The Flesh and the Fury

In reiteration on the kink, Rollin has his girls dressed in short skirts and knee high white socks. Their panties are visible often and there are titillating shots up their skirts, with the camera pointed directionally to emphasize the sexual allure and take us in nice and close. His girls in skirts are a type of Rollin trademark. There is a vulnerability to them, too. Escaping a situation that perhaps involved criminal activity, the two girls are presented as somewhat innocent-looking even if they have shady pasts…presentation is key. But escaping one situation only to encounter another (one human, the next supernatural), it appears the girls have met the end of their rope. Vampire bats are even used, released by the Master Count to render them under his spell. 

Back to the kink: when taken to a chamber, Rollin shows us that the vampire clan has captive women chained to walls! The barbaric man servants seem to have access to them sexually, even. At one point, Dominique decides to choose one of the kidnapped girls to take a bite out of him. She slowly pulls away articles covering her breasts, exposes them, and smiles with her fangs slightly protruding before moving in to give her the death kiss. It is that macabre level of violence and nudity that goes hand in hand in Rollin’s vampire world. 

I don’t think it is too far removed from Dracula (1931), but Rollin can go where Browning never could. I get rather uncomfortable with one scene where a barbarian gets close and personal with a lit candle towards another chained girl with no way to break from his grasp. Another barbarian just grabs and gropes while the victim gyrates and writhes, seemingly in a state of ecstasy and anguish. I guess that’s a point in itself: The desire to be ravaged is perhaps there yet being done so in such a primal way has its mixture of eroticism and horror. Lit in red by Rollin, the camera seems to be engaged by what it captures: the women having their gowns ripped away, and the vampire’s slave barbarians full of animalistic urges they are allowed to satisfy. I can only imagine how disconcerting it might be for some, while others just might find it all quite arousing. I think it is all part of what gravies your biscuits.