Jean Rollin could be so obsessed with the dreamlike erotic gothic atmosphere of his movies that the narrative often came second. Requiem For A Vampire sees him at his laziest, the French film-maker putting very little effort into a script that was purportedly written in one day and feels like it: the plot is extremely thin and there's virtually no dialogue, the two main characters not speaking until almost an hour into the film. This makes for a very strange experience, one that I found it hard to remain fully focused on until the end.

Things start out interestingly enough, with a car chase and shootout, as two attractive young women (Marie and Michelle, played by Marie-Pierre Castel and Mireille Dargent) and a male friend are pursued by the police through the French countryside (we later learn that the girls killed a man at a New Year's Eve party, which explains why they're dressed as clowns). The trio escape the authorities, although the man is shot and dies soon after. Setting out on foot, the two women wander the countryside, steal food and a motorcycle, and take refuge in a graveyard (where one is almost buried alive by oblivious gravediggers). Without a single word uttered, all of this is suitably gloomy and atmospheric and will no doubt satisfy most Rollin fans, but things go downhill after the pair chance upon a château, home to a nest of vampires who need the young virgins to perpetuate their race.

At this point, the film descends into routine Euro-sleaze, with a naked lesbian clinch between the girls, some nookie between blonde Marie and obliging stranger Frederic (Marie's thereby scuttling her chance of becoming a vampire),an orgiastic rape scene in which the bloodsuckers abuse naked women chained up in the château's dungeon, and a spot of torture as Michelle is forced to flog her friend. Somehow, Rollin manages to make all of the sex and violence extremely tedious and the final twenty minutes or so are a real test of one's patience.

Visually, the film looks great, with some striking imagery, although Rollin does overdo the coloured gel lighting at times, and the local animal hire place was clearly out of vampire bats so the director makes do with fruit bats, which don't really have the same effect.

This early horror film from French director Jean Rollin is an example of the kind of moody, dialogue-free movies he would make for his whole life: one of his best known is FASCINATION, made in 1979. Unfortunately, REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE lacks the genuine horror of that film, and the best this one can do is summon up a few little chills here and there in some spooky moments. One of the best occurs near the start of the movie, in which one of the two heroines is nearly buried alive in a scene that recalls Poe.

Elsewhere, Jean Rollin shows little scope for reality, preferring instead to shoot his film as a series of increasingly bizarre visual images. Things kick off with a car chase through the French countryside, as the heroines, dressed as clowns (!) for no particular reason, shoot revolvers at their pursuers and end up burning the body of a male accomplice (his acting isn't very good – when he's supposedly dead and has petrol poured over his face, you can see him visibly recoil). That's about as much plot as the film has. From there on in, we watch as the girls wander around a seemingly deserted and ruined castle, only to find some bloodthirsty vampires and their human servants living in the basement. What happens next is fairly predictable, considering the fact that the director spent much of the '70s shooting hardcore pornography: the girls are stripped, whipped and bitten, while lots of padded sex scenes take up the rest of the running time.

Rollin's films are an acquired taste, for sure; they're not like the usual Euro-horror offerings from Italy, which have plots and dialogue; this film has hardly any of either. It's best viewed as a series of images, many of which make good use of the isolated French countryside and the ruined castle. One of my favourite scenes has a bunch of skeletons sitting around an altar; other good moments include the aforementioned churchyard burial and a presumably severed human hand holding a candle! Rollin doesn't seem very interested in the horror, and there is little, if any, gore. One of the most unintentionally humorous bits is a rubber bat placed over the private parts of a nude actress; not quite sure what he was getting at, but it didn't work, in any case! Instead, much of the film focuses on nudity and sex scenes, which might be good if you're interested in skinny French models; can't say I am. The acting is typically awful, although there's some fun to be had at the expense of a Dracula-alike whose make-up job is pretty funny.

Two "teenage virgins", Marie & Michelle(Marie-Pierre Castel & Mireille Dargent)have escaped from I'm guessing a reform school. Their driver was killed as another car's inhabitants(I'm guessing the police)blast out their vehicle's back window with gunfire. Hiding away from those hunting them and burning the car(..and dead driver),Marie and Michelle hide out temporarily in a cemetery(..in one weird scene, Michelle trips into a freshly dug grave knocking herself out on the casket while a member of the grounds almost buries her alive!)until their safety is assured. There's seemingly abandoned greystone ruins of a château near the cemetery surrounded by massive trees and an idyllic countryside for which Marie and Michelle decide to hopefully inhabit for the time being. What they don't expect is a female vampiress, Erica(Dominique Toussaint)who has a barbaric entourage of hunters as servants who rush them. When the girls try to flee, bats hanging from tree branches "hypnotise" them enabling Erica to capture them as she plans for Michelle and Marie to meet her master, the last full male vampire whose powers have weakened over the ages. Erica isn't completely a vampire despite her fangs and blood-drinking..she can still tolerate sunlight and isn't a true member of the undead. Her blood sister Louise(Louise Dhour)is even less a vampiress for she doesn't have the luxury of fangs. Louise is the type of vampire sister who hands down the orders from her lord and plays the piano; she's also the one who watches her master's casket. Michelle and Marie are introduced to the last male vampire as he bites them from behind. Michelle and Marie try to escape the next day but run around in circles it seems..despite following different paths hoping to escape, they always return to the château with a skull at the door. Louise informs Michelle and Marie that they are to be initiated into the vampire fraternity having received the "divine bite of the vampire", but first must lose their virginity to him. Louise points out that you can not be a virginal vampire. They wish for Michelle and Marie, before their initiation, to lure male prey to the château by nightfall. Marie meets, falls in love with, and loses her virginity to a man walking the cemetery one day named Frederick. She later tries to save him from being a victim of Erica's. The older man who Michelle lures(thanks to a striptease & drawing him by giving chase)isn't so lucky. Michelle must find out where Marie has hidden Frederick for he threatens the vampire whereabouts and identity(..this leads to a whipping torture as Marie hangs with stripes down her back and Michelle, devastated for what she has done, with tears staining her cheeks). Will Marie be seduced into the way of the vampires? Will Marie give up her love's hiding place(where he is hidden is certainly an interesting place)? Will the last male vampire's legacy live on through his blood daughters?

If you are familiar with Rollin, this film carries his various signatures..beautiful french countryside, atmospheric cemetery, Gothic greystoned ruins of a castle where rows of steps are endless and halls echo, skulls make their mark throughout showing up near tombstones, places marking the vampires' lair, etc., limited dialogue and back story, fluid camera-work capturing the entire landscape squeezing every bit of ambiance available, an abundance of nudity and sex, and a jazzy organ score in the background. The version I watched had gratuitous extended scenes of sexual molestation as Erica's barbaric servants rape and abuse various enslaved nubile females, chained within a pit, as she takes a few bites for good measure. This might serve as titillation for many(there's also a scene where Marie and Michelle grope each other),but I yawned through most of this. I thought Dominique Toussaint was striking(she seemed to have such a presence that leaps from the screen)as Erica, wearing a clinging gold dress and purple cape that swings open..the way she opens her cape might be theatrical to many, but I lapped it up(..*woof*..*woof*). She really looks like something out of a comic book..now I do not mean this as an insult, far from it. I think Erica just looks incredible and Dominique just runs with it, easily overshadowing the weary last male vampire who is in the film mere minutes and looks as if his powers were weakened. This film's strength is some truly stunning uses of the château(the way Rollin shoots overhead as Marie and Michelle try to flee Erika, and when Michelle leads the horny old man on a wild goose chase through halls & up steps, are really thrilling set-pieces),the vibrant green and red colors Rollin uses in the last male vampire's mausoleum, the cemetery bright blue skyline at dawn as Marie(believing she had lost her love to the last male vampire forever)woefully walks across with various crosses in the distance, and the windy green covering the cemetery grounds as Marie and Michelle comb the area in search of refuge from a shady past. My favorite scene(other than when Erica appears)is when Marie and Michelle hear organ play from within the château cathedral believing cloaked monks await inside..only to find skeletons behind those very cloaks and Louise, the vampiress playing the tune they heard. Don't expect a satisfying story or a quickened pace..Rollin isn't the type of filmmaker that worries about moving anything too fast. I don't even think we see the first vampire until thirty minutes into the film and the sexual sequences in the bondage chamber go on forever it seems.