(1971)
Overall: MEH
The forth film in a row to involve vampires, naked women, and abandoned ruins and chateaus, Jean Rollin's Requiem for a Vampire, (Requiem pour un Vampire), sufferers too much from the director's customary, lackadaisical pacing to truly stand as one of his better works. That said, it has plenty of the filmmaker's other wonderful, curious trademarks on display. There are shots of hands protruding out of the stone walls, robed skeletons standing in a church, bats eating out a woman's vagina, (or something), two women dressed as clowns in a high-speed shoot out, a piano being played outside in the middle of a wooded area, and almost childish visuals with vampires opening up their red capes and revealing their silly, awkward looking fangs. Rollin was often a fan of fusing some of these campy, horror cliches as well as preposterous dialog with copious amounts of eerie, tranquil scenery, nudity, and a dab or two of nasty violence, making the whole thing that much more odd to behold. For nearly the first thirty minutes here though, nothing seems to be happening and random sex, rape, and torture scenes slow things down even further later on. It is still frequently fascinating, just a step or two down from some of his more commendable movies.
(1974)
Overall: MEH
Jean Rollin's follow-up to his first non-vampire film The Iron Rose continued in that vein with Demoniacs, (Les Démoniaques). Wrought with the usual budgetary problems as well as some non-ideal casting choices allegedly, Rollin attempted a fairytale-esque adventure film that appealed to his more youthful exuberance from reading pirate stories and the like when he was a kid. That mixed with even more nudity and violence than usual. As with every movie from the director, Demoniacs has a number of surreal, notable moments, the best of which is probably in a pub adorned with Halloween decorations where a mad Captain hallucinates and sees the ghosts of the two young women he may or may not have just killed. Another steadfast Rollin motif of a woman in clown make-up also shows up and there are more vague, unimportant religious symbolism that further baffles and enthralls in equal measure. Elsewhere, too much rape and boring sex scenes plod everything down and while the ending makes as much sense as any for a Rollin movie, (meaning none at all), it is still a bit underwhelming. Not without its merit here and there, Demoniacs' imperfections unfortunately render it a missed opportunity of sorts.
(1978)
Overall: MEH
Made before George Romero's Dawn of the Dead dropped, Jean Rollin's quasi-answer to the zombie film was The Grapes of Death, (Les Raisins de la Mort). While it is an interesting enough take on the sub-genre, (there are no reanimated corpses here, just infected people who lapse in and out of mindlessly violent outbursts), it is structured very much like your typical, apocalyptic zombie film with characters on the run, growing paranoid, and consistently hiding from all of the crazies after them. The budget is sparse yet effectively utilized, the simple make-up is more pus-like than bloody, and the deserted village and countryside that the movie takes place in elevates the doomsday feel. Being a Rollin film of course, it drags along at large intervals with only a small handful of set pieces and lots of slowly-walking-around-moments in between. The conclusion is sadly very weak as well, forcefully undoing the would-be happy ending with an unnecessary and rather dumb final moment of unpleasantness. Rare for a Rollin movie, there is even some mild social commentary on hand and honestly it is a bit disappointing that Grapes of Death is so straightforward. The tone may be low-key and the pacing as deliberate as ever, but the dreamlike, truly bizarre aura of most of Rollin's work is far more lacking. It is a step in a different direction for the filmmaker, but also one that does not play to the man's strengths as much as it should.
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