Frisson des vampires, Le (1971)

Director:

Jean Rollin

Writers:

Monique Natan (writer)
Jean Rollin (writer)

Release Date:

January 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

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. |

Plot Keywords:

Gothic | Lesbian | Lesbianism | Beautiful Woman | Surreal

Cast

Sandra Julien	...	Isa
Jean-Marie Durand	...	Antoine
Jacques Robiolles	...	2nd vampire
Michel Delahaye	...	1st vampire
Marie-Pierre Castel	...	Maid (as Marie-Pierre Tricot)
Kuelan Herce	...	Maid
Nicole Nancel	...	Isabelle
Dominique	...	Isolde

Also Known As:

Sex and the Vampire
Strange Things Happen at Night (USA)
The Shiver of the Vampires (USA) (DVD title)
The Terror of the Vampires
Thrill of the Vampires
Vampire Thrills

Runtime:

France:95 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | France:-16 (TV rating) | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:R

Company:

Les Films ABC

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lèvres de sang (1975)

very strange and very cool

The more I see the films of Jean Rollin the more I want, well, more. Shiver of the Vampires is probably the strangest of any films by Rollin I've seen yet and it has an "ahead of its time" rock soundtrack which is quite good too. The basic story (and it is pretty basic) is that a newly married couple go to visit the wife's eccentric cousins at a castle, only to find the cousins are both recently deceased. Seems they were vampire hunters and now they're vampires. But, the cousin's two strange servant-girls are still at the castle, and they welcome the young couple in to stay, and they allude to the fact that their masters are not gone, and in a way they're correct, but not in the way that the young wife hopes. Of course the young wife is an immediate target for being turned (into a vampire, that is) and on their first night a charming goth lesbian vampire comes out of the grandfather clock for a tryst. Beyone that, well, it's kind of standard, plot-wise, but not visually. Plenty of nudity and lots of interesting little lectures by the two cousins turned vampire, one of whom sort of resembles Joey Ramone. That is, if Joey Ramone was a French vampire. I found this to be highly entertaining and definitely very weird, and it appealed to me a lot. Don't look for lots of continuity and a neat little story that gets neatly wrapped up though, this is a Jean Rollin film and that's not generally done, it seems. Very cool stuff. 9 out of 10.