After years of drive-in theater exile and occasional broadcasts in severely edited form on late-night TV, the 1973 Lemora, one of the weirdest films ever, has been restored to video.
This wild, sprawling tale of gangsters, ghouls, and a lascivious preacher running amok in the Bible Belt stars little Lila Lee, the ultimate in prepubescent goodness, complete with blond pigtails and immaculate white wardrobe. Her father, a vicious criminal, escapes the cops only to be captured by an army of white-faced ghouls and taken to Lemora's vampire mansion. Lila follows, and a battle of wills between the hedonistic Lemora and the pious Lila ensues, with unexpected results.
The true beauty of Lemora is that the definition of monsters is turned upside down. The chills begin early with Lila's journey through "normal" society (a preacher with sinful thoughts, a bus station attendant who uses a box of chocolate in an un-Gumplike manner). Compared with this crowd, the vampires and ghouls running around in Lemora's mansion seem tame.
Writer and director Richard Blackburn keeps each scene infused with a certain degree of creepiness. There is little gore here: Blackburn's work is closer to Hitchcock's or Rod Serling's than to the typical monster mash.
Lemora: US$39.95. Moore Video: +1 (804) 745 9785.
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