One of Jean Rollin's earlier films but is still certainly as well and getting his way of the camera it better controlled than some. Here there is also decent music and fantastic gothic castle with floodlights and the great looks at the cemetery also with blood-red lights. No problem at all with the lovely girls, who don't really wear many clothes and they are exactly the way to have candelabras that look authentic as does the lighting in the inside of the castle and even in the cemetery. There is a simple story which means there is a couple who have just got married and visit their cousins and many of some vampires. It ends at a great beach scene when the sun rises over the horizon which is how he often seems to end his films.

Isa (a charming performance by the fetching Sandra Julien) and her husband Antoine (a likable portrayal by Jean-Marie Durand) are a recently married honeymooning couple who stop for the night at a moldy old castle. The couple discover that the castle is the home of a horde of vampires who have very special plans for Isa. Director Jean Rollin, who also co-wrote the offbeat script with Monique Natan, relates the cheerfully outré story at a hypnotically gradual pace, does his usual ace job of creating and sustaining a dreamy'n'trippy oddball atmosphere, smartly explores an intriguing theme about destiny, and makes the most out of the rundown castle and adjacent spooky cemetery locations. Moreover, Rollins not only further spices things up with a generous sprinkling of sizzling lesbianism and yummy female nudity, but also gives the picture an extra delightful lift with an amusing sense of playful humor and a few startling moments of inspired surrealism (for example, the vampiress who pops up inside of a grandfather clock). The game cast have a ball with the idiosyncratic material: Jacques Robiolles and Michael Delahaye contribute engaging work as a pair of cordial and jolly vampires, cute brunette Kuelan Herce and adorable blonde Marie-Pierre Castel are very sexy and appealing as loyal maids who work for said vampires, and Nicole Nancell cuts a marvelously wicked figure as calculating man-hating bloodsucker bitch Isabelle. Jean-Jacques Renon's striking cinematography makes impressive use of bold and vibrant color. The funky-throbbing score by the prog-rock group Acanthus hits the get-down groovy spot. A real weirded-out blast of an entertaining avant-garde item.

This is only my second Jean Rollin vampire flick (the other being Lips of Blood),but I'm already starting to think that if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Like Lips of Blood, The Shiver of the Vampires is slow, surreal, and often plain bizarre, with an old graveyard, a creepy castle, harsh coloured lighting, lots of nudity and lesbianism, skulls, stylised camerawork, women in billowing chiffon, and a finalé on a beach. Not that I'm complaining... I might not be the biggest fan of artsy-fartsy '70s Euro-horror, but there's still enough here to hold my attention for the duration, not least the very welcome sight of hottie Sandra Julien in the altogether.

Sexy Sandy plays newlywed bride Isle, who travels with her husband Antoine (Jean-Marie Durand) to an old castle, the home of Isle's cousins. When they arrive, the couple are informed that the cousins have recently died, but they decide to stay anyway. Antoine is naturally keen to consummate the marriage, but Isle tells him that she wants to sleep alone (which would set alarm bells ringing for most newly married men); however, Antoine agrees, but leaving his wife on her lonesome proves to be a bad decision, for she is at the mercy of seductive vampiress Isolde (Dominique),who has already turned her cousins into blood slurpers (who amusingly look like a pair of old queens).

Rollin's film suffers somewhat from an air of cheapness and a little too much purple velour, and the blood looks suspiciously like red emulsion, but with all the female nudity and a few completely insane moments (Isolde's entrance from a grandfather clock; Antoine attacked by books; death by spiky nipples),The Shiver of the Vampires is worth a watch if you're in the mood for something erotic, esoteric, and offbeat.