Lubie nietoperze [aka I Like Bats] (1986); Polish; 90min
This is such an interesting spin on the Dracula tale! The traditional cast are all there but they are imagined differently and the many OMG moments make this film really worth watching. It is a shame it is so hard to get on DVD. You won't find it on Amazon. Like most of the films we review here, it is only available from DVD-R retailers who make films available that were either released on VHS tape or Laser-Disks, or were recorded off television, copied, and copied again. What this means is that the film is 'soft' and the sound is 'soft' too. Still, definitely worth the US$7.25 [A$9.00] we paid. Now to the story.
Drac is a she, Izabela; blonde beautiful, pale and in control of herself and her world. One of the things we liked about this film is that the female lead—Izabela, played by Katarzyna Walter—'does a Buffy'. Before we know that she is a vampire we are told that there is a serial killer at large. Izabela is warned against going into the woods alone. In fact, a would-be love interest (Marceli) wants to 'protect' her by accompanying her on her journey home through the woods. She refuses, goes by herself, gets attacked and, in a Joss Whedon moment, turns on her attacker, biting his neck, drinking his blood, and then throwing his body in her furnace/kiln before making some very nice little cups and saucers with bats on them. You see, Izabela likes bats, she maintains a colony of them in fact, and we don't suspect her of being a vampire because we see her in daylight, though there is some weird stuff going on at auntie’s shop.
The said cups segueway nicely into the second surprise in the film (there are three surprises): handsome man buys the bat-cups (despite the nasty comments made by Izabela's aunt). Izabela fancies the stranger (Randolf Jung), flirts and fails. We get the impression that this doesn’t happen very often.
We next see Rudolf and Marceli in a bar (gratuitous nudity among the prostitutes in the background at this point). One of the prostitutes propositions Rudolf who rejects her advances, explaining he doesn't like girls. The prostitute is pissed off, departs with another man; fangs him (!) and blows up his car. The audience then realise that the prostitute is Izabela in camouflage and that it was her trying — again — to seduce Rudolf.
Randolf is a handsome and successful young thing who just happens to be a psychiatrist: yes he’s a Dr Seward character. Izabela demands admission to his sanitarium, because she thinks only he can cure her of her vampirism (though she tells all the patients that she is a nymphomaniac). He doesn’t believe she’s a vamp; amazing!
They try hypnosis, even though she tells him confidently she can’t be hypnotized. He metaphorically taps the poor deluded girl on the head and, strangely enough, she can’t be hypnotized. There is a great spin on a vamp’s lack of reflection when an x-ray machine fails to show her innards, much to the frustration of the doc. Perhaps it is just us, but she doesn’t seem to really want to be cured, especially once she eats and buries the randy gardener (watched by an inmate who becomes a deranged Renfield-type character).
Looking rather well fed and a little bored with the whole thing, she tells her aunt she is ready to go home. So at this point we am hoping the strong, independent, beautifully, dangerous girl with the slightly twisted sexuality is just having a bit of fun with the doctor and will return to her evil ways!!!
The doctor, in a final effort to reveal Izabela’s delusion for what it is, takes her to visit a colleague with his very own beach-side vampire collection. Whoa!!! Boy do things get crazy at this point. Dune buggy ride to an open-air gaol, men in cages on the beach, and, a Van Helsing doctor in charge. Of course Van Helsing believes Izabela really is a vamp and adds her to his collection. Finally the good doctor’s manly desires can no longer be repressed and a fight ensues. The good doc drags Izabela away and confesses his love for her. (He has been fighting the obvious from the start; but it turns out that he was just really very busy; hadn’t had a chance to return her phone calls and was basically too focused on empire building to let some silly girl get in the way). It is at this point that I just want to puke! They have earth-shattering sex, during which she takes out her carnal blood lust on her own hand, no really.
Drac is a she, Izabela; blonde beautiful, pale and in control of herself and her world. One of the things we liked about this film is that the female lead—Izabela, played by Katarzyna Walter—'does a Buffy'. Before we know that she is a vampire we are told that there is a serial killer at large. Izabela is warned against going into the woods alone. In fact, a would-be love interest (Marceli) wants to 'protect' her by accompanying her on her journey home through the woods. She refuses, goes by herself, gets attacked and, in a Joss Whedon moment, turns on her attacker, biting his neck, drinking his blood, and then throwing his body in her furnace/kiln before making some very nice little cups and saucers with bats on them. You see, Izabela likes bats, she maintains a colony of them in fact, and we don't suspect her of being a vampire because we see her in daylight, though there is some weird stuff going on at auntie’s shop.
The said cups segueway nicely into the second surprise in the film (there are three surprises): handsome man buys the bat-cups (despite the nasty comments made by Izabela's aunt). Izabela fancies the stranger (Randolf Jung), flirts and fails. We get the impression that this doesn’t happen very often.
We next see Rudolf and Marceli in a bar (gratuitous nudity among the prostitutes in the background at this point). One of the prostitutes propositions Rudolf who rejects her advances, explaining he doesn't like girls. The prostitute is pissed off, departs with another man; fangs him (!) and blows up his car. The audience then realise that the prostitute is Izabela in camouflage and that it was her trying — again — to seduce Rudolf.Randolf is a handsome and successful young thing who just happens to be a psychiatrist: yes he’s a Dr Seward character. Izabela demands admission to his sanitarium, because she thinks only he can cure her of her vampirism (though she tells all the patients that she is a nymphomaniac). He doesn’t believe she’s a vamp; amazing!
They try hypnosis, even though she tells him confidently she can’t be hypnotized. He metaphorically taps the poor deluded girl on the head and, strangely enough, she can’t be hypnotized. There is a great spin on a vamp’s lack of reflection when an x-ray machine fails to show her innards, much to the frustration of the doc. Perhaps it is just us, but she doesn’t seem to really want to be cured, especially once she eats and buries the randy gardener (watched by an inmate who becomes a deranged Renfield-type character).Looking rather well fed and a little bored with the whole thing, she tells her aunt she is ready to go home. So at this point we am hoping the strong, independent, beautifully, dangerous girl with the slightly twisted sexuality is just having a bit of fun with the doctor and will return to her evil ways!!!
The doctor, in a final effort to reveal Izabela’s delusion for what it is, takes her to visit a colleague with his very own beach-side vampire collection. Whoa!!! Boy do things get crazy at this point. Dune buggy ride to an open-air gaol, men in cages on the beach, and, a Van Helsing doctor in charge. Of course Van Helsing believes Izabela really is a vamp and adds her to his collection. Finally the good doctor’s manly desires can no longer be repressed and a fight ensues. The good doc drags Izabela away and confesses his love for her. (He has been fighting the obvious from the start; but it turns out that he was just really very busy; hadn’t had a chance to return her phone calls and was basically too focused on empire building to let some silly girl get in the way). It is at this point that I just want to puke! They have earth-shattering sex, during which she takes out her carnal blood lust on her own hand, no really.
Somehow she is cured of her vampirism, her reflection returns, and her womb is now full of a baby. Wedding happy ending, erk.
There are so many interesting things about this film. I hardly know where to start. But I guess it is the powerful woman who gives up her vamp powers for love that is such a nasty end. However there is a sense of redemption for this terrible turn in the plot. In the final minutes of the film there is a happy gathering in the garden which is interrupted by a distressed cry, Izabela runs off to investigate only to find her daughter, Martha, smiling and looking all innocence, while the body of the gardener Martha has just fanged lays in the bushes. Izabela embraces the delightful little girl who licks her prickly little fangs in a sort of ‘yummy yummy’ kind of way. Unconditional love is so great.We discover that all the females in her family are vampires (including the nasty aunt), until they have sex with someone they love, after which she must visit a dentist to deal with her enormous incisors. Nice. I only know of one other vamp film in which the condition is hereditary (keep watching this blog for the review) and the idea that it is carried on the female line is so cool. If only we could get rid of the distasteful association between female sexual appetite and a need to control and eventually murder the powerful monstrous vagina!!! Be afraid; be very afraid.
Favorite moments: opening sequence (and throughout) fruit bats substituted for vampire bats: they do look a lot more impressive; the X-Ray machine not seeing Izabela; the annoying 'funny' uncle having a heart attack when Izabela displays her enormous fangs in a freaky smile;
the wacky-as-all-get-out sea-side gaol for vamps; the OMG sex between Izabela and Rudolf (steamy, wet and weird); the closing scene Izabela's daughter snacks on a gardener of her own, just like mum. Bad girl!Despite the 'one-decent-root and I'm cured' aspect of the story this film is cool: the pretty actors really are pretty, the film is atmospheric, the costumes/props/sets are great and the sanitarium is awesome.
[UPDATE for Jacqui: here are two, not very clear, images of the bat-wing saucers from the service Izabela makes]
