Fascination

Lesbian Blood Drinkers Rule
Once again, the prolific french director, Jean Rollin, provides the bored horror film market with a true classic. Fascination is a bizarre foray into the twisted realm of two women who seek to entice unwary men into their devilish world of evil. As with all Rollin films, Fascsination is ripe with symbolism and grotesque imagery which puts most current horror films to shame. For those of us who have seen way too many horror films, Rollin's Fascination will renew our faith in the genrea-check it out.

Eurosleaze classic
Jean Rollin is a name instantly recognizable to hardcore horror genre fans, but meaningless to nearly everyone else. That is too bad because this French director concocted some of the sleaziest, most unusual films ever made during the 1970s and 1980s, films usually imbued with hypersexuality and bloody violence. I have often tossed Rollin's name around in impolite company with seeming aplomb even though I had never seen even one of the man's films. You read enough plot synopses about someone and you start to feel as though you know every intimate detail about their work. What I did hear from others about this director oftentimes did not bode well. He is apparently well versed in schlock filmmaking--which in and of itself is not a problem with me, a true lover of bad cinema--but several of his films continue to draw raves from a selected minority of genre fans. Well, I finally sat down with a Jean Rollin film, his 1979 effort "Fascination," and was pleasantly surprised with the...

Rollin's finest! 7 female bloodsuckers descend on a chateau
One of, if not the best Rollin flick. Rollin films are either real good (Fascination, The Shiver of the Vampires) or real bad (Night of the Hunted, Requiem for a Vampire). This one is superb. It goes above and beyond his other films in almost every aspect: plot (comprehensive and fluid all the way through), character development, character dialogue (yes, even Brigitte Lahaie has more than 5 lines in this movie), the true horror element (definitely his scariest and eeriest film), and suspense.

The confrontation scene between the scythe wielding Lahaie and the female thief is very stylish and effective! In fact, Lahaie does very well in this movie, far above and beyond her awful turn in Night of the Hunted. I hated her in Night of the Hunted, loved her in this.

A couple of down notes though, about the DVD. The quality of the transfer is not very good, with marks and splotches flying by in several scenes. Also, this isn't the DVD makers fault, but the theatrical trailer has...

Click to Editorial Reviews