The Dark Side DVD Double-Thrill Collection: Sexy Vampire Double Feature

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The Dark Side DVD Double-Thrill Collection: Sexy Vampire Double Feature

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The Dark Side DVD Double-Thrill Collection: Sexy Vampire Double Feature

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The Dark Side DVD Double-Thrill Collection: Sexy Vampire Double Feature

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Sometimes I wonder if French auteur Jean Rollin, as a Euro-Horror icon, wasn't just coasting on the strength of racy lobby cards. I first caught wind of the master through such stills from his 1982 release, The Living Dead Girl. Provocative title? Check! Picture of a hot naked blond woman covered in blood? Check-a-roonie! However, those who are familiar with his work know things aren't exactly as aggressive as Rollin's lobby cards might make you think. You need to have a seriously open mind, probably tons of caffeine, and a dedicated appreciation for cinema with a capitol 'C' if you want to penetrate Rollin's obtuse horrors, including Requiem For a Vampire, which nicely features much of Rollin's kinky quirks and quixotic work.

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So, have you got your art-house hats on? Popcorn with nutritional yeast and balsamic vinegar? Then let's begin. Requiem - like all of Rollin's films - is emblematic of both the director's sole motivation and also of his crippling weaknesses. Crammed full of symbolic illogic, Requiem meanders for an alternately confusing and beautiful 45 minutes before throwing us for a loop by introducing a plot. From the opening moments, we're thrust into something from a delirious dream, as two hot girl-clowns work to extricate themselves from a frantic car-chase/gunfight. Eventually they find themselves in the type of chateau that Rollin loves, one that's half ruins, and half fur-covered boudoir in which the clowns might strip naked in order to caress each other.

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Childlike naked girls wandering around having sex; this is Rollin in a high-concept nutshell. This time, the girls have also stumbled upon a secret enclave controlled by a vampire. Rollin fans will note this is the exact same plot of every film Rollin ever committed to celluloid. Somehow, this engages the viewer's intellect for a moment, when it becomes apparent that the girls are divided in their approach to their newly appointed mission: catch victims for the vampire to eat. (They might have to find pretty soft victims, since this sharp transfer reveals the vampire's fangs to be most likely made of cardboard.) If things are to come to an acceptable conclusion, it's up to the girls to eventually actually speak on camera, briefly explaining everything that's happened.

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Rollin films are a difficult to acquire taste, and they can be maddening. Watching two in a row, as I attempted for this review, will test the most-stout cinephile. Yet quite often, Rollin really nails it, as he does consistently in Requiem. Languid, carefully composed shots of the girl-clowns wandering around the chateau evoke aching nostalgia and dream-like beauty. Rollin's penchant for allegories of sexual awakening are plain, and it doesn't get more clear than while watching girl-clowns strip down to explore their bodies before being caught out by the 'adults'. Yet I'm guessing behind the director's kinks and adherence to surrealist imagery is a severe longing for the simple magic of childhood. His best shots equal early 20th-century surrealist painter De Chirico's works in their ability to turn areas of light and shadow into the bewitching, endless torpor only kids aimlessly roaming on a Summer's evening can know.

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Other images don't quite as powerfully hold sway, though they're all compelling in their own ways. The girls in their clown get-ups prefigure '80s fashion, and as such are captivating and horrible. They walk up to a mysterious puddle of goo. Is it blood? Milk? Or both? (I don't know because I turned my head from the screen for that half-second.) They then slowly walk backward up an embankment. Entering a decrepit barn as clowns, they exit as Euro-hotties from 1973. Yowza! This welcome eye-candy softens the blows of Rollin's numerous soft-core sex scenes, which range from stilted and tedious to fairly torrid. (A dungeon scene between a chained lass and some weird bearded guy cranks up the heat on the old cauldron of boiling oil, if you understand where I'm coming from.) Yet, even near-constant nudity can't justify filming a woman being raped by a bat. Actually, the bat action in this movie, though brief, could be considered a major selling point to schlock fans.) More sumptuous visuals, frankly awesome nudity, and weird crud with vampires brings us back to Rollin's story, which gains some unique fairy-tale specificity before sending us back into the cold woods.

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Requiem For A Vampire covers a lot of ground in Jean Rollin land. It's both: aimless and confusing, and actually driven by a somewhat complex storyline. It features rampant nudity and sex - both steamy and ridiculous - while striving to remind us of the simple mysteries of childhood. It's full of sumptuous symbolic imagery, and the most laughable bat special effects ever committed to celluloid. In other words, it's vintage Rollin. For fans, it's Highly Recommended.

DVDtalk

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Crammed to the maximum with atmosphere and gorgeous women, Fascination is at times visually stunning. Not just because it has one of the most beautiful women ever to get naked before the camera (yes, that would be you, Ms. Lahaie), but also due to the location. The chateau lends itself nicely as the backdrop for the story and adds a curious combination of being inviting but at the same time being cold and not so enticing. The photography is incredibly appealing, even when nothing much is happening, and part of that appeal is the use of long, static shots that are expertly framed.

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The use of imagery is strong here, from the disturbing slaughterhouse scene with the women walking through entrails while wearing long dresses that dip in the blood and gore, to Brigitte crossing the moat bridge wearing a flowing black cape and carrying a scythe (she looks like a sexy grim reaper). And Brigitte isn’t the only one worth drooling over either. Franca Mai, Fanny Magier, Muriel Montossé, Sophie Noël and Agnès Bert are easy on the eyes as well. When they change into see-through red pieces of flowing material, with nothing underneath, try not to stare. Just try.

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The movie dialogue is in French, with English subtitles, but Rollin knew what he was doing in keeping it light on the conversation. Instead the focus is on visuals, and a non-French speaking person will probably be able to watch the film without subtitles and know what’s going on. The pacing is tedious at times, but the director keeps your eyes on the screen and away from the clock pretty well, and at 81 minutes it’s easy to sit through. This viewing of Fascination is the first Jean Rollin movie this reviewer has ever seen, and it seems like a great jumping on point for others newcomers to the man’s work.

Rock! Shock! Pop!

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Jean Rollin’s 1979 film Fascination opens with a sequence clearly inspired by Jean Lorrain’s 1893 short story The Glass of Blood (Jean Lorrain being a shamefully neglected Decadent writer). This story was based on a somewhat bizarre real-life practice of the time in which wealthy people suffering from anaemia or similar disorders would start their day with a glass of cow’s blood at a local slaughter-house. This strange obsession with blood provides the theme of the movie, another of Rollin’s very unconventional filmic explorations of vampirism. We then see a falling-out among a group of thieves, one of whom takes shelter in an apparently deserted chateau. The chateau is not quite deserted however. He soon encounters two rather unsettling young women, whose interest in him is obviously sexual but equally obviously goes beyond the merely sexual. He is warned not to stay around until dark, as they are having other guests, apparently very dangerous ones.

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Fascination has the lyrical, poetic visual style you expect from Rollin. It also has extremely competent acting, with Brigitte Lahaie and Franca Mai as the two disturbing young women and Jean-Marie Lemaire as the thief on the run all giving strong performances. The elegant chateau provides a perfect setting for a Rollin film. The movie is set in the early years of the 20th century and captures the feel of fin de siècle decadence very effectively. If you’re already a fan of Rollin’s brand of poetic and deliciously perverse erotic horror you won’t be disappointed by Fascination. If you’re unfamiliar with his work it’s not a bad place to start – the surrealist elements always present in his movies are less extreme in this one, or at least they’re less overwhelming. It also has (by the standards of a Rollin movie) a relatively straightforward plot. In the late 70s Rollin was moving towards a slightly more accessible style, but without sacrificing the strengths of his earlier productions. It’s still a million miles away from Hollywood notions of horror. A great movie by a great director.

Cult Movie Reviews

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The Dark Side DVD Double-Thrill Collection: Sexy Vampire Double Feature

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Special Features:
- "The Dark Side Magazine/books" info
- "Eurotika!: Virgins & Vampires" featurette (23:45, in English only)
- "Bloody Lips and Iron Crosses" documentary (interview with director/writer/co-producer Jean Rollin) (34:51, in English only)
- "Jean Rollin & Brigitte Lahaie interviews" documentary (32:38, in English only)
- Brigitte Lahaie interview (04:25, in English only)
- Brigitte Lahaie gallery
- Stills galleries
- Trailers

Easter eggs:
- Click the silhouette of the scythe wielding vampire on the "Main menu": Introduction from editor Allan Bryce (02:17)
- In the "Documentaries" menu, click on the grapes: The French and German trailers for "The Grapes of Death AKA Les Raisins de la mort" (05:23)