Naked lesbian vampires. Again. (The Shiver Of The Vampires (DVD))

Member Name: hogsflesh

Product:	The Shiver Of The Vampires (DVD)
Date:	28/09/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks incredible, surreal and strange

Disadvantages: Not much in the way of plot

A review of the Redemption DVD which costs about £6 on amazon at time of writing.

Frenchman Jean Rollin is probably the most interesting of the directors of what I call 'mucky vampire movies' - sexploitation flicks that happen to be about vampires. Naked lesbian vampires, mostly. They became very popular in European exploitation in the late 60s/early 70s, with Rollin at the forefront. This offering, from 1971, is probably my favourite of his films.

A newly married couple, Antoine and Isle, go to visit Isle's male cousins at their castle (this is set in the present day). First they're told that the cousins have just died, but then they turn up alive and seemingly well. Meanwhile, a naked female vampire is hanging around, taking an interest in Isle (who doesn't try too hard to fight her off). Two pert, naked bisexual servants round off the cast.

I get a little impatient with vampire films that don't make any effort at all to be scary, and this one is so unscary I'm not sure you'd even call it a horror film. Nor is it particularly sexually explicit (this was quite a disappointment when I first got to see it - some particularly lurid stills from this film featured in some of the racier horror film books I had in my youth). There's plenty of female nudity, but no actual sex. Considering Rollin's reputation as *the* go-to guy for lesbian vampire movies, this is a curiously tame affair. I'm not sure what earns this its 18 certificate; possibly something in one of the extras.

Still, as long as you know what you're getting, this is well worth a look. There's a genuine sense of surrealism in the way this film is shot. It's not quite dreamlike, but it's getting there - characters glide in and out of shot; the camera randomly cuts to a naked girl sitting on a wall; a naked woman suddenly appears in a grandfather clock. As a purely visual experience this is great fun.

It's genuinely well made (although some of the location shots aren't very well lit, and there's some really bad day-for-night stuff towards the end). Rollin obviously had real talent as a director, with individual shots all offering something of interest. Rollin is most frequently mentioned alongside the dire Jess Franco, but the difference between the two is astronomical (at least at this stage; Rollin was later responsible for the appalling Zombie Lake). The use of red lighting creates some especially striking shots, and the castle is festooned with weird decorations: skulls, peculiar icons, dead fish.

Of course, if you don't enjoy films as purely visual spectacle, and want a coherent plot or characters you can relate to, you might not get on too well with this. Rollin isn't interested in plot; you could re-edit the individual shots of this film together in a completely random order and it wouldn't actually make any difference. The characters are either clichés, absurdly camp, or have no personality at all. And I have no idea why it's called Shiver of the Vampires - although often naked, the vampires don't seem to feel the cold particularly.

The actors give it their best shot. Most of the women have probably been cast for their looks, but they have some talent. The two cousins are unbelievable - ridiculously camp, twitchy creeps who lecture us interminably about Isis worship and vampirism while wearing incredible outfits - purple crushed velvet flares, shirts so frilly that even Jon Pertwee would have shied away, and astonishing jackets that belong on a prog rock album cover. It's impossible to take them seriously, and I can't believe they weren't intended to bring a bit of light relief, even if ultimately their role in the film is meant to be sinister and tragic. The DVD is in French with subtitles, and although the dialogue doesn't match the lip movements, it does at least spare us the witless American dubbing these things usually have.

The most striking thing about the film is the soundtrack - in keeping with the astonishing clothes worn by the cousins, it's a prog-tastic treat. Full of heavy guitar and organ riffs, at times it resembles early Pink Floyd (specifically Interstellar Overdrive and A Saucerful of Secrets), at others bits of Tommy by The Who (Amazing Journey, or Overture). It's not the kind of music you'd expect to find in something like this at all, and it completely transforms what would be a rather lethargic bit of mild vampire erotica into a kind of "Kenneth Anger meets Ken Russell in Led Zeppelin's gazebo" affair. One of my favourite soundtracks of its type.

It's a Redemption DVD, with all that entails. They've found a very good quality print, which is nice. And they've included a decent collection of lobby cards, posters etc as extras. But being Redemption, the front cover of the DVD is a posed bit of foolishness that doesn't relate to the film. Before you get to the menu there's a minute-long video clip in which naked women with grotesque, fake boobs pretend to be lesbian vampires, presumably for our delectation (mmm, surgery scars under breasts are just *so* appealing). Even worse is a music video from Redemption's own record label, included as an extra, in which a scantily clad woman-of-a-certain-age sings, surrounded by naked gothed-up chicks making out. I got through 30 seconds before I had to turn it off.

Still, while their brand identity makes me vaguely ashamed to be human, Redemption do make entertaining films available, and they generally aren't too expensive. Shiver of the Vampires is a Gallic treat for those who like their lesbian vampire movies to be a bit inscrutable, a bit dreamlike, and very, very prog.

Summary: A classy French arty naked-vampire movie