Thirsty Thursdays Feature | A Part of Music Box of Horrors: Dawn of the Drive-In Presented by Shudder 

Vampires don’t generally do very well in daylight. But Diane LeFanu, the title character of groundbreaking director Stephanie Rothman’s sun-soaked phantasmagoria The Velvet Vampire, bucks the trend by riding around in dune buggies in the central California desert with only a floppy hat to protect her from disintegration. A Manson-era parable about the dangers of free love, this is a lush and enigmatic film that vibrates with slow-burn eroticism and psychedelic dreamscapes.

THE VELVET VAMPIRE restoration courtesy of Shout! Factory and the American Genre Film Archive