Le Viol du Vampire
| Le Viol du Vampire | |
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Original poster
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| Directed by | Jean Rollin |
| Written by | Jean Rollin |
| Starring | Solange Pradle Bearard Letrou Catherine Deville Ursule Pauly Nicole Romain Marquis Polho Louise Horn Jacqueline Sieger |
| Music by | Yvon Garault |
| Edited by | Jean-Denis Bonan Mireille Abramovici |
| Distributed by | Les Films ABC |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | ₣500,000 |
Le Viol du Vampire (English title: The Rape of the Vampire, also known as Queen of the Vampires) is a 1968 film directed by Jean Rollin. It was his directorial debut. The film consists of two parts: The Rape of the Vampire and The Vampire Woman/Queen of the Vampires. Originally, the film was only supposed to be a short, but a second part was filmed and added later so that it could be released as a feature film.
Critical reaction to the film was very hostile. Its poetic spirit and strong inspiration from American serials did not seem to attract viewers or critics at the time of its release. The film's reception was terrible and it provoked a scandal.
Although the film was viewed negatively at the time of its release, Le Viol du Vampire remains an important film in the Rollin oeuvre. Indeed, several themes developed in his subsequent feature films were already present: vampires, a fascination with old cemeteries, lesbianism and a pronounced taste for eroticism. Some scenes and characters were even copied almost identically in his later films.
Four sisters living in an old château are convinced that they are vampires. One believes she was raped by the villagers years before, and is blind. Another is afraid of sunlight. They all react violently to crucifixes. The sisters are being manipulated by a sinister old man who alternates between admonishing them to kill newcomers that threaten their exposure, and groping their breasts. The four seem to worship a bestial idol in the forest who speaks to them with a disembodied voice.
The newcomers are three Parisians, Thomas (Bernard Letrou), Brigitte (Solange Pradle) and Marc (Marquis Polho), who have come to the countryside to cure the sisters of their so-called illness. They do not believe that the sisters are vampires, and don't believe in vampires at all. Thomas is a psychoanalyist, determined to cure them from their madness. He believes it has been induced by the superstitious villagers, who have driven the confused women insane with their religious symbols and persecution. He tries to convince them that crucifixes and sunlight won't harm them, and that the blind sister can actually see. He takes all of this as proof that their vampirism is all in their minds. When one of the sisters fall for Thomas' charms, the old man orders another sister to kill him, Brigitte and Marc. When this fails, he unleashes the peasants, who brutally murder all the women they can find, which also includes Brigitte.
Thomas asks one of the sisters to bite him to prove her wrong, and discovers she is, in fact, a vampire, and that he was misled by his own preconceptions. The two flee to the beach and are gunned down by Marc, who is distraught by Brigitte's death at the hands of the peasants.
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