Tuesday, October 16, 2012

October Challenge: Le Frisson des Vampires (1971)

Le Frisson des Vampires (1971)

Oh. Jean Rollin, you tempt me so.  I enjoyed Fascination and was hoping for something similar here.

I did get something similar here, but this one was not quite as good as Fascination.
Also known as "The Shiver of the Vampires" or "Thrill of the Vampire" this movie features plenty of blood, nudity, lesbian overtones and implied incest. So everything you would expect from a Jean Rollin film.
The film follows the familiar ground of two young lovers coming upon a castle, in this case the castle of the young bride's cousins.  They hear the cousins are dead but go up to the castle anyway.  Here they encounter two servant girls that tell them their Masters will be along soon.  The cousins appear and oddly no one seems shocked.  But then again no one was shocked either at the supposed human sacrifice either.
Isla, the bride, is targeted by a vampire, Isolde that must have been the one that also converted her cousins (who were also former Vampire hunters).  The two servant girls spend most of their time naked or nearly so, oh and they are also lovers.

The movie itself has a lot of issues.  Consitent plot is only the minor one.  Frankly I found myself not really caring for these characters really at all.  Plus the story was a bit dull to be honest. The cinematography was odd with the constant spinning around, but the sets were very cool. Together it did give you the feeling of being somewhere else or even somewhen else.

Plus I was distracted on how much Sandra Julien (Isla) looks like Lily Cole.


Still though. I do enjoy a vampire flick.
You can see scenes from the movie over at this Jean Rollin blog.
http://requiemforjeanrollin.blogspot.com/2009/12/jean-rollin-thrill-of-vampires.html

Tally: Watched 19, New 15

What are you watching?


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

loving these reviews and spotlight of rollin's films. and gotta agree...this one left me a bit flat. and further agree that fascination is so far his standout work(gorgeous girls and the male lead is perfect in that role).