Lemora - A Child's Tale Of The Supernatural

"Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural" is one of the best vampire films I've seen in a long time. The fact that it escaped my notice this long aggravates me to no end. Perhaps the fact that it was banned upon release in 1975 by The Catholic League of Decency (a more fascist name I could not imagine) in spite of it's mere PG rating and was barely seen in the United States until the mid-90's has led to the obscurity of what is easily one of the best female vampire stories ever told onscreen. It's dark, dreary, surreal, somewhat perverse, and creepy as all hell. Fellow vampire fanatics, this is not to be missed under any circumstance. Our tale begins with a beautiful 13 year old girl singing in her church. Her father is a notorious gangster who murdered her mother, her reverend has taken her in but is having trouble resisting temptation, the townsfolk are talking. One night she receives a mysterious letter promising to take her to her ill father, who has been missing for months. So out into the world young innocent Lila goes and all she sees is perversion and violence. She gets on the bus as instructed by the letter and is taken to a house in a forest filled with deformed bestial ghouls. Within the house is an old woman servant, a large number of creepy laughing children, and her hostess, a pale woman named Lemora. No shortage of mysteries for our adolescent protagonist to unravel here. The first time we glimpse Lemora, she appears as a dark hooded feminine figure with only her contemptuously smiling mouth visible. This is how you introduce a lady vampire, people. The overall look of this film is so dark it gives Tim Burton nightmares. The whole world seems tinted with blue and the naive blonde girl venturing through it gives a definite Alice in Wonderland feel to the story. Except Alice never had snarling feral humanoid beasts figting for the privilege of feasting upon her or an enamored lesbian vampire bathe her. The whole feel of this film just screams creepy. I feel that this film has a bit of kinship with fellow cult classic The Company of Wolves . While that film used lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty this one uses vampirsim in much the same way. The themes of both films heavily suggest a transformation from the innocence of youth and exploring one's self to an adult predator. Both are dark fairytales about young women venturing out into the world, finding it harsh and ugly, and eventually making it their own. But unlike Wolves, Lemora doesn't lose itself in inscrutable symbolistic imagery and plays very much as a straightforward literal story which makes it much more watchable for casual viewers. The film looks amazing considering how dark it is and brings to mind some of Argento's best work. The film is must-see material for horror fans and is absolutely one of the best vampire films to come out of the 70's, which is saying a whole lot. The ethereal atmosphere, pedophilic overtones, and black implications of humanity make this a bold classic that I am very happy to see it return from the dead. Like the title character, stories like this one are unkillable and eternal. I wish I could say this was a perfect film, but sadly the third act has some substantial pacing issues that keep it from my infinitesimal gallery of 5 star vamp flicks. But it's not far off. 4/12 stars, rounded up for originality.

Lemora has always been my favorite movie of all time, bar none. So I wanted, no I NEEDED this DVD to be done perfectly! Don May Jr., President of Synapse Films, assured me that it was indeed top quality. And yet, I had a twinge of fear when first putting the DVD into the player. For over a year, I had followed the development of this release, and my expectations (based on discussions with Don) were very high indeed. And we all know what happens when your expectations are set too high. In this case, they weren't set high enough! I was prepared for this release to be excellent, but I never could have dreamed how great the experience would actually turn out to be! First, let me review the video quality. What Synapse did with the video transfer of Lemora can only be described as miraculous. I don't feel this is an exaggeration. They literally resurrected this film. Up until this DVD release, a great many background details were obscured by darkness and murkiness to the point where entire scenes were incomprehensible. The best VHS release still looked like a murky 4th generation dub taped off a tv with bad reception. I can't in all honesty even say that the DVD blows away all other versions, because that would imply that there is a comparison to be made between them. The Synapse DVD is so far above the rest that comparing it to others would be an insult. Scenes that were once literally blacked out and unviewable are now absolutely clean and totally visible. Background details that were once lost in the darkness are now crystal clear, sharply defined, and beautifully saturated in deep, vibrant color. I can't name another film that's had a transfer done this spectacularly. Lemora is pretty much reference quality, and then some. The audio is in its original 2.0 mono, but even that has been cleaned up and is utterly free of hiss or noise even at higher levels. I heard sounds that were once muffled beyond recognition and are now crystal clear. The animated main menu is the best I've ever seen, and all the various menus look fantastic. The full length commentary track with Leslie Gilb (who played Lemora), director Richard Blackburn, and producer Robert Fern is fun and informative, with virtually no dead space at all. I consider commentaries to be the most important extra a DVD can have, and this one was very well done and worth listening to more than once. The still gallery has some fantastic, rare continuity photos. These are to be treasured, since obscure films such as this often have little to no extra material. The original shooting script is a valuable extra, and it shows how different the final release was from the original script. The original script ends quite differently and leaves no room for interpretation, whereas the movie release leaves room for several interpretations of the film (did it actually happen, or was it a fantasy/daydream?). The movie itself is incredible, and my favorite of all time. Despite its low budget, it pulls off what most modern movies fail utterly to do...it draws you into the film. Its creepy, atmospheric quality has the effect of making you feel as if you're viewing a child's nightmare, with all its surreal horror and fear.

Though ostensibly a `vampire' flick, `Lemora' is so much more than that most degraded of labels could possibly suggest. Teen Lila Lee (Cheryl `Rainbeaux' Smith, playing it discomfortingly younger than her genuinely young age at the time) is subject of repressed but not entirely unreciprocated desires from her priestly guardian. However, in searching for her murderous runaway father, she finds herself in a realm of terror and possibility at the hands of blood-sucking Lemora, dubious vampiress whose faintly sordid advances may actually prove decidedly liberating. First things first. This wonderful piece of zero-budget 70s horror is primarily an atmosphere piece, an absolute triumph of creativity over funding. It will absolutely ingrain itself in your memory in a way few films can manage, its skilful manipulation of mood and mise-en-scene conjuring up a realm of adolescent nightmare rarely equalled. The journey by bus to Lemora's domain, besieged by feral, degenerate undead horrors, will simply etch itself in your mind and take residence there, the brilliant juxtaposition of the archaic, supernatural and the mundane being extremely well-balanced. Cheryl Smith is excellent, a part-innocent, part all-too-aware captivating woman-child at the mercy of entirely predatory Freudian forces who nonetheless fights the good fight against what some would call the inevitable. Symbolic, dream-like and mesmerising, Lemora is not to be forgotten in a hurry. The DVD itself is of superb quality. Excellent liner notes and as good a transfer as you could hope for, `Lemora' looks great. In fact, this film is not a million miles way from `Near Dark' in its near-perpetually tenebrous setting, yet this disc gives clarity and and definition to those shapes that loom out of the near-eternal night in which this movie dwells. Given this film's meagre budget, it is remarkable how evocative it seems today, standing as a real testament to the film-maker's vision and creativity. In short then, if you appreciate mood, poetry and atmosphere in your horror, this would be an excellent addition to your collection.

This movie is definitely low budget, so don't expect too much. But it establishes a creepy atmosphere, and is worth a watch.

Por que es una excelente pelicula lemora de terror es un clasico un culto de pelicula terrorifica como pocas consigen

Strange how I have never come across the film before. I thought I was fully conversant with most horror films in this particular genre. It was a very brave attempt on an obviously limited budget but it still had more gumption than most Hollywood-type piffle! Well done the director, cast and distributor. Oh, and the highlight for me was seeing a Citroen Traction Avant in the opening scenes - how quaint and a nice reminder of my former life! But that's another story...

I can't imagine anyone actually liking this movie... it's quite a shock to see some people did. Maybe if you're the type who actually likes children's attempts at Halloween make-up, finds someone staring from the screen at you frightening, bad acting... on purpose, and just a boring story all round, a thrill, then it's for you. It just screams "home-made with a bunch of pals to make fun of a friend who works in horror movies"... Too each their own.