User Reviews

Initially, this incredibly simplistic film may look like a step backwards for Rollin after the highly experimental Rape of the Vampire and the highly strange The Nude Vampire but it could also be argued that it is, in fact a precursor to the dream-like The Iron Rose. It looks like it was shot over a long weekend and, indeed, would perhaps have worked better as a short film. The plot, what there is of it, concerns two girls (dressed as clowns) on the run after killing a would-be rapist. After their getaway driver is killed, they stumble upon a castle in which resides the last of the vampires and his servants. Aside form the odd diversion (one of the girls meets a man in a graveyard and offers him his virginity so as to remain free of the vampire's curse) that's about it.

Upon first viewing the film, there is very little to get out of it aside from the odd bit of S+M imagery (chained up naked girls attacked by bats, a kinky lesbian whipping scene) but ones whole perspective changes when one discovers that Rollin wrote it in ONE NIGHT. For those unfamiliar with Rollin, this would simply re-enforce the notion that what they are watching is complete crap but for those familiar with his work, it provides and excellent insight into the man's unconscious. Rollin's work is all about repressed sexual desire; his films are essentially adolescent fantasies, which is why many of them feel like fairy tales; they disguise their true meaning through the circumstances under which the images are presented. This is a true relic of the 60's/70's, a time in which Western culture was going through its own adolescence. Perhaps part of the problem with cinema today is that it has none of the innocence of that sexually uncertain time.

This film is known under several titles and I viewed it as "Caged Virgins" according to the outside of the tape but when it started to play the credits listed it as "Dungeon of Virgins". Anyway, this is a moderately effective exploitation film that has tons of nudity and unsuccessful attempts at horror. The story starts out with two girls and a guy fleeing in their car after a murder and being chased but suddenly the male is shot and the car is steered off the road where it is hidden. Marie (Marie Pierre Castel) and Michelle (Mireille D'Argent) burn the car and the body and start to wander the countryside. They come across a cemetery and behind it they discover what appears to be an old castle so they enter it and discover that it is not uninhabited.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

They run into some female vampires and their male servants so the girls try and outrun them but they keep getting caught. They are introduced to the head vampire (Philippe Gaste) who tells them that he is the last of his kind and that since they are virgins they can help keep his legacy alive. Marie and Michelle are both bit and told to help lure men into the castle for them to feed on. Marie meets a man and decides to lose her virginity to him and later she asks him to help her get out.

This was directed by Jean Rollin who made a career out of making erotic vampire/supernatural films and while this is extremely low budget and highly exploitive this film still creates an effective mood that enhances the story. This is a film that has very little dialogue and there are a number of scenes where the two characters just walk around never speaking. I watched this film waiting to hear the names of the two girls and only once in a scene did I hear D'Argent call her friend Marie. I had to look at other reviews to find out that D'Argent is named Michelle. To say that this is an exploitation film is like saying "Titanic" is about a boat! When the two girls first enter the castle they find a bed and immediately get naked where they start to engage in lesbianism. Then later in the dungeon we see several naked woman chained to the walls where they are raped by the overly horny male slaves. This film does use it's locations to it's advantage and with the remote landscape and quietness of the film this gives a genuine sense of being really lost in the middle of nowhere. The two lead actresses Castel and D'Argent don't really act much except when staring at everything around them like deer caught in the headlights. They both wear these young girl outfits and have on these noisy shoes that make an annoying clacking sound when they run. They can't run very fast with them on so why didn't they take them off? This is definitely not a film for everyone but if your a fan of exploitation like myself than this is a film that delivers the goods. But I'm not talking about the horror part of the film, if you know what I mean.

Vierges et Vampires,or Requiem for a Vampire as it's more commonly known to English speaking audiences, starts with a 'high' speed car chase through the French countryside which ends in the death of one guy & two young women dressed as clowns, Marie (Marie-Pierre Castel) & Michelle (Mireille Dargent) escaping on foot. Eventually they end up at a run down Château where they discover a Vampire & his group of followers, Marie & Michelle are initiated into the world of Vampirism as the head Vampire dude plans on turning them into the blood drinking undead...

This French production was produced, written & directed by Jean Rollin & personally I didn't think too much of it. The script is rather slow going to start with & nothing particularly significant happens for about an hour until things pick up a bit towards the end. The plot is virtually none existent as you would expect from Rollin who could never be accused of wasting good running time on small unnecessary things like a coherent storyline. The dialogue (spoken in French so expect subtitles) is sparse to say the least & the amount of meaningful conversation can be counted on one hand while it seemed to me that a good 40 odd minutes past without anyone saying a single word. The character's are as one dimensional as could possibly be, it's dull, boring & doesn't make a whole load of sense & quite frankly I didn't get much, if any, enjoyment or entertainment from it.

Director Rollin again puts the visuals way before the story which in my opinion is a bad move all day long. Anyway, I didn't think that this was his best film visually but the colours, lighting, imagery, locations & cinematography give it a certain style & flair. I must mention the Vampires, they are probably the worst looking Vampires I've seen in a film. They're fangs look so fake it's untrue, the colour of them, the way they look like plastic, the strange angle they exit the mouth & they just don't fit properly. That bird with long red hair looked really funny in close-up. There isn't much gore, just dead rotten corpse although there is some nudity & sex.

Technically Vierges et Vampires is good & it's well made, no one was ever questioning Rollins ability to make a film just his ability to write a script for one that makes any sort of sense! Since the dialogue is so sparse & it's in French I couldn't really tell you how good the acting was although some of the faces these people pull are worth a few laughs on their own.

Vierges et Vampires is just a collection of loosely connected imagery as usual with Rollin. Personally I'm not a fan of his work or style although I'm sure there are people out there who are, it's definitely not for me though.

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.

I guess that shock would be the best way to describe my reaction to this film. It was simply horrible. I believe I was watching a "full" version, so I can't blame poor chopping block editing for this mess. The film looked amateurish, the acting was terrible, and there was no plot to speak of. Even the sex scenes were bad, porn movies have better production values than this stinker. I only hope that by writing this review, I can save someone from watching this film. The 5.7 score here on the IMDb, that enticed me to watch, is completely misleading in my opinion. I gave it a 2, and was being generous. If this movie is a good example of Mr. Rolin's work, I'll not be watching another of his films!

Two "teenage virgins", Marie & Michelle(Marie-Pierre Castel & Mireille Dargent)have escaped from I'm guessing a reform school. Their driver was killed as another car's inhabitants(I'm guessing the police)blast out their vehicle's back window with gunfire. Hiding away from those hunting them and burning the car(..and dead driver), Marie and Michelle hide out temporarily in a cemetery(..in one weird scene, Michelle trips into a freshly dug grave knocking herself out on the casket while a member of the grounds almost buries her alive!)until their safety is assured. There's seemingly abandoned greystone ruins of a château near the cemetery surrounded by massive trees and an idyllic countryside for which Marie and Michelle decide to hopefully inhabit for the time being. What they don't expect is a female vampiress, Erica(Dominique Toussaint)who has a barbaric entourage of hunters as servants who rush them. When the girls try to flee, bats hanging from tree branches "hypnotise" them enabling Erica to capture them as she plans for Michelle and Marie to meet her master, the last full male vampire whose powers have weakened over the ages. Erica isn't completely a vampire despite her fangs and blood-drinking..she can still tolerate sunlight and isn't a true member of the undead. Her blood sister Louise(Louise Dhour)is even less a vampiress for she doesn't have the luxury of fangs. Louise is the type of vampire sister who hands down the orders from her lord and plays the piano; she's also the one who watches her master's casket. Michelle and Marie are introduced to the last male vampire as he bites them from behind. Michelle and Marie try to escape the next day but run around in circles it seems..despite following different paths hoping to escape, they always return to the château with a skull at the door. Louise informs Michelle and Marie that they are to be initiated into the vampire fraternity having received the "divine bite of the vampire", but first must lose their virginity to him. Louise points out that you can not be a virginal vampire. They wish for Michelle and Marie, before their initiation, to lure male prey to the château by nightfall. Marie meets, falls in love with, and loses her virginity to a man walking the cemetery one day named Frederick. She later tries to save him from being a victim of Erica's. The older man who Michelle lures(thanks to a striptease & drawing him by giving chase)isn't so lucky. Michelle must find out where Marie has hidden Frederick for he threatens the vampire whereabouts and identity(..this leads to a whipping torture as Marie hangs with stripes down her back and Michelle, devastated for what she has done, with tears staining her cheeks). Will Marie be seduced into the way of the vampires? Will Marie give up her love's hiding place(where he is hidden is certainly an interesting place)? Will the last male vampire's legacy live on through his blood daughters?

If you are familiar with Rollin, this film carries his various signatures..beautiful french countryside, atmospheric cemetery, Gothic greystoned ruins of a castle where rows of steps are endless and halls echo, skulls make their mark throughout showing up near tombstones, places marking the vampires' lair, etc., limited dialogue and back story, fluid camera-work capturing the entire landscape squeezing every bit of ambiance available, an abundance of nudity and sex, and a jazzy organ score in the background. The version I watched had gratuitous extended scenes of sexual molestation as Erica's barbaric servants rape and abuse various enslaved nubile females, chained within a pit, as she takes a few bites for good measure. This might serve as titillation for many(there's also a scene where Marie and Michelle grope each other), but I yawned through most of this. I thought Dominique Toussaint was striking(she seemed to have such a presence that leaps from the screen)as Erica, wearing a clinging gold dress and purple cape that swings open..the way she opens her cape might be theatrical to many, but I lapped it up(..*woof*..*woof*). She really looks like something out of a comic book..now I do not mean this as an insult, far from it. I think Erica just looks incredible and Dominique just runs with it, easily overshadowing the weary last male vampire who is in the film mere minutes and looks as if his powers were weakened. This film's strength is some truly stunning uses of the château(the way Rollin shoots overhead as Marie and Michelle try to flee Erika, and when Michelle leads the horny old man on a wild goose chase through halls & up steps, are really thrilling set-pieces), the vibrant green and red colors Rollin uses in the last male vampire's mausoleum, the cemetery bright blue skyline at dawn as Marie(believing she had lost her love to the last male vampire forever)woefully walks across with various crosses in the distance, and the windy green covering the cemetery grounds as Marie and Michelle comb the area in search of refuge from a shady past. My favorite scene(other than when Erica appears)is when Marie and Michelle hear organ play from within the château cathedral believing cloaked monks await inside..only to find skeletons behind those very cloaks and Louise, the vampiress playing the tune they heard. Don't expect a satisfying story or a quickened pace..Rollin isn't the type of filmmaker that worries about moving anything too fast. I don't even think we see the first vampire until thirty minutes into the film and the sexual sequences in the bondage chamber go on forever it seems.

The main thing I can say about this movie is Rollin apparently doesn't care about any storyline details. If you blink at the right time you might think you missed something, but of course you didn't it was never there. For example SPOILERS ALERT? …why the clown outfits? Did they plant the motorcycle before whatever caper they were on, or did they accidentally come upon it? ? Where did they get the cape things from the graveyard- one girl goes off screen and comes back with a wardrobe? A BAT the squawks like a crow or banshee? How did the "castle" suddenly appear at the top of a mountain? The girls are brave enough to go into a scary old castle and get naked in a made bed, but at the sight of a dead body they go apesht. And produce a gun we hadn't seen since she set it down in the back of the car before they set it on fire, despite being barely dressed. And by what names may I call the lovely tarts? I have no idea.

Apparently- it's more important to just show scenery and movement than have any kind of cohesive informative story. Instead of immersing myself in the film- that's what a good film does for me- I found myself asking silly questions like I outlined above. Distracting to say the least. I am not opposed to keeping some secrets to be revealed at the appropriate times, but the story is telling me these girls NEVER talk to each other? Never call a name? They are girls come on.

I am also not opposed to a film ASKING more questions than it answers…but I expect them to be a little more substantial. I fully suspect that some who overly enjoyed this movie really more enjoy movies the general public either hates or more importantly oblivious about. The sub or counter culture phenomenon. I realize that slick expensive production isn't for everyone…but did you REALLY feel…immersed? Did you feel taken away? Did you almost feel bitten? Or about to rape? Or did you like it because no one else does? Or has even seen it?

I sort of feel hypocritical…because I love old Godzilllas and other monster movies like War Of the Gargantuas. On one hand I admire no CGI, miniature sets, and cool things that make me feel immersed like spitting out the dress of the victim you ate. But there is a story and dialogue…I can easily put myself there. I never found myself in "surreal" land, as others say they did. It seemed like the director just told people to do this and that. "run over there…put this cape on…start the motorcycle, run up to the castle…get naked and hop in bed , lay on the altar and pretend to get raped even though everyone has their clothes on". It doesn't take a big budget- it takes a real story, real dialogue…SOME attention to plot details. Things you would naturally do.

The director is in charge of this movie not the story. Boo.

At times it's not that easy to give a film the appropriate rating, and so this was the case with Requiem pour un vampire. I don't even know whether it is an erotica film with some horror elements or a horror flick with some erotic scenes. Anyway, why should I care about it, since the watching of it was a really enchanting experience.

The plot is an absolute feast of bizarreness and I guess that it is one of the film's charms. In the opening scene we can see a car chase, in which two very young girls and their male friend are getting away and trying to shoot someone. Soon, the guy gets hurt and his "clowny" friends do nothing but kill him to death and then burn the car with gasoline! At this point I was almost sure that these girls were the vampires from the title, but to my absolute surprise they were not! The vampire line started a little bit later. And again, the cohesion of it didn't make any sense, but its picturesque images and overall hypnotic atmosphere lived down everything. I even enjoyed that cheesy moment with a bat doing the cunni. :D So I give it 3,5/5, my highest rating for vampire-themed films, as for now.

Shot in a historical castle in the small village of Crêvecoeur, Requiem for a Vampire finds director Jean Rollin's fourth female vampire movie. The castle was nice -- it was filled with expensive antiques -- but Rollin was more interested in the dungeons that overlooked the entire region.

Marie-Pierre Castel, who starred in Rollin's The Nude Vampire and Shiver of the Vampires along with her twin sister Catherine, stars and is joined by Mireille Dargent, whose agent was stealing her wages for the movie and Rollin figured that out and got her paid.

They play Marie (Castel) and Michelle (Dargent), who first appear as clowns on the run from unseen pursuers. Their driver is killed and they race into the woods where they are nearly buried alive in a cemetery and then an ancient castle filled with bats and a cozy bed to make love in. The castle is filled with skeletons and a male and female vampire. Of course, the male has designs on them, wanting them for his virginal eternal vampire brides, but Michelle ends up sleeping with another man which ruins those plans and almost destroys her relationship with her true love Marie.

Rollin wrote this in one sitting, piling story beats on top of one another with little care for plausibility or any connection. Then again, when was he any different? Amazingly, this played American grindhouses as Caged Virgins, a title that I guess makes as much sense as anything. One wonders what people thought when confronted by a near-wordless journey of two clown girls trying to shoot everything in their way and setting a man on fire before both finding their way to a vampiric master who finally decides that his bloodline must end.

He was learning however and got past censors by shooting a version where the girls stayed clothed, even when being whipped and while they engaged in a sapphic embrace. Most countries can handle horrific violence; the form of a nude woman is where the problems begin.

This is the only movie I've ever seen where a vampire bat goes down on a woman, so for that alone, Jean Rollin has my respect if not obsession.

"Rape," "Shivers," and "Requiem of a Vampire" all form a loose trilogy. (The titles are the only indication. All three cater to the same themes as everything else Rollin has done.) It's not entirely impossible to connect this film to "Shivers." It almost appears to be a prequel. This takes place in the same château that film was shot in. Both feature actress Dominique as a predatory female vampire. Marie-Pierre Castel, whose blond hair and big eyes make her hard to miss, appears in both films. Honestly, I was kind of hoping this movie would explain how the servant girls in "Shivers" came to stay at the castle. Nope. Story-wise, the movies are unrelated.

The film opens with an odd-ball, wholly Rollin-esque image: A girl, dressed as a clown, shooting a gun through the shattered window of a getaway car, the police in hot pursuit. There's another girl dressed as a clown in the front. The circumstances of the getaway are never explained and simply serve to strand the girls. They are, of course, lesbians. After an incident where one is almost buried alive, the two come to the vampire infested château. The three vampires who live there, an older man, an older woman, and a seductive lady vampire, quickly initiate the girls into the lifestyle. One of the girls is into the idea of immortality, the other not so much. As far as story goes, that's it. There's some stuff about the girls seducing men and one of those guys factors into the story later but, mostly, there's not a lot of narrative.

Rollin does create several bizarrely memorable tableaux throughout, the clown shootout only being the first. We see skeletons in robes standing around a pipe organ. The older male vampire is introduced by a green light shining on his face, the only moment of unintentional humor. In the middle of the movie, there's an extended sequence of explicit sex. Two ogre-like vampires try to force themselves on our protagonists and, when that doesn't work, instead ravage a series of girls chained up in the dungeon. The fondling and humping goes on for a long time and ends in an odd scene of a woman, with unshaven armpits, having a vampire bat land on her pubes. Typically, the film is nearly dialogue free until the 44 minute mark.

There's a lot of talk about the vampire bloodline ending. The girls' virginity is a plot-point but undermined by their lesbian frolicking and a scene of the brunette stripping and leading an oafish passing bicyclist on a wild goose chase. (It ends badly for him.) When the blond foils the brunette's plan for immortality, we get a long sequence of her whipping the nude, prone girl, a decidedly eroticized torture. The ending is a letdown, as the closest thing to a villain we have lets the protagonists go without issues. Dominquez's character doesn't do much. So, we've got a film without much story and very jumbled themes.

And yet I can't dislike this one. It's oddly gentle, despite the rape and torture. Even the most explicit moments have a playfulness to them. Like many of the director's films, the movie feels like a dream put to celluloid. Not because the images are particularly surreal but because the way the story progresses from one set-piece to another. I can't list it among his best work but it's still oddly likable.