Arrow Video, out 25 March

A trio of 70s exploitation movies from Spanish director Jose Larraz get the Arrow 2K treatment in this collection of voyeuristic photographers, lesbian vampires and nude horsemen.

Unless you’re a Eurohorror or sex movie enthusiast you’ll likely never have heard of Jose Larraz, and indeed it seems like the director wasn’t sure who he was either, as he’s credited across these three movies as J R Larrath, Joseph Larraz and J R Larraz.

A word of warning – these are all grindhouse exploitation movies, made for fleapit cinemas as part of a double-bill. They vary in quality, and your opinion will depend as much on your tolerance of early 70s soft porn as much as European film-making.

Whirlpool (1970) was Larraz’ debut, and is also known as Perversion Flash. Shot in the UK, it follows a young model who is lured to the country home of a middle-aged agent and her photographer nephew. A game of strip poker inevitably leads to frolics, but later encounters become abusive and things go decidedly darker. It all becomes very nihilistic – the movie poster exclaims ‘She died with her boots on… and not much else’, which is a bit of a spoiler. A Jerry Gross Presentation? More like a very gross presentation.

Extras include a welcome interview with Kim Newman about Larraz’ movies, a comparison between different cuts of the film and an awkward 13-minute segment from Parkinson where the TV talkshow host leers over model (and star of Whirlpool) Vivien Neves… with Patrick Moore next to him. Bizarre.

Vampyres (1974) is Larraz’s most popular movie and the best of this bunch. ‘Their lips are moist, and very, very red!’ indeed! These ladies of the night can also walk around in daylight and have no fangs, but we saw them getting murdered at the beginning, so we know they’re undead. Murray Brown is the lead and appeared as Jonathan Harker in the same year’s Jack Palance Dracula TV movie, filmed at the same location – the ubiquitous Oakley Court as featured in countless Hammer movies, and there’s also Doctor Who’s The Invasion’s Sally Faulkner in a supporting role as a doomed camper.

This movie appeared at the tail end of the lesbian vampire craze in the wake of Hammer’s Karnstein cycle, Jess Franco’s Vampyros Lesbos and Jean Rollin’s The Shiver of the Vampires. The eponymous vamps are played by Anulka (Playboy’s Miss May 1973) and model Marianne Morris and they’re strangely hypnotic, disturbing even, as they suck blood from their victim’s wound. Violent, bloody and benefitting from its gothic location, it’s unsettling and manages to be memorable. Extras include a look at the 2015 remake of the same name, a Q and A from 1997’s Eurofest, new interviews with cast and crew and a commentary by horror expert Tim Lucas.

The Coming of Sin (AKA The Violation of the Bitch, Vice Makes a Visit) is a sex movie with no genre connections. Made with non-actors, it follows a young girl staying with a relative and having dreams of a naked horseman. Simon Birrell was a friend of the director, and his overview of the film-maker’s career is far more engaging then anything in the soft focus, soft core sexploitationer.

Verdict: A mixed bag of contents that provides a broad range of Larraz’ work. Thanks to the detailed selection of extras we gain a better understanding of the man, his motivations and the world he was working in. Buy it for Vampyres, watch Whirlpool if you must, but avoid The Coming of Sin at all costs. 7/10

Nick Joy