Cult Movie Challenge 2018 | 50/52 | Jean Rollin
The car’s rear window shatters. Marie, dressed in full clown regalia, leans out the window to shoot at the pursuer. An unnamed man drives, winding around the rural French roads. Michelle sits in the front seat, also dressed as a clown. A bullet strikes the nameless man in the chest, and Michelle takes control of the wheel. Michelle can get far enough ahead to pull into a dirt road and lose the other car. As they pull the unnamed man out of the car, his dying words mention the water chateau. They drive a ways down, douse the nameless man and the car in gasoline, and light them on fire.
The two clown women wander through the woods, trying to avoid anyone on the roads seeing them. At a lagoon, they wash off their clown makeup. At a rundown villa, they change out of their clown clothes and into regular clothes — you know, short skirts, knee-high tights, and tight shirts. They steal a motorcycle from a nearby farmhouse. Marie seduces a food truck attendant, letting him chase her into the woods while Michelle grabs some fries. The attendant gets too handsy, so Marie hides from him.
Fed, vehicled, and dressed, the two women hit the road again. Well, until the motorcycle runs out of gas. Back on foot, they make their way through a graveyard. Two grave diggers are around, so the women try to evade them. Michelle falls into an open grave, and the gravediggers begin to bury her alive. It’s getting dark, so the men decide to call it a day and come back tomorrow to finish filling the hole — the French and their work ethic, amirite?? Marie helps Michelle out of the hole.
On an ancient grave, they see a vampire bat and make a run for it. As they enter deeper into the woods, they find more vampire bats. Finally, they arrive at the water chateau. What secrets and mysteries await them? I mean, it’s Jean Rollin, so it’s probably lesbian vampires.
— We got lost.
— Eternally lost.
This film is Jean Rollin’s favorite that he made — the perfect culmination of his fixation on lesbians, vampires, and dreamy surrealist nonsense. The movie is pure vibes, shifting like a bad dream between aimless wandering and nudity.
I wouldn’t call this my favorite Rollin, but I appreciate what it’s going for.
Stray Thoughts / Spoilers
- One of the best in medias res openings I can recall. We finally get the answer 43 minutes in. They were at a New Year’s Party, they killed a man, jumped over the wall, their unnamed friend was in the car waiting for them, and they ran. Oh, wait, that tells me nothing.
- The cinematography is some of the best I’ve seen in a Rollin film — then again, the last movie I saw of his was Zombie Lake, which isn’t exactly representative of his filmography.
- “Executive Producer $am $elsky” — making it clear who bankrolled this project.
- The concession van looks like a US mail truck. The clerk makes such a funny face when Marie pops out from behind a tree.
- This castle is littered with dismembered arms holding things.
- Skeleton monks!
- Composer Pierre Ralph is going medieval on that organ.
- A vampire bat giving a chained-up woman head is wild.
- Oh, these runaway killers are also virgins, cool.
- Michelle entices men by stripping. Marie entices men by saying, “I am a hunter, don’t go to the chateau.”
- Ah, yes, the vampire’s one weakness: bullets