Sexual-Terror der entfesselten Vampire (OT: Le Frisson des Vampires / ET: Shivers of the Vampires) (Wicked-Vision Jean Rollin Collection #01) (Blu-ray Mediabook) [Germany]

[pygospa]

Release: April 30th, 2021, original release Date:

Link (Wicked Shop): Cover C

Price: 29,99€

Limited: 333

 

Remember, how I always use to say, that I own everything from Wicked Vision EXCEPT their Jean Rollin Collection? Also remember, how I praised Wicked Vision for teaming up with Timo Würz. I feel like Daniel knew the second fact and heard the first one and said: "Hold my beer".

 

The result, well: Wicked Vision is re-releaseing "Sexual-Terror der entfesselten Vampire" - which is one of the most horrifying title translations that you can think of, as the literal translation of the German title would be: "sexual terror of the unleashed vampires", whereas the original title "Le Frisson des Vampires" would actually mean "the thrill of the vampires". Anyhow, it's probably more fitting, as the trailer already suggests that in the case of the movie, vampires means female vampires, and - typical for french movies? - these female vampires run around naked, bade in blood and are attracted by other female vampires. Well...

 

This is not my movie, then again, I had a talk with Daniel and at the end of it, it just happened. I ordered it anyways. 🙈

 

 

 

 

Few thinks to note about the author, the film, and this release:

 

Jean Rollin (1938-2010) was a french director and screen writer that created a lot of surrealistic movies, with a special focus on vampire films. These movies where the foundation of his career. They often have some kind of erotic component and naked females in them, which is why in the 1970s he soon was labeled and reduced to being a "Vampire-Sex-Movie" director, which according to some is unfounded and unfair. He is the director of the first ever french vampire movie (Le Viol du Vampire), as well as the director of the first ever french gore film (Les Raisins de la Mort). Growing up as a child of a theater director he came in touch with the theater scene quite early and soon also developed a taste for American Low-budget movies. His interest for surrealism could be explained by his early on friendship with Goerges Bataille, who worked as a librarian but became famous as a philosopher, as well as for his surrealistic poetry and prose. However, under different pseudonyms, Rollin also created a couple of hardcore movies. Rollin was most active in the 70s where he created half of his credited work (and the major share of his pseudonym works that also included some feature films). His last film was the 2009 movie "Le Masque de la Méduse", that was released a year before his early death due to his long struggle with cancer.

Le Frisson des Vampires was released in 1971 and is the third mainstream work of Jean Rollin. As with the two predecessors and the film that would follow it, its a Vampire movie. It is to this day one of the rather unknown movies, though some critics would coin it one of Rollin's defining films. It's one of these "you either love it, or you hate it" films. General consensus seems to be that the movie is rather slow paced and bad in acting as well as in its effects. For a vampire movie there is extremely much naked skin, lesbian seduction and a lack of fangs and actual vampire action (e.g. flying, blood sucking, etc.). Also the story is rather dull. Where viewers differ is if this is actually a good thing or a bad one. Fans of the movie would argue that it has great visuals, a great atmosphere, wonderful gothic sets and a surrealistic dream like quality to it, saying that this movie actually turns all its negative aspects into something aesthetically pleasing. People who hate it will say that it is boring, dull and ridiculous (in a bad way) for its bad acting, bad narrative and absurd usage of music. Thus, on most movie-rating websites such as IMDb, the movie is rated somewhere around 5 out of 10 points. Daniel himself lured me into getting this, by describing the movie as a film that simply is fun to watch, but even if the film is too trashy one would appreciate the German cut and the acompanying audio commentary, as it shows how crazy the 1970s where in Germany where Germany was quite busy re-cutting movies to fit them into the 'train station cinema'(*).

Wicked Vision released this movie as on of their very first productions in 2016, and it was the beginning of their first "side series" beside their "main" series being the "Wicked Vision Collector's Edition", i.e. this release also marks the No. 1 release of the "Jean Rollin Collection" by Wicked Vision. It was originally released on August 29th, 2016 and came in two different cover artworks: Cover A was the original french movie poster, cover B is the rare Italian movie poster.

 

The release has two different cuts, one is the original french cut (95 minutes), the other the German cinema recut (81 minutes), which was said to be lost, but actually Wicked managed to secure a copy (especially the dubbing), and added it as bonus to the Blu-ray (this cut is missing on the DVD copy that was also included in this set). There is the typical 24-page Booklet by Pelle Felsch (in German), and on the discs you'd get:

 

• Introduction by Jean Rollin
• Audio commentary by Jean Rollin
• Audio commentary by Christian Keßler & Pelle Felsch [most probably in German]
• Short movie "Liberta" by Jean-Nël Delamarre
• "Rouge Vif - Nervenkitzel der Vampire" featurette
• Trailer
• Picture Galery
• Deleted scenes
• Audio commentary for the German cinema re-cut by Pelle Felsch, Daniel Perée and Ludger Holmenkamm [most probably in German]

 

Interestingly, the movie itself will feature three audio tracks: the original French one, the German dubbing AND the English dubbing as well. And there was a large number of subtitles: German, English, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portugese, Swedish and Spanish.

 

Marking the movies 50th birthday this year, and given that the release is 5 years old and long-time sold out, as well as the fact that due to the pandemic Wicked wasn't able to continue the Jean Rollin collection at all the last year (they couldn't produce any bonus material in France, plus under the condition of the pandemic producing dubbings is financially not feasible), Wicked decided to re-release the movie. Not for the moneys sake, but because a lot of people only discovered this lable quite late, and while a few of the later Rollin titles where still easier to get, this one is rather hard to secure (at least if you are not willing to pay figures in the hundreds for it). Therefore Wicked decided to make this really small re-release, just 333 copies (original had 1000 + 500 copies for covers A and B), and to make it "special" with a newly comissioned artwork by Timo Würz.

I of course asked Daniel, if he'd be planning to release all the other Rollins (possibly all with Wrüz' Artwork) as well, and he honestly answered, that they cannot tell. They'd probably like to, but it is not planned for now and depends on a lot of things, so I wouldn't count on it - just for those considering to get it as an introduction to the entire collection.
 

 

I'll link the English trailer, as it is cut in a way that is totally free of naked skin
It still has a age restriction warning, probably due to all the blood spilling and drinking. But other than that it is really harmless.
 

 

 

 

What do you think about the movie? Would you get it? Do you know it?


(*) the German "Bahnhofskino" is something that doesn't exist anymore. These Cinemas where located directly at or sometimes even in the train station, and are comparable to the US "Grindhouse" cinemas, in them showing mostly low-budget B-movies. However - and this is where they differ from the Grindhouse - they also showed (softcore and sometimes even hardcore) pornographic movies, and to top it off, it was also a "news cinema". Strange mixture, probably to entertain people waiting for a train with some really shallow pictures that whern't too captivating to risk audience missing their train and where you wouldn't mind at all stepping in or out of the movie somewhere in-between.