A runaway criminal breaks into an eerie chateau, taking its two frightened chambermaids hostage. As night falls, a group of mysterious aristocratic women arrive and the criminal begins to realize the women are hiding a sinister secret.
El castillo de las vampiras, Fascinação, Goiteia, Diavoliki goiteia, Pathos gia aima, Fascination - Das Blutschloss der Frauen, Διαβολική Γοητεία, 패서네이션, Очарование, 魔力
Germany16
France16
France
Germany
An elegant, sensual, sexual slice of hallucinatory gothic nightmare eurotica. Dreamy images drenched in haze, an expiring chateaux setting to die for, deliberate pacing, fog, thieves getting fucked and killed by a cloaked scythe wielding bringer of death in the form of Brigitte Lahai, and one hell of a third act complete with a devilishly satisfying finale.
The older I get the more fall in love with Jean Rollin’s filmography, movies that 13 year old me would have thought were just ‘ok’ 20 years ago turn out being my kinda phantasmagorical jam... totally nailing that specific atmosphere I’ve fallen hard for over the past decade, plus, Even after numerous erotic vampire jams, Jean Rollin still finds a way to spin a…
![nathaxnne [hiatus]](https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/avatar/upload/1/9/5/2/4/3/shard/avtr-0-80-0-80-crop.jpg?v=2d9f35eba8){kind=small}
The image of two women in love, in lovely hats and lace dresses, one in white, one in black, standing on the blood-slicked floor of a slaughterhouse, surrounded by the clanking of chains, holding cut-crystal goblets of blood is for me, the iconic Jean Rollin image. Nearly all of his filmography is frozen there, in that frame, waiting.
'Fascination' begins, though, with the turning pages of a book, signalling its fairy-tale qualities. 'Goldilocks and the Two Vampires', perhaps? If Goldilocks were an armed con man and thief, and the two vampires were ensconced in a beautiful chateau, spending their time dancing and making love and aimlessly enjoying their days together. Goldilocks's arrival adds a parlour-game novelty to the relations of…
🩸 Horror 🧛🏻♀️ Erotic Horror 🎬 Jean Rollin (1979) 🇫🇷
"It's too late now. You've stumbled into Elisabeth and Eva's life—the universe of madness and death. It's a pity. I think I could have loved you."
Fascination feels more like a pre-Raphaelite gothic erotic vampire thriller than a horror film. It’s all ambiance and mood and sex, with a minimal plot that provides just enough scaffolding to support a cape-clad scythe-wielding Brigitte Lahaie and a coterie of bloodthirsty aristocrats at play.
"Our weapons are silent. You're all alone. You're in our power."
This is a classic for good reason. The scythe scene is iconic, as is the opening sequence in the abattoir. It’s a very visual-oriented film, with mostly silly…
About halfway through this film, I had to stop and ponder the treatment of what was ostensibly the lead character. Up to that point, I had assumed he was a villain-protagonist, someone I was not meant to sympathize with, but the film started treating him somewhat like he was intended to be a heroic (or at least not a villainous) figure. Despite this, he remained a smarmy, arrogant, heterosexist jerk in a way that I could not accept. It took me a little while to figure out why I thought the film might have intended him more sympathetically than he came off, but it eventually occurred to me--it was because the other characters were interested in him.
Mark, our red…
My first Rollin joint. Loved it. Some truly strange and haunting cinematography. That shot of the dykes in the abattoir is so metal. Also Elisabeth’s scythe look. Some all time fantastic lines - You've stumbled into Elisabeth and Eva's life—the universe of madness and death. Really hot too. The movie is like one long S&M scene. Love that everyone is a pervert. Perversion isn’t moralized. It’s just a human trait inherent to every character. The movie doesn’t even seem to really look down on bloodsucking lol
One of my next movies is sorta like this btw….
Fascination is often regarded as Jean Rollin's best film, and it's not hard to see why. With this film, the director really nails the style that runs throughout his filmography. The simple plot focuses on a thief who takes refuge in a chateau inhabited by two enchanting women, not realising that they are part of some kind of satanic blood cult. The film takes place in a detached dreamworld. It is fraught with symbolism and beautiful imagery; the scene with Brigitte Lahaie wielding a scythe is surely one of the most indelible sequences Rollin ever brought to the screen! The film is constantly fascinating, helped no end by the constantly overbearing ominous atmosphere. Every aspect of the film, from the…
Erotic gothic horror about a jerk full of himself who takes refuge in a castle unaware he is marked food for a coven of sexy vampires. Barely holds up as narrative and has its share of trademark Jean Rollin ineptitude, but the atmosphere and colors are undeniable. it is first rate perverse depravity. Few films are better titled.
The atmosphere in this consumes and digests you and the world grows fuzzy at the edges. You could read this as role reversal, yet from a class standpoint, there was never anything to reverse. The women simply by being rich are in a position of power over the man they hold captive, and he has only temporary illusions of being in control. Love is a tool he thinks he can wield over the woman who claims to love him too, but once the game is finished, her love turns to indifference. It is a role reversal, but it's also a game the women have already won. The suffering of the mouse they toy with will eventually grow tiresome.
But I'm…
Hooptober 10.0, pt.1- The wheels start Rollin
1/6 countries (France)
1/8 decades (1970s)
1 LGBTQ+ connected film (COMPLETE)
5th Jean Rollin (after Two Orphan Vampires, Night of the Hunted, The Iron Rose and The Grapes of Death)
This year's Hooptober begins with the opening of a book and a woman's immaculately manicured hand caressing the pages. Rollin's statement is immediately clear- this is going to be a sensual film, one where texture is paramount. Not just of beautiful women kissing beautiful women but of beautiful buildings, beautiful French landscapes and beautiful clothes. It manages to maintain that haptic nature all the way through this strange tale of sex and gold in an elderly chateau, even if it can feel a…
“Drink, my dear. It will bring back your color.”
I am naive, I shoot as I think. All my films are made with sincerity and what interests me is poetry.
— Jean Rollin, Interview with Isabelle Marinone, 2004
There is a magic about this film that literally shines through on the screen. Despite its flaws, it’s a very pretty film. It is certainly the one in which I am the most beautiful. I was in some absolutely magnificent scenes.
— Brigitte Lahaie, The Cult Films of
➡️ The Glass of Blood ⬅️
Jean Rollin’s doomcore erotic opus, Fascination is more anemic Elizabeth Bathory than female vampire; more blood cult chateau of the fantastique than Bram Stoker. Developed with producer Joe…
More French erotica from Jean Rollin dipped in a molasses of foggy aristocracy and subversive bourgeois vampiresses feasting on the blood of men, using seduction as a trap for the catching of weak-willed male prey. Fascination is singular and sensual, but unfortunately I think it suffers from some serious pacing issues. I have heard tell of how Jean Rollin was forced to include an abundance of sex scenes in his films in order to get the studio to release them in an attempt to make their money back, so maybe I should not blame him for the fact that a good portion of the love scenes bog this thing down to a point where sitting through much of the 80…
This is the first Jean Rollin film I've watched. I'd read beforehand that it's arguably his most well known and accessible, and I picked it on the basis of the iconic image of Brigitte Lahaie wearing a black robe and brandishing a scythe, looking like a provocative variation on Death.
The image turned out to be apt for the film itself, and may well be fitting as a summary for Rollin's career. Sex and death are both prevalent in this film and from what I can see feature heavily in many of his other works. I'm only just learning about his life and films now, so have much more to discover on the subject, but it seems like there were…
