Poor blonde Christian choir girl Lila Lee runs away from the town where she sings. She is living with a Reverend and decides to find her father, a gangster who killed his wife and her lover, because she forgives - it is in her nature to forgive. The townspeople seem like a wretched group of bestial, scarred, ugly, pale-looking men such as a bus ticket vendor and the bus driver! Lechery seems to be in their minds when they witness this virginal 13-year-old girl.
"Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural" is one of those ridiculous 1970's independent horror flicks that has some measure of atmosphere (shot with what looks like bluish filters and apropos day for night cinematography) and not a whole lot more to recommend it. While Lila escapes from a bus accident, dozens of monstrous vampires chase her. Lila runs for an eternity. She is housed in a cell with bars that look like they are made of papier mache. There is an old hag who brings her plates of food, and a lot of pale-faced children who giggle uncontrollably (and I think one of them wears a pirate costume). Eventually, we are introduced to the quiet, insidious nature of Lemora (Lesley Gilb), a queen vampire, who wants nothing more than to bathe and massage Lila and give her a proper bedroom environment. Obviously Lemora has more supernatural plans for Lila. Oh, yes, and the Reverend (Richard Blackburn, also the director) is on a journey to find her. And Lila escapes Lemora's mansion and runs. She runs and runs from the vampires who look like mutated zombies. There's also a clan of cloaked vampires who form inner circles holding torches. Might I also mention that Lila hides inside a coffin and then escapes and goes off running again. The late actress Cheryl Smith, who later joined the Runaways band, is clearly agile at running and has a properly serene, angelic look as Lila.
"Lemora" is not much of a movie, though, and not much fun to watch. There are one or two moments of terror that are unlikely to scare an 8-year-old kid. Lesley Gilb looks more like a horror hostess than some ancient vampire. Still, if you like watching an innocent young girl run through the woods and various rooms and abandoned buildings, I suppose you could do worse.
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