"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.
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.