Vampire Lovers, The (1970)

From Hammer Horror comes the first installment of the Karnstein Trilogy, a trio of films revolving around lesbian vampires. Ingrid Pitt stars as the beautiful Carmilla, a vampire with a lust for young women. She exudes a kind of predatory evil over everyone she haunts in the film. The young women she seduces are both silly airheads who can't act (sometimes to a painful degree). Peter Cushing is in the film for a little while, but the film focuses on the events that happen while he's away. The plot is not all that original, but the twist of lesbianism makes it fun/interesting enough to keep watching. Sometimes the film teeters on the edge of softcore porn, but it never makes a complete step in that direction. What's most disturbing about Carmilla is that she can bring both men and women under her spell, effectively giving her the ability to control an entire household. The film establishes the family of Karnsteins as what I hope will be a very interesting spine for the other two films.

6/10

Quatermass and the Pit (1967) aka Five Million Years to Earth

One of the finest films to come out of Hammer Studios, Quatermass and the Pit is a little science-fiction film that thinks big--global proportions. Andrew Keir stars as the title character in a much more compassionate and human portrayal of Quatermass (see The Quatermass Xperiment). While digging in an abandoned underground railway tunnel, a crew discovers several prehistoric skeletons and an unidentifiable object that sets up the mystery of what it is and why it's there. Quatermass and an investigative team of scientists work toward an answer while having to fight with the petty political concerns of the government. The film was done on a low-medium budget (~$4-7 million adjusted for inflation), but the filmmakers manage to hide this for the most part. The excellent writing and thought-provoking story makes up for the film's flaws.

9/10