I came across The Vampire Happening originally, about ten years ago, because I was interested in seeing more films made by Aquila Film Enterprises, the same company that produced one of my all-time favorite Jess Franco films Succubus (1968), as well as Adrian Hoven’s Castle of the Creeping Flesh (1968). However, Jess Franco was not involved in The Vampire Happening. This time, I was instead following the co-producer of Succubus Pier A. Caminnecci, who I thought seemed like an interesting guy, based on some of the backstory Jess Franco gave on him during an interview included on the old Blue Underground DVD release of Succubus, which included an interesting anecdote about Franco finding inspiration after coming across what he referred to as the Necronomicon at Caminnecci’s house. During the interview, Franco also said that Caminnecci was “…very rich…” and “…refined but sometimes insufferable because of his pretentious airs.” At the time, Caminnecci seemed surprisingly young for a film producer. He was the wealthy son of Harras Ursus Caminnecci Siemens, and he also co-founded Aquila Film Enterprises with actors and directors Adrian Hoven and Michel Lemoine.
Caminnecci did seem to like to have cameos and bit parts in the films he co-produced. He makes a brief appearance during the opening to The Vampire Happening in an “adult movie” scene-within-a-scene with his wife Pia Degermark that is being shown to a mixed audience of passengers, with various jokey reactions, on a commercial airplane.
Degermark and Caminnecci married the same year The Vampire Happening came out, and I cannot help thinking that the film was intended as a starring vehicle, or perhaps even a sincere gift, from Caminnecci for Degermark to be elevated and fondly remembered by the world, as she was the beautiful lead and main attraction to the film in a dual role as actress Betty Williams and her undead ancestor Clarimonde.
Up to the point of the film’s release, Degermark had a promising acting career largely thanks to her Cannes Film Festival award winning role in Elvira Madigan (1967). Alas, her momentum was not to continue. The Vampire Happening was both a commercial and critical failure, which seemed to end Pia Degermark’s acting career, and I’m guessing it sunk the company too, since The Vampire Happening appears to be the last film from Aquila Film Enterprises. This is sad, really, because I feel with the right audience it could have launched Degermark’s career even further, because, as was intended, she is both stunning and awesome in it. And, I don’t think the movie is really that bad. It’s yet another “cinematic undesirable” ripe for reappraisal and appreciation.
Directed by Freddie Francis, who would later express disdain for the project, The Vampire Happening is a parody of the Eurocult gothic horror film that also lampoons the typical vampire film of the era. There’s a random gag to be found at every corner, in a similar style to comedies like Airplane (1980) and Scary Movie (2000). I’ll say that it isn’t always funny (even though it tries to be), but it is always fun. It is a lighthearted change of pace that still has that gothic horror look and ambiance we crave, which can partially be attributed to the fabulous filming location at the Kreuzenstein Castle in Austria.
The famous Hollywood vamp Betty Williams, who’s also a baroness, travels to Transylvania to visit her ancestral castle that she’s inherited from a deceased uncle. Upon arrival, she’s met with a real ninny of a castle butler Josef (Yvor Murillo), who is startled at Betty’s appearance, owing to her resemblance to the topless ancestor seen in a lavish colorful painting in the castle. The woman in the painting is Betty’s great-grandmother Clarimonde, who Josef describes as a witch who was cruel to her lovers. “She devoured men,” as Josef puts it, which Betty seems to find quite admirable. It was said that Clarimonde was found dead one morning, naked with two bite marks in her neck. So, you can see where this going.
Betty also becomes acquainted with the various torture devices in the dungeon and the tomb of her ancestors. She convinces Josef to open a coffin so she can see the skeletal remains of her uncle (just because), and she convinces Josef to leave her with the keys to Clarimonde’s coffin (just because).
It isn’t long before Betty gets bored one morning and gets comfortable enough to decide to flash her breasts to seduce a cute and total doofus of a novice monk (Joachim Kemmer) at a nearby monastery from the window of her castle. It’s implied that this behavior is inspired by Betty’s “man-eating great grandmother.” This leads into a loose comical mini-adaptation of Theophile Gautier’s vampire short story Clarimonde / La Morte amoureuse (1836) that is worked into the earlier phase of the movie before it slowly turns into an obvious but sleazier take on The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967).
Unable to find the strength from his prayers to “Saint Celibacious” to resist Betty’s advances, Martin yields to temptation and agrees to meet her at the castle late at night where he instead runs into Betty’s gothed-out ravishing great-grandmother Clarimonde, newly escaped from her coffin, whom he fatally succumbs to.
During Martin’s funeral, Betty comes across her real love interest in the film, a teacher from the nearby girls boarding school, John (Thomas Hunter). Just as poor Martin is laid in the ground and paid the last respects by the abbot (Oskar Wegrostek), Betty and John hit it off, as she invites him back to her castle, presumably to make love. They seem to fall for each other, with John regularly staying at the castle.
Eventually, the undead Martin, behaving just as moronically in death, escapes his resting place to attack the local all-girl boarding school to feed and turn several individuals into vampires, including a strict, overbearing teacher, played by the late Ingrid van Bergen, whose transformation into a lesbian-dom-mommy vampire feels ironically appropriate. Clarimonde even steals away to pay a late-night visit to the abbot.
One night, while Betty decides to have a bath, John is left alone to be erotically accosted by Clarimonde. John thinks she is Betty, as Clarimonde decides to indulge in a bit of copulation with a mortal rather than kill him (I like to think Clarimonde has John’s half-vampire half-human child in a non-existent sequel.). After making love, Clarimonde exits the scene, leaving John good and spent before Betty enters the room and approaches him for, unknown to her, round two. Despite his confusion, John still manages to pull it off, not even realizing he just had the novel experience of incredible sex with an undead great grandmother followed by the mortal great granddaughter. Who could ever lay claim to that?
The newly vampire converts eventually join a fun-loving party crowd that later gathers at some kind of hedonistic grand reception (the annual convention at the “Oxenstein Castle") that the local community of vampires hold, which features a real-life band called Birth Control. This is where the film climaxes with crowded entertaining vampire party chaos and the introduction of a very whimsical Count Dracula (Freddy Mayne, who had a similar role in The Fearless Vampire Killers), showing up in his helicopter like some kind of high-ranking CEO (with classic Dracula attire and Bela Lugosi accent) to host/lord-over the party, lose his trousers, and partake in the orgies. Meanwhile, Betty and Clarimonde manage to show up to the party and confuse everyone, including Dracula, while the incompetent vampire killers, John and Josef, crash the party to try and kill Clarimonde once and for all. Will they succeed, and does it really matter?
The Vampire Happening relies a lot on The Comedy of Errors-type hijinks involving characters constantly confusing the identities between Betty and Clarimonde. Both characters even switch between blonde and black wigs, which even had me confused at times, but the film does help out viewers a little by always having Clarimonde adorned with a gaudy jewelry accessory. (You can always tell from the long-hanging golden chain rose necklace.) Josef at one point even breaks the fourth wall to gesture to the audience that they might be confused too.
As for funny moments, the movie did get a laugh out of me, when Betty exclaims, “right on, Grandma!” to her ancestor’s portrait, after Josef explains to her how Clarimonde drove her male lovers to suicide and seduced novices. I also laughed at the visual of Josef wheeling away Martin’s corpse in a tractor.
There’s very little I can think of that I personally disliked about the film. I can see how a lot of people probably didn’t find it that funny, and it could have benefited from a slightly shorter runtime.
Josef incompetently attempting to destroy Clarimonde for most of the film is meant to be for entertainment and laughs, but it ends up being a little more tedious at times than funny. Don’t get me wrong, Yvor Murillo is an essential presence as the slapstick butler Josef, bringing the fine, humorous deadpan acting these kinds of spoof films need to work, but I feel the film overplays his incompetent vampire hunter shtick. The protective knight helmet was a good idea though, and it ended up saving his life.
I completely forgot about it, but given the time of year I’m writing this, I was tickled to notice that during the closing scene, for some reason, the melody to O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum) is triumphantly played out, which means, as far as I’m concerned, The Vampire Happening is a Christmas movie. (There’s also a Christmas tree at the airport.)
Despite being generally considered a “bad” movie, The Vampire Happening is one beautiful looking erotic gothic horror film with a few laughs (if not quite as many laughs as the film intended), and a knockout, scene owning lead actress. Like Clarimonde, when you lay eyes on her, you’ll never forget her. She will haunt your dreams. Although in the book, I don’t think Clarimonde was evil, just a misunderstood vampire, who I believe truly loved Romuald.
This movie has made me realize that we need more adaptations of Clarimonde. It’s just as good as Carmilla.
© At the Mansion of Madness
