Daughters of Darkness - 2022 Revisit

There is desire all over the place, beauty and violence seemingly bound together, pent-up yearning and lust. Yep, the Euro vampire modern Gothic complete with Seyrig as Bathory (pronounced by the hotel clerk as "Battory"), wanting to make sure she remained young, eyeing Karlin and Ouimet, with her companion, Rau, on the ready to do some seducing when the time was right. Karlin's "mother" is quite the secret he's kept from his new wife, so enraged after a call with disapproving Rademakers, he takes a belt to Ouimet, resulting in nasty whelps throughout her body.

Much like "Vampyrs", you would need to be very comfortable with a lot of nudity or nearly naked bodies in plentiful supply. Set in Ostend, with locations in Belgium where Kumel shoots the film, the grand hotel is as luxurious and extravagant you might expect. The enigmatic Seyrig, to me, absorbs my attention, while Ouimet is incredibly beautiful (I admittedly have a weakness for long blond hair, and her facial features allure me), so it is understandable her Valerie would be attractive to Bathory, while Karlin's Stefan always seems unstable and on the verge of abusively attacking a woman. The death of Rau's Ilona is probably the weakest moment in the film to me because it seems so clumsily staged to look contrived in how she cuts herself, Stefan stumbles in contact with her, and how she falls on a straight razor.

My favorite part of the film is how Valerie seems unable to escape the presence of Bathory, as if a moth to the flame. I read that Kumel purposely modeled Bathory after Dietrich and wow does those similarities pop off screen. Much like how charismatic and overpowering Dietrich could be almost every time she's on screen, I felt the same for Seyrig as Bathory. Karlin was almost always on Dark Shadows a weak, cowardly, wimpy sort of worm, but in this film he's this nasty piece of work who seems to be a danger to anyone in his orbit. Much like the women in the film, Kumel's use of color, settings, and locations are striking and very attractive.

Might be a bit cold and methodical for some. I love this kind of movie, so the pace and style fits my tastes.

Bathory's "spread wings" cape unfolding before wrapping around Ouimet always pops me.

There is this wintry, glum quality to the film, a mood that really seems to fit the characters. A local man seems to be make Bathory nervous, as if he's a threat to her, so she makes sure to hit him with her car while he's on a bike! And there have been murders to young woman, with blood loss...hint, hint.