La Vampire Nue was the second feature-length film, first in color, from one
of the foremost directors of vintage European horrotica, Jean Rollin.
It has no vampires. Not that much nudity, either, except from background
figures.
The opening music is a discordant violin solo, about what you would expect
from a deaf 3 year old with no training. As the action begins, a young man becomes enamored of a girl in
the streets, then sees her shot. He later finds the same girl, very much
alive, at a club owned by his father. At the same time, he discovers a suicide cult willing to
sacrifice their lives to feed the young woman blood to keep her alive. They
also keep her out of the daylight, believing that she is a vampire, and that
light would kill her. We soon learn that there is a warring faction after
her, that the young man's father hopes to discover the secret of everlasting
life by studying her, and that dad is not necessarily one of the good guys.
The film has some of what we would later come to know as Rollin trademarks,
including two musty old chateaus, symbols, weird masks, and twin females. On
the other hand, anything you might like about this movie has been done by Rollin better in his
later films, so this one is only for
Rollin completists.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
