This Halloween, the Goethe-Institut and the German Film Office bring you a selection of vampire films curated by Deutsche Kinemathek as part of their “Wild, Weird, Bloody. German Genre Films of the 70s” retrospective at the 2025 Berlinale. Presented as part of AMONG FRIENDS – UNTER FREUNDEN, a campaign of the Goethe-Institut USA to celebrate and strengthen transatlantic friendship.
Lady Dracula
Dir. Franz Josef Gottlieb
West Germany, 1978
79 min.
This horror comedy sets off in the year 1876 as a young girl is bitten by Count Dracula at her boarding school. When her coffin is uncovered and delivered to an antiques dealer 100 years later, she is reborn as a vampire and tries to find her way in the modern world. At first, her job as a mortuary cosmetologist keeps her well-paid and well-fed, but as she runs out of blood bags, she must take greater risks to sate her appetite…
With Evelyne Kraft, Brad Harris, Theo Lingen, Eddi Arent, Stephen Boyd, Christine Buchegger, Walter Giller, Klaus Höhne, Roberto Blanco, Marion Kracht
Jonathan
Dir. Hans W. Geißendörfer
West Germany, 1970
97 min.
A political parable of Germany’s 1960s protest movement, Jonathan is set in an undefined past, when a vampire count ruled a small city and its surrounding lands. The bloodlusty count and his followers target the young, so a group of students plans a revolution, choosing Jonathan as their leader. He ventures to the castle on a reconnaissance mission, but his journey is disrupted by violent obstacles—an amuse-bouche compared to the bloody excesses that await him in the count’s abode. With its gory long takes by cameraman Robby Müller and images composed like genre paintings, Hans W. Geißendörfer’s portrayal of the vampire ruling class and its demise earned him a German Film Award for Best New Director.
With Jürgen Jung, Hans-Dieter Jendreyko, Paul Albert Krumm, Hertha von Walther, Oskar von Schab, Ilona Grübel, Sophie Strehlow, Gaby Herbst, Arthur Brauss
