseo y castigo. Al final, su transformación en vampira y la seducción del reverendo entregándose a la lujuria pedofilia invierten el orden moral, dejándonos con una pregunta inquietante: ¿alguna vez fue posible la salvación, o la corrupción era inevitable?

Las inquietantes temáticas de la película no pasaron desapercibidas. Tras su estreno, Lemora fue condenada por la Legión Nacional de la decencia como “anticatólica”—una reacción que refuerza su audaz crítica a la autoridad religiosa y la hipocresía moral. Esa denuncia no debilita la obra; al contrario, le da más fuerza: Lemora se atreve a revelar las sombras que se esconden bajo las superficies santificadas.

Y sin embargo, Lemora nació desde los márgenes. Filmada con un presupuesto tan bajo que rozaba el suelo, el director Richard Blackburn y su equipo lograron crear un mundo surrealista y perturbador con recursos limitados pero una imaginación desbordante. La película fue pasada de distribuidor en distribuidor como un carrete huérfano, rebautizada varias veces en un intento desesperado por encontrar su lugar. A pesar de su oscuridad, perdura como una de las obras más poéticas y singulares del cine de terror de los años 70—un testimonio de lo que puede lograrse cuando la visión supera al presupuesto.

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Before anyone says anything, I love The Exorcist so much but it doesn't count because it was never formally banned. Also if my behated old catholic school cited it positively, as well as a lot of the clergy, then that's a wretched enough reason for me to revoke its rights to be blasphemous.