(1980)
Overall: GOOD
One of Jean Rollin's most beautiful if still largely impenetrable films, La Nuit des Traquées, (The Night of the Hunted), was made on virtually nothing within a nine day shooting schedule. Rollin had done a number of adult films at the time and growing bored with such work, he convinced producer Lionel Wallmann to let him make a quasi-horror movie with pornographic actors, once again including the always alluring Brigitte Lahaie. The result is an incredibly lethargic-paced meditation, relatively low on both nudity and gore but overwhelming with comatose-inducing atmosphere. As one of Rollin's cinematic trademarks had always been quiet, hypnotic, and very slow moving scenes, a film about victims of an environmental accident whose brain cells deteriorate to the point of becoming zombie-like, human vegetables is perfectly fitting. Music and dialog are used equally sparingly and switching to a contemporary, urban setting instead of dilapidated chateaus and graveyards, Rollin's ability to evoke a chilling mood is still unwavering. While appropriate for the material, the film is still too stagnant to recommend to anyone but the most devout Rollin fans, (ideally ones that are loaded up on caffeine as to stay awake), but its setting and haunting themes of succumbing to mental illness are a welcome departure.
(1981)
Dir - Jean Rollin/Julian de Laserna
Overall: WOOF
One of the most boring zombie films ever made was the rushed hack-job Zombie Lake, (Le lac des morts vivants). A French/Spanish co-production that was originally to be directed by Jesus Franco, (and stars one of his mainstays Howard Vernon), Jean Rollin came in with virtually no notice once Franco had a falling out with the distributor. With the same basic Nazi zombie premise as Ken Wiederhorn's 1977 film Shock Waves except done on a piss poor budget, the entire production seems noticeably uninspired. Though its arduous pacing may be obvious due to Rollin being behind the lens, the move in fact has none of the filmmaker's strange, dreamlike style. It is just atrociously dull. Stilted dubbing, awful makeup effects, a stagnant plot that frequently stops cold in addition to never picking up momentum in the first place, random, stock music; the whole thing feels like it was pieced together while everyone involved was busy doing something else at the same time. A topless woman runs into a bar screaming "Lake! Lake!", Rollin makes a small appearance where he appears to be kissed to death by zombies, and another wide-eyed zombie makes friends with a small girl, so there are at least a few chuckles to be found if you can stay awake through everything else.
(1982)
Overall: MEH
Returning to his primary theme of beautiful, aloof women succumbing to vampirism or something, Jean Rollin's La Morte Vivante, (The Living Dead Girl), also ups the gore level considerably. The very opening scene features the undead, zombie-fied blood fiend of the title, (Françoise Blanchard, working with Rollin for the first time here), poking a man's eyeballs out and slicing another one's throat open with her nails, both in fully-lit, close-up detail. Later on, a woman gets set on fire and another one gets her stomach torn open so there is plenty of nastiness to be sure. There are some unfortunately annoying characters present as well with a half-American couple eating up screen time while arguing with each other. Though nudity is still liberally present, the emphasis is less on eroticism than usual for the filmmaker. The result is more repulsive at regular instances than haunting, which is a shame in that it still flows sluggishly without consistently creating the right mesmerizing mood. There are still moments that are strangely enticing though and the ending in particular finds the right balance of eeriness and grotesqueness. It is just a shame that the rest of the film often fails to live up to such a finale.
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