THE NUDE VAMPIRE (1970, original title La vampire nue) is Jean Rollin's second feature-length film as director and his first in colour. I've seen some of his later work but it didn't prepare me for this deeply bizarre and surrealist collection of imagery in search of a plot. It begins with a young woman in a sheer dress being pursued through the streets at night by masked figures and just gets odder and odder from there.
There's little vampirism here, just an experimental test subject, alongside diverse plot elements: futuristic mutants, aristocratic conspiracies, suicide cults and a young man trying to solve the mystery of his own father's doings. I wondered what on earth I was viewing for long sections and found much of it quite tiresome. Very little horror or atmosphere too, with Rollin's main focus (as always) being on acres of nude female flesh.
There's little vampirism here, just an experimental test subject, alongside diverse plot elements: futuristic mutants, aristocratic conspiracies, suicide cults and a young man trying to solve the mystery of his own father's doings. I wondered what on earth I was viewing for long sections and found much of it quite tiresome. Very little horror or atmosphere too, with Rollin's main focus (as always) being on acres of nude female flesh.