Requiem for a Vampire Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Requiem for a Vampire Blu-ray Movie Review

One of Rollin's career highlights.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater May 15, 2012

In January, Kino-Lorber and Redemption Films inaugurated their new distribution partnership with the "Cinema of Jean Rollin" series, releasing five of Rollin's erotic horror films on Blu-ray with new high definition remasters. This month, we get three additional titles, each evincing a different aspect of the underdog French director's hit-or-miss body of work. 1974's Demoniacs is perhaps Rollin at his most atypical, while his first feature, 1968's The Rape of the Vampire , serves as a kind of primer for his usual thematic touchstones and directorial trademarks--from lesbian vampires and codependent female leads, to crumbling gothic castles, sexual power struggles, and corrupted innocence. Rollin repeated himself so often--visually and ideologically--that it wouldn't be unfair to claim he spent much of his career loosely remaking the same film with varying degrees of success. But if that's the case, 1973's Requiem for a Vampire is one of his most successful, fully realized efforts. Rollin always claimed it as a favorite among his own movies, and it's not hard to see why--it has all the elements we might call "Rollin-esque," but far less of the narrative confusion and general amateurism that hinders many of his other films.

In true Rollin fashion, Requiem opens enigmatically with an event that's neither prefaced nor explained until much later. Two young women, Marie (Marie-Pierre Castel) and Michelle (Mireille Dargent), dressed and made up as sad clowns, are fleeing the scene of some unspecified crime in a car driven by a male accomplice. After a shootout--with the cops or other criminals, we're not quite sure--the man dies, whispering only the words "Water Chateaux." The girls burn his body inside the car, change into skimpy schoolgirl-type outfits, and set off across the countryside on a motorcycle. Where did they get the bike, you ask? Good question, but Rollin once again provides no answer.

We get the immediate sense that Marie and Michelle are Lolita-like teases, obviously aware of their own jail-bait sexiness. In one scene, Marie lures a practically drooling man into the woods, risking rape, so that Michelle can steal from his food truck. At the same time, we're meant to see the two girls as virginal, innocents flirting with sex and danger but never giving in entirely. Eventually, they do stumble across the "Water Chateaux," a decrepit, seemingly abandoned castle in the middle of nowhere. Upstairs, they discover a fur-blanketed bed and commence nude cuddling--the "soft-X" version of making love--but their sapphic bliss is interrupted when they hear a noise and discover a rotting corpse in the cellar.

But that's only the start. The girls have inadvertently stumbled into the lair of "the last of the vampires," an ancient bloodsucker with two not-yet- immortal apprentices--Erica (Shiver of the Vampire's Dominique) and Louise (Louise Dhour)--who are tasked with finding new converts to the undead race. As nubile virgins, of course, Marie and Michelle make fine candidates and are promptly captured and enslaved. Even when they manage to escape the castle's walls, some bewitchment causes all roads to lead back to the chateaux, partially resigning the girls to their fate. Marie realizes the only way out is to give up her virginity--for some reason, the last of the vampires has no use for the already despoiled--so she convinces a handsome local chap (Philippe Gaste) to do the deed, putting him in danger of vampiric retribution. I'll say no more, plot-wise, but there is a neat mini-twist at the end that sheds new, sympathetic light on the character of the vampire.

As usual, Rollin's producers demanded he insert plenty of nudity and S&M kink, and the director dutifully obliged. (I have a hard time believing Rollin was too put out by this requirement.) Requiem is infamous for two particularly graphic scenes, which are reproduced in their entirety for this wholly uncut version of the film. The first is a lengthy, red-lit dungeon-rape scene where Erica's hairy minions violently have their way with two chained-up girls whom we never see again. It's uncomfortable--as it's quite erotically shot--but it's almost laughably gratuitous. The only plausible "narrative" reason I can see to have the scene in the film is to show what might happen to Marie and Michelle if they don't carefully follow the vampirettes' orders, but that's thin justification at best. More essential and character-driven is the scene where Michelle is forced to whip a naked Marie in order to coax out the location of Marie's spur-of-the-moment lover.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes Requiem better than some of Rollin's other, similar films--it just feels like everything comes together in a more satisfying way. The pacing is still slow, but it seems more deliberate and calculated. There are still continuity errors galore--like the curious case of the girls' disappearing and reappearing guns--but this only enhances the dreamlike atmosphere. What I love most about the film is its dark adult fairytale vibe of unfolding mystery and creeping dread. You get the sense that anything can happen, and there are strange surprises and terrors and each new scene. Michelle getting buried alive? Spooky. Human arms for candle holders, Jean Cocteau-style? A sly surrealist homage. A bat nesting in a woman's pubic hair? Weird, but sure, why not?

Requiem for a Vampire Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Requiem for a Vampire is resurrected on Blu-ray with a brand-new 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's satisfyingly filmic and natural looking. As usual, Kino essentially presents the print "as is," which means that you'll see occasional specks and vertical scratches--nothing especially distracting--but also that there's no needless digital tinkering. No texture-smearing DNR. No halo-inducing edge enhancement. No unfaithful color alterations. The 35mm picture was probably never sharp sharp, but the increase in clarity from DVD to Blu-ray is apparent from the very first shot, and I have no doubt Kino wrung as much detail out of the print as possible. What impresses most about this transfer are the wonderful colors, from the lush green forest foliage and Marie's primary red jumper to the splashes of almost-neon green and orange light that Rollin sometimes throws into the frame. Black levels are dense without crushing too much shadow detail, and the overall contrast seems spot-on. It's possible there are some compression artifacts hiding amid the film's sometimes-chunky grain structure, but I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Requiem looks wonderful.

Requiem for a Vampire Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kino has supplied two audio options here, the original French mix and an English dub, both presented in uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0. Purists will want to stick with the French, of course, but I was surprised by the dub--it's actually quite good, and I don't get to say that often. Dynamically and clarity- wise, there's not much of a difference between the two tracks. Both are entirely listenable, so long as you understand you're watching a low-budget 1970s vampire movie and not a top-tier present day action film. Some of the sound effects are a bit brash and thin, but I suspect this has always been the case. Likewise, there a few pops and crackles and the occasional hiss--nothing out of the ordinary for caliber of b-movie. Dialogue--what little of it there is--is always intelligible and balanced. The real stand-out element of the mix, though, is Pierre Raph's varied and effective score, which switches between dueling flutes and oboes, jazzy bass, crazy drum solos, and funky psychedelia, depending on the scene. The disc includes optional English subtitles, which appear in white, easily readable lettering.

Requiem for a Vampire Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction by Jean Rollin (1080p, 2:27): Jean Rollin explains how he wrote the script in one night. One night!
• The Shiver of a Requiem (1080p, 17:41): A new mini-documentary directed by Daniel Gouyette, featuring interviews with Rollin collaborators Natalie Perrey and Jean-Noel Delamarre.
• Louise Dhour Interview (SD, 10:07): Actress Louise Dhour, who died in 2010, discusses the making of Requiem for a Vampire and how she met Rollin.
• Original Trailers (SD): Includes the French, English, and American trailers.
• Jean Rollin Trailers (1080p): Here you'll find trailers for the other seven Jean Rollin releases thus far.
• Booklet: A 15-page booklet with photos and an essay by Tim Lucas, the founder and editor of Video Watchdog.

Requiem for a Vampire Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

To some extent, if you've seen one Jean Rollin film you've seen most of them, as they tend to share much of the same visual and thematic DNA, only in different arrangements. Requiem for a Vampire is one of the better examples, and if you're completely new to Rollin, it's a good place to start. As usual, Kino has done a fine job with the Blu-ray presentation, minus a few age-related scratches and specks, and the disc comes with some great interviews in the "extras" section. It's not for the prudish, but Requiem comes recommended for all fans of gothic horror, '70s erotica, and cult Euro-sleaze.