Vampiress Review: "Vampirella"

The Gist: An alien princess from a planet of vampires comes to Earth in order to get revenge on a group of alien fugitives who murdered her family.

Clarification: Vampirella is an "R" rated comic book icon and sadly this is the only film version of her in existence.  The reason this is sad is that in the 1970's, Hammer Horror was actually in the works to make a film version starring Barbara Leigh which fell through.  Even sadder, Leigh wasn't their original choice for the role and Caroline Munro (aka the hot brunette who doesn't get turned in Dracula 1972 A.D. OR Captain Kronus - Vampire Hunter) was but she turned it down due to the high levels of nudity in the script.  I can only imagine how great that movie would have been but since it didn't happen, instead we get a rather corny attempt brought to you by the king of corny "B" movies Roger Corman

Selling Point: Most of the female vamps in the film are former Playboy Playmates.

Female Vampire Factor: This Film gets a Vampire Beauty Rating of 2 out of 5.  For a movie based on a comic book series who's sole purpose is to attract a male audience through raunchiness, there is very little actual raunchiness.  As a matter of fact, Soto's version of the Vampirella costume seems to cover up more than it shows which makes it even more frustrating knowing what the Hammer version would have been like.

Vampiress Cast

Talisa Soto (Vampirella)

Former bond girl Soto luckily for her isn't really remembered for this role as this movie was sandwiched in between two moderately successful Mortal Kombat films where she played Kitana (which her Vampieralla costume reminds me of how Kitana should have looked).  One of the few things I can't complain about in the film is that she does look damn good in the costume which she is in for the entire film.  In the film she shows her fangs a few times (she turns away from the camera and turns back to fang out) and she vamps out once toward the end but never goes through with fully attacking anyone as vampires on her planet have special nourishment where they don't have to feed on people (but it gets taken away in the scene in question making it so she has to try to hold back her vampire instincts.)  

 The Vlad Girls

Hilary Halbert and Peggy Trentini in the background of a scene

Vlad refers to the leader of the group of vampire fugitives who came to Earth centuries ago after killing the parents of Vampirella.  They all settled down on the planet and made a living blending in with humans while also feeding off of them.  Anyone that one of the originals feeds off of becomes a vampire themselves but any non Draculonian (the planet they come from is "Draculon") cannot create a new vampire.  There is only one Draculonian female and that's Sallah who is played by former playboy playmate Corinna Harney.  The other 3 girls are nameless disciples that are used in the plot to kidnap Vampirella friend, love interest and vampire hunter Adam Van Helsing.

Corinna Harney as Sallah

 Peggy Trentini

Antonia Dorian