Requiem for a Vampire (1971)

A vampire lures beautiful young women dressed as clowns to his castle in Europe.How many movies have both clowns and vampires? How about clowns with guns? French clowns with guns? And that is only five minutes into a film that has some of the sexiest women Jean Rollin has featured exhibiting his own brand of eroticism (some of which clearly borders on rape).Being from Rollin, are we surprised that this film faced censorship? The scene where Mireille Dargent is whips Marie-Pierre Castel has two versions. As does the scene where Castel and Dargent make love and the scene where Dargent is being chased by the man. I suppose that two questions can be asked: should we have a director change his vision for decency? And, is there any real purpose to having the women be nude? I will not answer either one.I would say this film is overall better and more finely constructed than "The Nude Vampire", and has far more cohesion than "Rape of the Vampire". I mean, this one actually has a clear set of heroines and a plot!

Jean Rollin's films collect praise the way that a splat of dog excrement on the sidewalk collects flies. One *sees* the flies, but one is never quite sure *how* the flies know the crap is there, or exactly what they're so excited about.Rollin's defenders love to blather on about his "style", his "imagination", his "eye", and his deep understanding of Heidigger's "uncertainty principle". (Well, maybe not the last thing.) But frankly, Rollin is merely a remixer of other, far superior directors. Just one example: someone here mentioned how clever it was that he used "preserved human arms as candle-holders!" News to them: Jean Cocteau came up with that idea, and used it in his "La Belle et la Bête", 25 years earlier. I could cite the original sources of every other bit of "inspiration" in this flick, but why bother?Neither of the two main chicks are very attractive. I see better looking women every day, and you probably do too. And both are seriously stupid (which probably makes them more attractive to some guys, but I digress). They get in a low-speed car chase with someone (the police?), who for some inexplicable reason are driving a Renault 16, which has never been used as a cop car, not even in an alternate reality. When their motorcycle runs out of gas, they just leave it by the side of the road. When they're hungry, they con a roach-coach guy out of some lettuce (but it never occurs to them to steal his vehicle or his money). They choose to hide in a cemetery, never thinking that it might be spooky in there. I found that I was soon rooting for whoever might be the first to do them in. Alas, I waited and waited and waited...The director is at least as stupid as his chicks are. How stupid? He terrorizes the chicks with...flying foxes. Yes, the shots of the two being frightened by a pair of bats hanging from a tree, was filmed with flying foxes -- those utterly harmless fruit-eating bats that some people keep as pets. As soon as Rollin has made his point with these poor critters, he then sticks fake vampire bats to the chicks' necks. As in...with adhesive. Not even stock shots of vampire bats lapping blood, not even semi-animated bats flapping menacingly around the girls. Lee Press-On Bats.Revolvers mysteriously appear and disappear in the chicks' hands as they haplessly try to defend themselves. Each dispenses about 20 bullets, not one of them having even the slightest effect on their pursuers. Note to future film victims: if your pursuer hasn't been affected by the first 5 bullets you pump into them, odds are good that the 6th isn't going to make much difference. You might want to save it for later. Just a thought.The evil vampires are neither attractive nor menacing; they look more bored than anything else. I know: they're the most dangerous when they're bored. Their fangs look like Lee Press-On Fangs. You know, I'm beginning to wonder if this entire film wasn't an infomercial for the fine family of Lee Press-On products... There's a truly repellent and utterly gratuitous rape scene that's neither logical nor titillating; it just made me want to wash my eyes out and ask for the 5 minutes it took of my life, back.Look: I like a trashy film as much as the next guy. I enjoy Jess Franco's "Los Vampyros Lesbos" and some of his other work. I occasionally find Dario Argento's work effective. But "Requiem for a Vampire" is just sad. It lacks any redeeming features (I gave it 2 stars just for the cinematography which is at least colorful), and it does nothing as well as other films in its genre do. I've come to the conclusion that liking C-grade sexploitation films of this era is sort of like a 16 year-old boy going on about how "hot" some porn "actress" with silicone-enhanced 44-D breasts is. He thinks it will make him seem more cool and worldly, but really it just betrays his lack of experience and taste. But hey! --I'm sure that even a tired old whore is glad to have a fan.

After escaping an auto shootout, two sexy female clowns (yeah) stumble upon a mysterious old castle full of classy vampires and some giant viking-type men. There, they bear witness to the vampyric rituals and are forced to remain as vampires, but they must lose their virginity first to become a real vampire.Like many Jean Rollin films, Requiem pour un Vampire is a very erotic, dreamlike film that utilizes limited dialogue and unlimited sexy French women. . . even though more than a few of them actually do have hairy armpits (I'm not just stereotyping!). Rollin includes more than a few fantastically cool ideas. . . especially the vampire bats that performed oral sex on the captive women. It's very well shot, Rollin's direction is superb in this picture. And, while it does lack a bit in the story, it still maintains a very enjoyable and likable fairytale-like quality. As any fan of this type of erotic horror will tell you, as long as you've got plenty of hot people getting acquainted, some blood, and a pretty setting. . . you're all set. There's really not too much to say about this film other than. . . enjoy it.Final verdict: 7.5/10.Vive La France! -AP3-

This is not Jean Rollin's best film, but it might be his most essential one for fans because it combines the moody visuals of films like "Fascination" and "Two Orphan Vampires" with the perverse softcore sex of films like "Bacchanales Sexuales". Two teenage virgins run away from a school party (which in the strange Rollin universe somehow involves dressing as clowns, having a shoot-out with police, and disposing of the body of their dead male accomplice in a burning car). After a bizarre accident while walking through a graveyard that almost results in one girl being buried alive, they arrive at a deserted castle and do what any two virgins would do in a 70's Eurohorror/sex movie--strip off all their clothes for some hot lesbian action. Soon though they meet the occupants of the castle who are, of course, vampires. Freely rewriting the vampire rulebook, Rollin's vampires in this movie can not pass their curse on to anyone except virgins. Any non-virgins are chained to the wall while the monstrous man-servants have their way with them in gratuitous sex scenes before the female vampire suck their blood from their breasts and the male vampire changes into a bat to commit an act of bestiality that no pervert in the world would find erotic (you have admire the sheer audacity of Rollin if nothing else).The conflict happens when one girl decides to lose her virginity while the other decides to preserve hers and join the ranks of the living dead. But the bonds of love and friendship are not easily broken. This movie addresses some real themes of coming-of-age and friendship (albeit in a fantastical and at times ridiculous milieu), but no one will confuse it with "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer". If you're looking for sex,on the other hand, you certainly won't be disappointed, but unlike all the erotic vampire movies they churn out these days, this is a vampire film with a lot of sex, not a sex film with vampiric trappings. And there is something very personal and obsessive about Rollin's films that the modern-day hacks can never hope imitate. This movie contains all manner of memorable images--preserved human arms holding candles, posed skeletons dressed in clerical robes, a girl in a mini-skirt lying on a coffin being buried alive by oblivious gravediggers, a girl clamoring around the ruins of a Gothic castle dressed in nothing but knee socks. Good or bad, Rollin is definitely a one-of-a-kind filmmaker.