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Shiver of the Vampires (The) AKA Le Frisson des vampires (1971)
R0 - Holland - Encore Filmed Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (18th October 2007). |
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The Film
 Another obscure film, another vampire-story. That´s the early career of French director/co-writer/producer Jean Rollin in a nutshell. His fourth feature film “The Shiver of the Vampires AKA Le Frisson des vampires (1971)” starts with familiar images; in a black-&-white montage (not sepia, like in some other prints), two coffins are carried into an old crypt, while the woman called Isabelle (Nicole Nancel) is watching. There´s genuine sadness in her eyes. During the opening credits the film changes into colour and we meet two maids in the old castle: Marie-Pierre Castel (as Marie-Pierre Tricot - e.g. “Requiem for a Vampire AKA Requiem pour un vampire (1971)”, the other of the “Rollin twins”) and Kuelan Herce (apparently Vietnamese born). They´ll receive a final request from the vampire in the tower, before he takes his own life - and perhaps saves his soul; the maids will have to go to the cemetery near by and destroy the vampires there - with a stake through their hearts. If they´re too late and don´t succeed, they´re bound to serve these creatures of the night. And of course they´re already late; the female vampire Isolde (Dominique - e.g. “Requiem for a Vampire AKA Requiem pour un vampire (1971)”) rises from her tomb and the maids will now serve their new master. There´s no freedom for them yet. Fast forward to a sunny day, where the newly wed couple of Isle (stunning Sandra Julien) and her husband Antoine (Jean-Marie Durand) are on their way to the old castle. Isle want to meet her distant cousins again after many years, since she was just a child when she saw them last. From the village Antoine hears the bad news: both of the cousins are dead and only their two maids are living in the castle now. Isle still wants be sure. The maids welcome them to stay and provide the cosy room. When Isle is visiting the graves of her cousins on the same day, she meets the mysterious Isabelle. Something strange is in the air and Isle senses that. She falls under the spell of the castle and its surroundings. This is just the first phase, since the next night hippie-like Isolde appears from the grandfather´s clock (!) and takes the mesmerised Isle back to the cemetery. This time she finds herself in the middle of an erotic and gloomy ritual, which will change her forever. Antoine is already worried and confused, but the surprises keep on coming; the very eccentric cousins of Isle - played by Michel Delahaye (e.g. “The Nude Vampire AKA La Vampire nue (1970)”) and Jacques Robiolles are not that dead after all. From hour to hour, Isle is more drawn to the castle and its habitants. What are these people and was it just faith that brought Isle there? The castle will hide the answers, it´s not time for them yet. “The Shiver of the Vampires” is not a very easy film to follow the first time around. I actually assume that during the multiple viewings you start to find all the nuances of the story and the motives behind the characters. And yes, perhaps even after that, some might not “get it”. I can´t fully blame them, since like many other Rollin-films, the whole film is almost like a “moving painting”, where the overall look, mood and the feel of the film is more important than the individual characters or the specific dialogue. Everything has a meaning, but many of these hints might easily go overlooked by the viewer. Rollin is not the easiest artist to interpret and hardly ever “mainstream” or simple. You need patience and concentration, in a similar way when you sit down to view some interesting painting. You take the visual image and re-shape it with your imagination. The painting could be a bit different every time you see it. Also in this film, it´s best to let yourself be drawn to the visual look, the ever-changing colours and the beautiful images rather than over-think all the minor details that´s going on with the characters. As Rollin says in the audio commentary, plenty of dialogue e.g. from the “cousins” Delahaye and Robiolles are improvised, so they might - or might not, mean something. Original intentions of the director have probably blurred during the production for various reasons. That being said, “The Shiver of the Vampires” is more like art, dream and eroticism than “horror”. In this film, even the vampires can be strange intellectuals or pale hippies and a man is suddenly attacked in a library by the possessed books. And let´s not forget the lethal female vampire, with pointy and sharp spikes in her breasts. Some low budget silliness aside, the film is still pure Rollin poetry, with strong visuals and a moody, surreal atmosphere - with added nudity. The gothic imagery is again strongly present with castle, ruins, cemetery and candles, but the film is not very spooky (not even in Rollin´s standards). The selected, overly long dialogue scenes by the “cousins” tend to get boring (or at least tiring) and also hurt the general mood in some ways. Dialogue just gets unnecessarily complicated and might alienate some viewers. I also wasn´t a huge fan of the psychedelic 1970s rock score by the French band Acanthus. While I admit that the score often connected to the “hipped vampires” and such, it just didn´t fully suit a Rollin-film. Inventive use of colours and camera (there are a few 360 pans) and the melancholy ending (set in Rollin´s favourite beach) saves plenty. The director´s search for the true love will get many forms in “The Shiver of the Vampires”, but will anyone find what that is? That´s the question again and I doubt that Rollin ever wants to find the definitive answer. He wants to keep searching - in his movies.
Video
Dutch company “Encore Filmed Entertainment” presents the film in Anamorphic 1.78.1. From the start you´ll see some film artifacts and minor “roughness” in the transfer (details tend to get a bit restless and there is some grain), but the black levels are good and colours quite strong (some of the most saturated scenes are still quite challenging for the DVD format). Probably partly due to the original production, selected scenes look better than others, since there are scenes that I find softer or more grainier. While this doesn´t look as pristine as it probably could´ve, it comes surely recommended. The film runs 90:59 minutes (PAL) and I believe it´s the Rollin´s preferred French version (there have been several variations, such as two English languages versions under the names “Sex and the Vampire” and “Thrill of the Vampires” and also an alternate Spanish dub). It includes some nudity, but not really soft core. Some additional “raunchier” sex scenes were added to the movie by the producers/distributors to please certain foreign markets (producers usually wanted some nudity or minor soft core with Rollin films, but some markets wanted even more). At least some of them are added in the “Alternative scenes”. Do note, that for some strange reason, approx. 9 seconds of footage (the audio is intact, but the film goes “black”) is missing between the 2:57 - 3:06 minute marks. Apparently these shots are intact in the older US DVD-release. There are some location shots of the castle and during the third one (camera follows the climbing plant) the image suddenly goes to black. The image returns to the slow dolly shot where you see the maids (and the blue-ish wall). “Dual Layer” disc (main film) is “R0”. The film has 12 chapters.
Audio
The film includes two audio tracks, the original French Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and also English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. A selection of 11 subtitle streams are included; English, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Polish. French-track (which is the obvious choice) has minor hiss in the background and a few “pops”, but the track is still quite good effort and the dialogue stays clear. Music comes also nicely, sometimes even aggressively. English-track is a bit louder, but the hiss is also a bit more dominant in the track to my ears. Both tracks are still relatively good mono-tracks, after all this is a low budget film from the early 1970s.
Extras
The 2-disc set is packaged in a classy foldout digi-pack, which is placed in a sturdy cardboard slip cover. Along with the discs there´s a 32-page book in English. Apparently the release is limited to 2000 copies (based on some sources). Disc 1 First disc has the film in Anamorphic 1.78:1. No extras. Disc 2 The second disc includes the film (again), but this time with full length audio commentary by director/writer Jean Rollin (not sure why this is not included in the first disc, though). Thankfully Rollin speaks his native French, with optional English subtitles. He speaks about the opening scene (an homage to classic horror-films) and about the visual style (experimental and variations with colours, different room in the castle has different lighting, castle is “alive” and its lighting change, etc). Rollin tells about the locations (mainly the real dungeon of Semont and its surroundings, but also the railroad and Pourville beach near the end) and often goes into details of the sets (props, decorations, costumes, etc). He mentions that it was risky to include “full frontal” nudity at the time (due to the French censors), even the mild one like in this version. The “hippy-look” was partly influenced by the particular era, since the hippy movement was rising at the time. There are a few quite interesting anecdotes (about the scene where they poured the red paint onto the castle itself (!), the lengthy story of the scene where the actress Nicole Nancel had to do the unpleasant “water ditch”-scene twice and he mentions that the dove in the film was “put to sleep” by the veterinarian). As always, Rollin tells about his actors background, which is always interesting (Rolling often used actors from the XXX-scene and the underground art circles). The director has a pretty good memory, which is one of the main reasons why his commentaries usually work. -Alternative scenes includes three sex scenes, shot for the certain territories (scenes are not “hard core”, but not always that “soft” either - somewhere in the middle): *“Scene 1” (4:41 min) – There´s a short scene in the film, where the two maids are naked in the bed in the “bear skin”, mildly caressing each other (starts in the 31:53 minute mark). In this alternate scene, additional making love-segments between these two “maids” are added. What makes this scene interesting is the fact that totally different women are the ones performing the more explicit bits (Rollin mentions the “Asian girl found in a strip-tease club” in the booklet, so perhaps some of these scenes were filmed by Rollin). The scene just bluntly cuts to the “real maids” every once in a while. *“Scene 2” (3:35 min) - The same “fake maid-doubles” in chains are now brought to the deep of the dungeon, where the hooded men strip them naked (of course). They first kiss and caress them, but soon the women are whipped and also tortured in an S&M-style that would make Jess Franco proud. Everything looks quite fake, but this one is still not for the faint hearted. *“Scene 3” (3:45 min) - The scene begins when the real Sandra Julien (“Isle”) is laying on the altar of some kind. The “fake maid-doubles” (unlike in the earlier scenes, you don´t see their faces in this scene) strip her (of course) and Isle will then drink the blood from the cup. After that the maids start to caress each other and end up on the floor for making out (Isle just lays on the altar, probably in a trance). Soon the hand of the man starts to caress the maids and at the end of the scene we´ll see one of the cousins touching the blonde girl. *** Thanks to the informative “The Latarnia Forums” (and member “Latarnia” himself) and Rollin essay in the booklet, a few other scenes were also shot for the film (included at least in the US-version titled “Thrill of the Vampires”, but NOT included in this version on the DVD by “Encore”); *There´s a scene where Isolde (Dominique) brings Isle (Sandra Julien) to the cemetery and eventually bites her (on the DVD, around the 25 minute mark). The naked Isle falls onto a gravestone. While not included in the film on this DVD (and shot in another location), there´s an added love making scene between Dominique and Isle on the gravestone. Also the “fake maid-doubles” join in. Based on the booklet, this was filmed by Rollin himself. *After Isle´s husband Antoine (Jean-Marie Durand) finally finds his new bride safely back in her bed (on the DVD, around the 29 minute mark), he moves the bed sheet away and mildly caresses her naked body. Additional scenes would reveal first the hand of the man touching Isle and then the love making session. Based on Rollin in the booklet, the man (face is not shown in the film) in the additional scenes was the “real” husband of actress Sandra Julien and this was also shot by Rollin. *Another added sequence happens after Isolde (Dominique) pops out behind the drapes behind Isle´s (Sandra Julien) bed (on the DVD, around the 46 minute mark) and bites Isle (who falls to the bed). In the additional scene we´ll see some love making between the two women. This is not mentioned in the booklet. *“Thrill of the Vampires”-version also includes the S&M-scene mentioned above, but that was most likely not shot by Rollin. This particular US-version is also missing bits from the French “Le Frisson des vampires”-version, so in that sense it´s not the “longer version” of the film. *** -French (3:59 min) and US (4:21 min) theatrical trailers are included (no subtitles). The US trailer uses the title “The Shiver of the Vampires”. -Photo gallery runs 10:33 minutes, including 95 b&w and colour photos and also a few “behind the scenes” ones. No poster/video art. -32-page booklet in English is also included, which includes colour and b&w photos and “Le Frisson des vampires” essay by Rollin himself.
Overall
A personal favourite of many, “The Shiver of the Vampires” is a very “Rollin-like” vampire film, where the visual look can be more interesting than the story itself. While I found the film a bit mediocre, it´s a must for the fans of the director and offers some moody eye candy and erotic bloodsuckers. The DVD presentation is very good and you have some informative extras, but one flaw in the transfer prevents it from being a really definitive version (there are also people who want to track down the alternate “Thrill of the Vampires”-version). Do note that the scan of the cover in this review is slightly modified to meet “all ages” standards in our forum. For more info, please visit the homepage of Encore Filmed Entertainment.
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