Director: Jean Rollin
Year: 1971
Country: France
Alternate Titles: Le frisson des vampires, Strange Things Happen at Night, The Terror of the Vampires, Sex and the Vampire, Thrill of the Vampires
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
While out on their honeymoon, a newlywed couple decides to stop off at her cousin's castle for a while, where they learn that both her cousins have passed on, but the longer they stay, they realize that all of the inhabitants of the castle are a coven of vampires who want to initiate her into their group.
Review:
This is far better than it should've been. Among its greatest assets is the film's impressive and continuous Gothic atmosphere throughout, with the action mostly concerned with a large castle. The design and layout of everything is perfect for this type of entry, filled with stone and rock, cobweb-laced furniture, and all sorts of Gothic-influenced surroundings, including winding staircases, giant candles illuminating the proceedings, large, cluttered rooms, coffins in the middle of a ruined abbey, flowing dresses, and much more to give off a real eerie feel to the setting. Set in a fog-covered graveyard doesn't hurt either, and the sequences inside, including the initial ceremony, some random dialog sequences, and a naked unconscious woman draped over a cemetery vault, are just a few examples of this type of setting playing to the film’s advantage.
It also has its occasional moments of surreal glory as well, including a vampire that sleeps inside a grandfather clock and giant ornate chimney places, only rises at midnight to the accompanying image of a female victim draped willingly around the clock waiting for her to awaken, the image of a female vampire wearing giant spiked black nipple caps to kill a troublesome woman, skulls in a goldfish bowl, and the like. These surrealist images are seemingly inserted less with logical purpose in mind and more for the visual image they provide. They are wonderfully inserted and make the film that much more entertaining by bringing a sense of a dream-like atmosphere alongside the incredibly strong Gothic location, which overall makes everything feel quite intriguing.
The other big factor here is that, for one of these films, the plot isn't that bad and is actually pretty understandable. It's not exactly linear, but it's not that difficult to get an understanding of the film's motivations and intentions once they arrive at the castle and begin witnessing the coven’s actions. The vampire plot is strong and well-defined, allowing for most of the best scenes to come from their appearance. Most of the rest of the time, the film seems assembled in order to display as many women in a state of undress as possible. There are a large number of scantily-clad women in see-through gowns, a near-continuous stream of stripping for unnecessary events, a naked lesbian couple caressing on a fur blanket, a couple of seduction and sexual scenes, and more, and it is nicely integrated with the film artistically rather than being there for the sleaze appeal. With a strong pace on display as well, it's a really underrated film.
There isn't a whole lot wrong here. One of the main problems is that the film really fails to make the most of the connections drawn between vampirism and sex. Despite the great pain taken to set up the allure cast over the wife since she is mesmerized by the female vampire, nothing much occurs in the plot until she is led to a cemetery and the vampire bites her neck. The act of vampirism is reduced to a nanosecond event with no eroticism other than the naked bodies on display. For a film containing vampires, that is a surprisingly small amount devoted to its official status. The dream-like atmosphere may be a source of frustration to some, as it's quite hard to get into and results in it being an acquired taste, but beyond that, the film isn't that bad at all.
Overview: *****.5/5
With abundant Gothic overtones, impressive scenery, lesbianism, and only minor flaws, this is one of the better erotic vampire films around, with these factors making it near the cream of the crop in the genre. This is certainly required viewing for anyone interested in the genre or a fan of the European Vampire films, and is a nice starting point for the uninitiated as well, with only those turned off by these factors needing to heed caution.
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