Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki Review based on the 90-minutes long version, le viol du vampire. My initial thought, in the first few seconds of this, is that it looks more like a zombie movie, with people stumbling and fumbling about in a wooded swamp area, instead of a vampire movie. It became obvious to me early, that this was not going to work as a cohesive whole, but a collection of images: some of them, incredibly beautiful and mezmerising; others, just baffling. Even the baffling images piqued my interest and held my attention. Example: four chicks in white robes, carrying flaming torches during broad daylight is the next sight, and eventual implications that they are vampires. Later, two of the girls in white robes dueling with épées late at night, while fire burns brightly behind them is another incredible bit of black-and-white imagery. The fire is blown out to the point where it almost looks like black-and-white infrared images. A favourite, particularly striking, scene occurs approximately 11.30 minutes in, with white-robed brunette carrying a candelabra, walking barefoot upstairs to the rooftop, now shown in high contrast black-and-white. A stunningly beautiful hallucination of an image. Film seems to be merely an excuse to showcase bizarre visuals, wipes and camera angels, and is all the more better for it. Forget about the plot (if there ever was one) this movie is about visuals. I love this movie for its haunting imagery: the old scarecrow and crosses placed around the Château to keep these alleged vampires inside. The château itself is sprawling and immense; some of it is bathed in sunlight, while other parts of it are in dark shadows, from massive overgrowth. I cannot decide about its music score, however, which is overpowering, but at the same time, serves to make the film more surreal.

Scarecrow-88 A psychoanalyst tries to cure the ills of four young women believing themselves to be vampires from centuries ago. It seems they have been manipulated into this type of thinking thanks to an old man with a cane. The old man builds up animosity in a mob of villagers against the young women, and the psychoanalyst's friends, a couple named Marc & Brigitte pay the ultimate price getting caught within the violence of the attack. Soon the psychoanalyst realizes that in fact they were vampires, and this Queen has control over them. The old man was supposed to kill the three mortals who were interfering with her "initiation process". The Queen also has a doctor, against his will, working within a hospital attempting to find a cure/antidote for their undead affliction..the doctor will attempt to betray the Queen with the psychoanalyst and his vampiress lover's help. But, the Queen plans to have a "blood wedding" betrothing her doctor with his mortal fiancé, turned vampiress so that he'd work on the antidote.Well, this is the synopsis I tried to derive from the film director Rollin put together into two melodramas. I thought the first segment of Rollin's theatrical French vampire film, was rather surreal, but somewhat easier to follow. There were some very beautifully shot sequences using the allure of the vampire women, their decadent candle-lit home and the countryside(..and beach nearby)I think which show Rollin's talent at capturing the visual image. I think MANY will find his sacrificing coherent story-telling(..and lack of acting talent)for capturing surreal and bizarre imagery a bit difficult to swallow. I'll be the first to admit that I often voiced to myself, "Huh?!" & "What the..?!" during this entire low-budget production. I was often quite bewildered at many moments and character behavior in this film. I truly felt that Rollin had these images planted in his brain and put them to celluloid, not worrying too much about whether they fit into any type of true narrative or not. I think he cast people who fit a certain type of image regardless of whether or not they had a remote shred of talent. I found myself personally in awe at certain shots(..like the amazing "death march" of Brigitte, walking across the vast space of unfarmed fertile soil towards the end of the first part of the vampire tales told by Rollin, or the four vampire women with candelabra's in hand walking in unison together throughout their home;and the beach-front with the long row of logs which spring forth from the ocean for which Rollin would use repeatedly in other films afterward), while befuddled at other scenes(such as the naked blind vampire reaching for a possible groom in the ocean with those who tricked her into doing this gone from the area, or the same blind woman feeding the dead Brigitte food, talking to her as if she were an infant). The actress who plays the Queen just has a field day in the role. She reinforces dutifully the joy of being the leader of her vampire cult, by either grinning widely, exploiting her fangs, laughing uproariously, or flamboyantly accepting her title ordering her slaves to do this or that under her command with quite the authority. This cult is in many ways operated as a totalitarian dictatorship, with her people robotically obeying each request. It's easy to see why she's eventually fall to even as small an uprising as the doc and Marc(..enraged at what the Queen does to Brigitte, after her corpse is stolen by a faux funeral procession, in an inspired set-piece from Rollin;from a distance this looks like the typical Catholic family or mourners and pall bearers, until Rollin closes his camera in showing that they have fangs and the cross of Christ they are carrying is upside down)because she's too full of herself and the organization built by her hand. Still, I think this will appeal to the Rollin faithful, while other fans of vampire Gothic chillers will be at their remote control eject button dying of boredom. Rollin has talent, but tells his films in a certain way which will alienate some, and please others.

metalnoir I had read about Rollin's work for years, but I only recently had the opportunity to see any of his films. This is, to date, the only one I have seen, and it far exceeded my expectations. To call the film "challenging" is an understatement; but, I believe, the director's intent is not to present a coherent narrative, but to indulge in his interest in dark poetry. The film plays less like a conventional "movie" than it does like avant-garde theater, and with this in mind, harsh critiques of the performances and the writing are immaterial. The structure with which the film unfolds makes perfect sense in every way. The monochrome images are stark, beautiful, radically unusual, striking, and unforgettable. Violence and sex scenes are artful as opposed to pornographic (reminding me of Jodorowsky's El Topo in this respect). Individual scenes play well within the format wherein they are presented. The budgetary limitations are negligible: the film's beauty is beyond reproach for all but the most closed-minded or prudish viewers. Approach the film as a two-act visual poem, and its rewards to the viewer will be manifold.

lbworshiper A psychoanalyst and his wife go to a château in the country, which is inhabited by four vampire sisters. Rollin's first feature is distinguished by good photography and score, which manage to overcome the bizarreness of the plot and the deliberate pacing. An atmospheric horror classic, but decidedly not for all tastes.