Directed by Jean Rollin
Starring Alexandra Pic
Anne Duguël Bernard Charnacé
Isabelle Teboul
Nathalie Perrey
Rollin had definitely seemed like a bit of a "has-been" filmmaker with the early '80s atrocity "Zombie Lake," a film that was clearly made to cash in on the zombie craze following the awesome European success of both "Dawn of the Dead" and "Zombie." Rollin had taken a long break from horror, directing soft porn like "Emmanuelle 6" (and even some hardcore movies) in the meantime.
He returned to the horror front with a vengeance in 1997. Released in the U.S. in 2002, "Two Orphan Vampires" is vintage Rollin, as good as much of the classic stuff he cranked out during his prime in the 1970s. One rule about Rollin has always been that he never goes wrong with a vampire film. He followed the formula brilliantly with "Orphan," which is even more artistic and esoteric than some of his classics. It's much better than "Requiem for a Vampire," and easily outshines his lesser non-vampire films, such as "Night of the Hunted" and "Demoniacs." One thing to remember, however, if you buy or rent the DVD: The default setting for the disc is to play the English-dubbed version of the film. Do NOT watch this movie dubbed. All of the subtly of the performances are totally lost when the voices of "Two Orphan Vampires" are dubbed by American actors. Only watch the French language version, which you can access simply by going into the set-up menu of the DVD. If you get a VHS copy of the film and it turns out to be dubbed, don't watch it. Go out and get the DVD.
Now onto the movie: With no real budget to work with, Rollin managed to locate two of the most beautiful women in all of Europe to take on the role of two blind orphans who, by day, can't see a thing but at night have complete eyesight and also roam cemeteries looking for the blood of unsuspecting victims. The two girls grow fangs when they are ready to feed, but are unsure of where they came from or what their role in this universe is supposed to be. They know they've had many lives together. The film follows their adventures as they are taken away from an orphanage run by French nuns and go off to live with a doctor, who eventually becomes unfortunate enough to learn their secret.
As they sneak through the night-time landscape of France, they encounter other bizarre Fellinni-esque characters, including a female ghoul and a solitary vampire. With little in the make-up effects department to boast of, other than some fake fangs the girls occasionally put on, the movie's major strength is Rollin's writing -- which is beautiful, particularly when the girls recall a past life they believe they enjoyed as Aztec goddesses that consumed blood sacrifices from their legions of followers -- and his locations, which are low key but incredibly atmospheric. The performances by Pic and Teboul as the two orphans are also subtle and compassionate. The contrast of the two orphans in pigtails and holding canes by day who becomes sultry and sociopathic vampires by night is handled remarkably well by these two gorgeous women, who haven't starred in anything since that I'm aware of. There's surprisingly little sex or nudity in this film, even less gore, but it definitely stands out as one of Rollin's all-time best films. Like most of Rollin's films, this won't appeal to mainstream fans or those that like camp, high-energy horror. This is slow-paced -- and excellent -- arthouse fare. Fans of frequent Rollin star Brigitte Lahaie (an adult film starlet who turned up in many of Rollin's '70s and early '80s films) will be pleased that she had a cameo in this film.
Rollin followed it up with another vampire film, released to the French in 1999 but that has yet to make it to U.S. audiences. Here's hoping someone releases it stateside soon.
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-- Review by Lucius Gore
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