But Rape of the Vampire falls into neither classic, nor artistic, nor cheesy-good. It is simply horrible.

In high school, we made a film called Captain Ecology, which could possibly rival this film on editing and plot and acting. Just count your lucky stars that it will never show up for sale anywhere. Feel disappointed? Then go ahead and pick up this piece of ripened cheese.

Filmed originally in 1968 as a short, this French film was literally booed at its opening. Quite risque for its time, there was plenty of blood and nudity, and perhaps fans of the genre weren't ready for such bold entertainment; or perhaps they knew a bad movie when they saw it. Today, it will seem tame, but it still has the capacity to bore you to tears.

Filmed entirely in B&W and subtitled in English, the story is irritatingly (I'm sure it was meant to be artistic) interspersed with random flashes of inconsequential scenes, and the editing is jerky and poorly done even by high school standards.

The Plot? Well, if you can call it a plot, a group of four women wander about in diaphanous, sheer dresses, believing that they are vampires. After they all die in the first half, they are miraculously brought back to life for the second half, in which another vampire lady joins them and they finally grow teeth. That's about it. Oh, and there is some naked frolicking in the surf.

Rape of the Vampire isn't even Campy, it's just plain bad. If you want blood, buy a bloody movie. If you want nudity, buy a Playboy DVD. If you want artisitic, buy an art film that won an award somewhere. But stay away from this flick at all costs, unless you are truly a drooling Rollin fanatic.


A romantic experimental film   September 15, 2004
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

An original, subversive and boldness film that talks better than any other of Rollin's movies about his peculiar conception of cinema:a mixture of gothic horror imaginary, politic surrealism, dark romanticism and pulp sexy comic book aesthetic, and supported in camera experimentation and improvised performances . The film is conceived as a collage of images, following the estructure of his favourite painter, Clovis Trouille, solution that allows him to blends much of the referents that conform his ambiguous imagination joining with talent Gothic and romantic tradition with avant-garde concepts and experimentation . This is :the oniric poetry of Tristan Corbiere, the sexy shocker surrealism of Georges Bataille, the provocative and anticlerical cinema of Luis Bunuel, the bizarro and pulp melodrama style of Gaston Leroux and the poetic realism of Jacques Prevert.The picture is shown as a film in two parts,working the closing credits of the first one as an inflexion or keyhole to a surreal vampire tale . An amoral,ludic and non-narrative vampire's picture, half romantic, half conceptual and totally experimental.


Great film!   March 1, 2002
 4 out of 14 found this review helpful

One of Rollin's earliest, and best. Very sureal. A must for all Rollin fan's.


Confusing   January 8, 2003
 3 out of 8 found this review helpful

Nobody buys a Jean Rollin film for the plot. Sit back and be boggled by visual delights, or disturbed by them.

This film is set in two parts and begins with four sisters who believe themselves to be vampires, and some ends up being one.

I can't explain much because, I have to admit, I didn't understand much of this film. But it looks good.


it's great, it's boring, it's sorta [racy]   October 10, 2003
 2 out of 5 found this review helpful

not too rapey, pretty vampirey, pretty boring in a good way. this had great music, and some really beautiful shots, i have to say i do prefer color, and i wish there were trailers for similar films on these releases, but it's a five star for any 60-70s foreign vampire...lovers.