This early horror film from French director Jean Rollin is an example of the kind of moody, dialogue-free movies he would make for his whole life: one of his best known is FASCINATION, made in 1979. Unfortunately, REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE lacks the genuine horror of that film, and the best this one can do is summon up a few little chills here and there in some spooky moments. One of the best occurs near the start of the movie, in which one of the two heroines is nearly buried alive in a scene that recalls Poe.
Elsewhere, Jean Rollin shows little scope for reality, preferring instead to shoot his film as a series of increasingly bizarre visual images. Things kick off with a car chase through the French countryside, as the heroines, dressed as clowns (!) for no particular reason, shoot revolvers at their pursuers and end up burning the body of a male accomplice (his acting isn't very good – when he's supposedly dead and has petrol poured over his face, you can see him visibly recoil). That's about as much plot as the film has. From there on in, we watch as the girls wander around a seemingly deserted and ruined castle, only to find some bloodthirsty vampires and their human servants living in the basement. What happens next is fairly predictable, considering the fact that the director spent much of the '70s shooting hardcore pornography: the girls are stripped, whipped and bitten, while lots of padded sex scenes take up the rest of the running time.
Rollin's films are an acquired taste, for sure; they're not like the usual Euro-horror offerings from Italy, which have plots and dialogue; this film has hardly any of either. It's best viewed as a series of images, many of which make good use of the isolated French countryside and the ruined castle. One of my favourite scenes has a bunch of skeletons sitting around an altar; other good moments include the aforementioned churchyard burial and a presumably severed human hand holding a candle! Rollin doesn't seem very interested in the horror, and there is little, if any, gore. One of the most unintentionally humorous bits is a rubber bat placed over the private parts of a nude actress; not quite sure what he was getting at, but it didn't work, in any case! Instead, much of the film focuses on nudity and sex scenes, which might be good if you're interested in skinny French models; can't say I am. The acting is typically awful, although there's some fun to be had at the expense of a Dracula-alike whose make-up job is pretty funny.
Elsewhere, Jean Rollin shows little scope for reality, preferring instead to shoot his film as a series of increasingly bizarre visual images. Things kick off with a car chase through the French countryside, as the heroines, dressed as clowns (!) for no particular reason, shoot revolvers at their pursuers and end up burning the body of a male accomplice (his acting isn't very good – when he's supposedly dead and has petrol poured over his face, you can see him visibly recoil). That's about as much plot as the film has. From there on in, we watch as the girls wander around a seemingly deserted and ruined castle, only to find some bloodthirsty vampires and their human servants living in the basement. What happens next is fairly predictable, considering the fact that the director spent much of the '70s shooting hardcore pornography: the girls are stripped, whipped and bitten, while lots of padded sex scenes take up the rest of the running time.
Rollin's films are an acquired taste, for sure; they're not like the usual Euro-horror offerings from Italy, which have plots and dialogue; this film has hardly any of either. It's best viewed as a series of images, many of which make good use of the isolated French countryside and the ruined castle. One of my favourite scenes has a bunch of skeletons sitting around an altar; other good moments include the aforementioned churchyard burial and a presumably severed human hand holding a candle! Rollin doesn't seem very interested in the horror, and there is little, if any, gore. One of the most unintentionally humorous bits is a rubber bat placed over the private parts of a nude actress; not quite sure what he was getting at, but it didn't work, in any case! Instead, much of the film focuses on nudity and sex scenes, which might be good if you're interested in skinny French models; can't say I am. The acting is typically awful, although there's some fun to be had at the expense of a Dracula-alike whose make-up job is pretty funny.