The Vampire Lovers

Set in nineteenth-century Styria, The Vampire Lovers concerns the Karnstein family, who rise from their graves after death to prey on the living. Baron Hartog, whose own family suffered at their hands, opens the tombs and destroys the vampires with stakes, but the grave of the beautiful Mircalla Karnstein escapes him. Mircalla later reappears under other names, attaching herself to respectable households and befriending young women. She becomes close to Laura, the daughter of General von Spielsdorf, and later to Emma Morton, whose father takes her in at the request of a relative. When the deaths around her draw suspicion, the general, Hartog and Emma's suitor set out to hunt the last surviving Karnstein. The film is based on Sheridan Le Fanu's story Carmilla.

Roy Ward Baker directed, following A Night of Terror and preceding Scars of Dracula in his filmography. Tudor Gates wrote the screenplay, and Harry Fine and Michael Style produced for Hammer Film Productions. Ingrid Pitt plays Marcilla and Carmilla, with Pippa Steel as Laura, Madeline Smith as Emma Morton, Peter Cushing as General von Spielsdorf, George Cole as Roger Morton and Dawn Addams as the Countess. The cast numbers twenty-seven.

The film runs ninety-one minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.4 from around 8,900 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 6.4 from roughly 231 votes, placing it in modest but consistent favour with audiences. A critics' rating of 5.8 from seventeen reviews is somewhat lower, suggesting a more reserved response from reviewers than from the wider public.