6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A young honeymooning couple stop for the night at an ancient castle. Unbeknownst to them, the castle is home to a horde of vampires, who have their own plans for the couple.
Starring: Sandra Julien, Jean-Marie Durand, Jacques Robiolles, Michel Delahaye, Marie-Pierre CastelHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 73% |
Erotic | 29% |
Surreal | 12% |
Period | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.64:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
French: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Like George A. Romero with zombie movies, the late French filmmaker Jean Rollin was a godfather of the low-budget vampire erotica genre. But
where Romero took horror in a more realistic, violent and socially-pointed direction in the 1970s, his across-the-Atlantic contemporary specialized in
le fantastique, making sensual, surrealism-influenced nightmares filled with indelibly weird imagery and--for the time--envelope-pushing
nudity. And Rollin is even more of a cult figure than Romero. Until fairly recently, his films were hard to track down in the U.S., and even now he's
practically unknown outside a rabid circle of gothic horror-obsessed cinephiles.
I have a feeling he's about to get a slightly bigger audience. Kino Video and the U.K.'s Redemption Films are teaming up to release five of Rollin's early
movies in high definition on January 24th--The Nude Vampire, Shiver of the Vampires, The Iron Rose, Lips of Blood,
and Fascination--with more coming later in the year. Yesterday, we took a look at Rollin's first color film, The Nude Vampire--a movie
with ambitions its low budget couldn't quite achieve--and today we turn our attentions to Shiver of the Vampires, a semi-comic nudie-cutie
chiller that Rollin regarded as his "most accomplished" work. Oh yeah, and it's about hippie vamps, one of whom is a lesbian.
For a long time, Jean Rollin's films were only available in the U.S. by way of duped VHS tapes and then decent, but far from spectacular DVDs, so to see them in high definition is something of a revelation. The Blu-ray presentation is fairly consistent across all five films being released in this first batch of titles, but you can definitely tell when Rollin was working with a slightly larger budget. Compared to the relatively amateurish The Nude Vampire, Shiver of the Vampires has a noticeably more polished look, with better sets, better lighting, and better cinematography all around. Kino's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is true-to-source too, with no noise reduction, edge enhancement, or other unnecessary digital manipulations. (Conversely, the print is also presented as-is, which means you'll notice occasional--but unobtrusive--white specks and small scratches.) It is clear, however, that carefully attention has been paid to the color correction process, preserving Rollin's washes of bold primary and secondary colors and giving the image a satisfying density, with deep blacks and strong contrast. Clarity depends largely on the quality of the original footage--you can't do much if the shot was slightly out of focus to begin with--but Shiver of the Vampires is slightly sharper overall than its predecessor, and there are moments of truly fine high definition detail. Finally, there are no real compression issues to worry about. If you've been following Kino's Blu-ray track record, you know exactly what to expect from the Cinema of Jean Rollins series--the best possible prints, presented with minimal digital intervention.
Kino has given audiences two audio options for Shiver of the Vampires, the original French mix and an English dub, both presented in uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0. As with the picture quality, the audio sometimes exhibits evidence of the film's low-budget origins--dynamic tinniness, light hiss, audible pops and crackles--but Shiver sounds leagues above the comparatively muffled and poorly recorded Nude Vampire. Dialogue is brighter and cleaner, and the effects and music sound a bit more full. And oh the music. Shiver features an absolutely killer soundtrack of dark, vaguely Pink Floyd-ish, 1970s prog rock from the French band Acanthus, with guitars that jangle and squall and head-nodding drum fills. I should also mention that the English dub isn't all that bad--surprisingly--and the two actors who voice the cousins in English are actually quite funny. You'll probably still want to stick with the original French audio, but it's good to have options.
Unheralded horror filmmaker Jean Rollin is finally getting his high definition due, with five of his early films being released in wonderful Blu-ray editions by Kino-Lorber and Redemption Films. The Shiver of the Vampires is one of the best of the batch--it's fun and surprisingly funny and sexy in a laughable kind of way--but gothic horror fan are definitely going to want to own all of these films. Over the next few days we'll have reviews up for the rest of the series, so continue to check back in, but there's no need to hesitate on pre-ordering the movies on Amazon if you're just waiting for a presentation analysis--they all look fantastic on Blu-ray. Recommended!
Le frisson des vampires / Strange Things Happen at Night | Indicator Series | Limited Edition
1971
Le frisson des vampires / Strange Things Happen at Night | Indicator Series | Limited Edition
1971
Limited Edition | Indicator Series
1979
La vampire nue | Limited Edition | Indicator Series
1970
Le viol du vampire | Indicator Series | Limited Edition
1968
Caged Virgins / Vierges et vampires / Requiem pour un vampire
1971-1973
Lèvres de sang | Limited Edition | Indicator Series
1975
Les deux orphelines vampires | Indicator Series | Limited Edition
1997
Les démoniaques | Limited Edition | Indicator Series
1974
La rose de fer
1973
La nuit des traquées | Indicator Series | Limited Edition
1980
Special 2-Disc Limited Edition
1971
La fille de Dracula
1972
The Mask of Satan / La maschera del demonio | The Mario Bava Collection
1960
AIP Cut | 60th Anniversary
1963
La perversa caricia de Satán
1976
呪いの館 血を吸う眼 / Noroi no yakata: Chi o suu me
1971
幽霊屋敷の恐怖 血を吸う人形 / Chi o suu ningyô
1970
Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel Trecento... / The Reincarnation of Isabel | Indicator Series | Limited Edition
1973
El gran amor del conde Drácula / Cemetery Girls / Dracula's Virgin Lovers / The Great Love of Count Dracula
1973
L'amante del vampiro
1960
El retorno del hombre lobo
1981