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Shiver of the Vampires is the 3rd in Jean Rollin’s series of lesbian vampire films,
one of a number you can stream on BFI Player,
or on Amazon Prime with a free trial of BFI Player.
We have reviewed Rollin’s Zombie Lake for our regular bad movie strand
'Oh oh the lake! The lake! The lake!'
and some might argue that that’s where this and pretty much every Rollin movie belongs,
they are cheap, light on plot and very much exploitation.
But there’re no denying their influence, they are breathlessly stylish
and, at their best, surprisingly watchable.
Firstly, and most obviously, there’s no denying Rollin’s eye for colour or an image;
the bride in the graveyard or the vampire emerging from the clock.
And the visuals are even more arresting thanks to the film’s setting;
the story is a gothic standard, the newly weds stopping at the castle where it turns out the inhabitants aren’t as dead as advertised.
But this is not a period film,
or wasn’t when it was made,
and Rollin leans heavily into the dual aesthetic.
So the opening of a grave has an almost Nosferatu vibe,
but the vampire who emerges is straight out of the summer of love,
with the music playing an equal role.
Hippy vampires sounds like a punchline and Rollin smartly allows us to find the two male vampires slightly ridiculous,
so that Isolde can remain threatening.
And, as well as feeding in current music and fashion,
the film manages to introduce seventies social politics into vampire hierarchy.
It’s interesting to compare this to Hammer’s Dracula AD 1972, made the following year,
in which gothic and 70s style were much less comfortable bedfellows.
Alongside the bold visuals and stylised compositions is a plot that, while not original, is engaging.
While some of Rollin’s films jettison plot almost completely,
Shiver of the Vampires has a clear, simple story underpinning the visuals,
as newly married Isle is seduced before her marriage is even consummated.
It’s a plot we’ve seen a hundred times before in European vampire films of the 60s,
but Rollin’s slow, dreamlike telling of that story is oddly mesmerising,
so you almost imagine a mystery where, one really doesn’t exist.
Except we do; everything that’s happening is exactly what it seems,
which ought to be dull, and yet isn’t.
You are watching a seduction.
Rollin’s vampires are like cats, playing with their food,
making for a morbidly fascinating watch.
There’s no getting around that it is very exploitative,
although it only once slips into the genuinely nasty side of exploitation cinema,
in a scene that requires the characters to change substantially and which completely fails to convince.
That to one side; it's not a great film, it is a bit trashy,
but it is easy to be seduced by it, and I think I kind of was.
Thanks for watching. What’s your take of Jean Rollin? Exploitation auteur or just a bit sleazy?
Let us know in the comments below.