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Stars:
Lesley Gilb, Cheryl Smith, and Richard Blackburn
Writer:
Richard Blackburn and Robert Fern
Director:
Richard Blackburn
Feature
length: 85 minutes
Extras:
Audio Commentary With Actor, Writer, Director Richard Blackburn, Writer and
Producer Robert Fern, and Actress Lesley Gilb, Still Gallery, Original Script On
DVD-ROM, Bonus Trailers
Languages:
English Monaural Sound
Subtitles: N/A
Packaging: Keep
Case
Chapter Stops: 20
Sound: Monaural
Sound
Year of Theatrical
Release: 1973/DVD Release: 2004
Home Video
Distributor: Synapse Films
MPAA Rating: PG
Reviewer: Mark A.
Rivera
I had never heard
of “Lemora: A Child’s Tale Of The Supernatural” before receiving the DVD
to review, but my older brother was quite excited when I told him about it. He
had read about it and told me it was supposed to be a great vampire flick. He
was so excited he offered to buy it from me as soon as I was done reviewing it
so the next time we got together I put the film on and we watched it together.
“Lemora: A Child’s Tale Of The Supernatural” is an interesting hybrid that
combines elements of dark fantasy with horror. In many ways it is evocative of
the darkest of Grimm’s fairy tales and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In
Wonderland” and as the liner notes included within the insert by Richard
Harland and Chris Poggiali suggests it predates the Southern Gothic tales of
Author Anne Rice by approximately three years and there is a scene that
definitely reminds me of something I have seen in one of the two feature film
adaptations that have been based on Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles.” There’s
also a note by Makeup Artist Byrd Holland within the insert as well. A big chunk
of the credit for this film’s success has to go to the late Cheryl Smith, who
as the film’s protagonist, Lila Lee serves as the perfect depression era
“Little Red Riding Hood” and anchors the film just enough with her
believable mix of innocence and repression enforced upon her character by the
expectations of her Southern Baptist community.
Lila Lee’s
father is wanted for the murder of Lila’s mother and the man who was caught in
the act of infidelity with her. Since then Lila has been the ward of the Baptist
Reverend (Richard Blackburn), who has placed her so high upon a pedestal at
church gatherings that the very same congregation that sings with Lila at
church, despises her outside. There is also a very real sexual tension between
Lila and the Reverend, but while both are in denial over their desires to be
with each other neither is truly innocent either. When Lila receives a letter
from her father asking for her to see him because she has fallen ill, she
descends into an odyssey that grows progressively dark and frightening as she
stows away in a car to get into a lecherous town and then takes a bus trip to
Hell where the Vampire Lemora (Lesley Gilb) presides over a southern estate with
an undead upper-class that carries out her bidding and a beastly lower class
that wages war against the vampires that created them from out of the dark
forests that surround Lemora’s domain.
Considering this
is a low budget first effort from filmmakers just out of film school in the
early 1970s, I can forgive some of the bad acting by supporting actors and
appreciate what has been carried out well with the film. For instance there is a
scene where Lemora bathes Lila and Lila gets up in the nude while Lemora place a
towel around her. What I like about the scene is that Blackburn skillfully
manipulates that camera so that we never actually see any nudity at all, but we
lose none of the sensuality of the scene. Thus the film never borders on the
exploitation of women that was popular at the time with movies focusing on
lesbian vampires and appearing almost like soft-core pornography.
Synapse Films has
struck a new 1080P/ 24FPS High-Definition D5 print of the film and downconverted
it for DVD so that for those who have seen “Lemora: A Child’s Tale Of The
Supernatural” on TV broadcasts before can truly appreciate what the
filmmaker’s in the feature length commentary say is the best presentation of
the movie they have ever seen. Presented in an anamorphic (1.78:1) aspect ratio,
the film looks almost too good because it reveals some of the low budget effects
probably more than anyone might desire, but that does not remove anything from
the enjoyment of the film as a whole. An English Monaural Soundtrack is also
provided along with a screen specific audio commentary with Actor, Writer,
Director Richard Blackburn, Writer and Producer Robert Fern, and Actress Lesley
Gilb. The commentary is worth listening to if only because it makes certain
elements and action in the film clearer to the viewer though the ultimate
outcome of the story is still pretty easy to predict.
A gallery of color
and black and white continuity photos are also included along with the original
shooting script for those with a DVD-ROM drive in Adobe PDF format. Bonus
trailers for other titles available on DVD-Video now from Synapse Films include
“Les Raisin De Mort (The Grapes Of Death)"
(3:06), “Blue Sunshine”
(2:23), and “Brain Damage” (1:21). The film is NTSC Region 0 so if you can
convert NTSC to PAL, you should be able to play this back on another region or
region free DVD player though I cannot guarantee or warrant it. “Lemora: A
Child’s Tale Of The Supernatural” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers
on and offline from Synapse Films.
© Copyright 2004
By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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