‘One Uses Her Beauty For Love! One Uses Her Lure For Blood!’

Identical orphaned sisters Frieda and Maria (Madeleine and Mary Collinson) move from Venice to Karnstein to live with their witch hunter uncle, Gustav Weil (Peter Cushing). As the head of the Puritan group, Gustav seeks to cleanse his village of evil, while the wicked Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) dabbles in Satanism and yields to the allure of Vampirism. While Frieda falls under the Count’s sinister influence, the innocent Maria is caught up in the fray and threatened with execution for Witchcraft.

Screening as part of GYNOPHOBIA: A Film Season Exploring the Monstrous-Feminine
GYNOPHOBIA is dedicated to exploring representations of monstrous women in horror, inspired by Barbara Creed’s concept of the ‘Monstrous-Feminine’. This season looks to embody the specific formal and stylistic properties of 70s horror, with introductions before each film prompting analysis and questioning of the societal attitudes inherent in their production and exhibition.

GYNOPHOBIA is both an appreciation of the horror genre and a feminist retrospective, examining the roles and representations of women in this pivotal era of film history. The season aims to highlight how these films reflect and challenge the cultural shifts of their time, offering a thought-provoking experience that celebrates and critiques the portrayal of the monstrous-feminine in horror cinema.

Presented in partnership with the National Film & Television School.