D V D C R Y P T

The Dark Side Sexy Vampire Double Feature: REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE / FASCINATION

REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE

Directed by Jean Rollin
Written by Jean Rollin
Produced by Jean Rollin and Sam Selsky
Cinematography by Renan Pollès
Music by Pierre Raph Cast: Marie-Pierre Castel, Mireille Dargent, Philipe Gaste, Dominique, Louise Dhour & Paul Bisciglia

1973/88 minutes/Color/Stereo
1.66:1/French/France/PAL Region 0

FASCINATION

Directed by Jean Rollin
Produced by Joe De Lara
Cinematography by Georgie Fromentin
Music by Philippe D'Aram
Cast: Brigitte Lahaie, Franca Mai, Jean-Marie Lemaire, Fanny Magier, Muriel Montosse & Sophie Noel

1979/83 minutes/Color/Stereo
1.66:1/French/France/PAL Region 0

Review from the Dark Side DVD

REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE

Two young women, dressed as clowns, and a man are on the run are being chased. The man gets shot, so the girls decides to leave him alone and flee through the countryside. After a long walk, they end up in what looks like an isolated inhabited old castle. Infact, the place is the home of a cult of vampires. The master wants to use the young girls as progeny to continue his bloodline. While the brunette easily falls into this plan, the blonde one doesn't want to become a vampire and finds a man in a cemetary to make love to her so she won't be a virgin anymore. For the vampires, things might not turn out the way the want.

Also known as VIRGINS AND VAMPIRES and CAGED VIRGINS, this was the first time Rollin introduced the two lead girls characters aspect which later became a trademark in his films. Almost devoid of spoken dialogue, Rollin used a surreal storyline, nice settings like an abandon castle, old cemetary, country fields and effective music to have the film speak for itself. Presented in a 1.66:1 ratio the film looks good but nothing spectacular. There is some scratch and grains from time to time but nothing alarming. As for the audio, we get the original French track with optional English subtitles. The film is separated in 12 chapters, the animated menus are nicely done and features music. We also get the theatrical trailer in which the various titles for the film appear in it, there's a nice still gallery featuring some photos from the film and various artwork.

FASCINATION

Jean Rollin, vampires and Brigitte Lahaie! Certainly one of the best from Rollin, in FASCINATION we follow a blond man (the over reacting Jean-Marie Lemaire) who tries to escape from some country folks who he owes money. He finds himself in a castle that seems to be inhabited... being a Rollin film i'm sure you can pretty much all figure out the rest. Two young women, one played by an all time fav of mine Brigitte Lahaie and the almost equally stunning Franca Mai, seems to be normal girls... but we know they aren't. The two young women are waiting for some friends to come by at midnight for a special event. In the meantime, the country folks are trying to get in the castle but they shouldn't mess with Lahaie... especially when she is holding a scythe. Not really a vampire film but a stunning and tragic film.

Like REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE, FASCINATION is presented in a 1.66:1 ratio. It looks good but nothing spectacular. There is some scratch and grains from time to time but nothing alarming. As for the audio, we get the original French track with optional English subtitles. The film is separated in 12 chapters, the animated menus are nicely done and features music. We also get the theatrical trailer in which some scenes appearing in it are not in the film! There's also a still gallery featuring photos from the film and lots of great artwork used for various posters. But wait there's more, we get an English interview with Brigitte Lahaie talking about Rollin and a nude still gallery of Miss Lahaie.

Dark Side's editor Allan Bryce is a fan of DVD extras and their first release has lots of them. First we get two very good documentary on Jean Rollin, the first one is called Eurotica Virgins & Vampires which last 24 minutes while the second one is called Bloody Lips & Iron Roses which last 35 minutes. On the documentary menu, there's an easy to find easter egg, just highlight the raisin grape on the left for a special threat. There's also a 32 minutes interview with both Rollin and Lahaie. There's also an intro by Allan Bryce and infos on all the currently available Dark Side products. There is no booklet or inlay card.

Overall a very nice package and hopefully the first of many DVDs from Dark Side.

Thanks to the Dark Side.

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