DemoniacsThere is something magical about the ‘bad’ Jean Rollin films that makes me unable to view them as bad. The first 15 minutes of Demoniacs is pretty kitsch-y but if you persist with it you will be rewarded. Contrary to what some of the IMDb’ers say, this isn’t purely ‘Z-grade trash’, but compared to masterpieces like Fascination and Rape of a Vampire, it is a little silly but still very stylish. A gang of four pirate shipwreckers rape and murder two young females who wash up on shore from, yes, a shipwreck. This first part includes lots of gratuitous violence and nudity but looses impact as the set is quite cheesy. Although the beatings and rape are still effective, when you see crabs lined up in a row and it suddenly changes from night to day, you sort of get pulled out of the otherwise gut-wrenching and sadistic violence. Tina (Joelle Couer) plays a rather sinister role as one of the pirates; she nonchalantly steals the girls jewels and clothes and later dances in the moonlight whilst watching the innocent girls being bashed with rocks and thrown around like rag dolls only then to have sex with the captain. If it were not for her role in the movie I feel it may have been a lot worse off, as I would have found it hard to not just write the torture of these women off as pure exploitation. Somehow having her act even more repulsive than the men made the violence seem less gratuitous; her eagerness for blood and death gave the film a purpose otherwise I would have just thought these acts to be typical male antics. Tina’s lust for blood is followed all throughout the film as she raves about how she wants to kill these girls and does it in a rather poetic way. I swear her musings could have been from a Baudelaire poem. "Rollin has such a wonderful talent when it comes to contrasting innocence with sexuality" After the gang of four have raped and beaten the girls, they venture on to the local pub. The captain starts to see and hear the girls and the local madam -who has the gift of second sight- knows that these men have done something. She tells the Captain of the village’s curse and that if the girls uncover the secret that something will be unleashed. To wrap the plot up and not give away too much, the two girls stumble upon some ruins and there they offer themselves to the devil in return for revenge… "isn’t purely ‘Z-grade trash’, but compared to masterpieces like Fascination and Rape of a Vampire, it is a little silly but still very stylish." Although this film isn’t Rollins’ best, there is still a lot of beautiful imagery and secondary story going on here. The two females dressed in white walking out of the ocean was one of my favourite images as it looked as though they were walking on water, and I just knew that those innocent girls in white nightgowns were about to be covered in dirt and blood. Rollin has such a wonderful talent when it comes to contrasting innocence with sexuality. There’s also a lot of surreal imagery in this film concerning the ruins, but I don’t want to give away too much as it might ruin to me, what were some of the best parts of the film. This film is quite bizarre in terms of over the top caricatures, images, sets and concepts and for those of you who usually find Rollins’ films to be quite slow or boring, well this one isn’t, although I may be a little bit biased as he is one of my favourite directors, but then so are you as you have already decided his films are slow! If I haven’t convinced you that this is worth at least watching, and if after reading this line of words you are still not interested then this probably isn’t a film for you: pirates, clowns, sex, death, rape, murder and satan.
|
Disc Details:
Special Features:
Recommended Viewing:
|
