Metacritic reviews

This eroticized vampire tale resulted from the last significant surge of creative energy at Britain's Hammer Films, which thereafter descended into abject self-parody.

The Vampire Lovers, praise be, does manage to be a departure from a hackneyed, bloody norm. It also is professionally directed, opulently staged and sexy to boot.

It is well mounted and enjoyable, with solid performances: the pre-credits sequence, in particular, has a dreamy beauty. But some of the action is a bit flat; and overall it marks the point at which vampirism in British movies became so overtly erotic that the films virtually ceased to be about anything except sex.

While The Vampire Lovers is an interesting and entertaining effort, containing excellent performances from both Pitt and Cushing, writers Harry Fine and Michael Style and director Roy Ward Baker seem to shy away from actually addressing the questions of sexuality and repression inherent in the material.

In this loose adaptation of Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla, Ingrid Pitt became a Hammer favorite as a lesbian vampire. This has a few nude scenes and Cushing; something for everyone. [22 Aug 1977, p.38]