Fascination
Directed by Jean Rollin
Released: 1979
Starring Franca Mai, Brigitte Lahaie, Jean-Marie Lemaire, and Fanny Magier
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Studio: Redemption Films

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After double-crossing his gang, Mark (played by Jean-Marie Lemaire) makes off with their ill-gotten loot. With the gun-toting bandits hot on his trail, he hides out in an old castle populated by Elisabeth (played by Franca Mai) and Eva (Brigitte Lahaie), two very bizarre women. After forcing himself on Eva, Mark decides to stay and wait until dark to elude his former partners. Unbeknownst to him, Eva slips outside and dispatches the gang with a scythe. As night approaches, the girls warn Mark to leave for their guests will be arriving shortly and he will not survive their dark entertainments. But Mark is an adventurous sort and refuses to believe them. When the lady of the house and her bevvy of beautiful bloodsuckers arrive, they see Mark as the main course. This guy's in for a rough night, let me tells ya.

The paper thin plot of Fascination takes a backseat to the gothic atmosphere, ethereal music, and gratuitous nudity. But that’s pretty standard for a Jean Rollin film. The castle where the story takes place and the surrounding scenery are absolutely stunning and are essential to this film's strangeness. Much like the shipwreckers' story of Demoniacs, the dreamy adventure subplot is just a means to get our main character into a bizarre supernatural situation.

Viewers are treated to a dreamy cast of beautiful ladies in various stages of undress who were obviously not chosen for their acting skills. Or were they? Everyone is seemingly directed to behave like they’re just coming out from under anesthesia. French sex goddess, Brigitte Lahaie (Night of the Hunted), gets to run around in a cloak (and nothing else!), wield a scythe and cut people down. What more could you want?

The opening scene of some high class ladies drinking blood like wine while standing on the slaughterhouse floor is friggin’ gorgeous and very, very wrong. This sets up a sense of foreboding that (despite some some silliness with Mark's gang and a few softcore divergences) rarely lets up. The women keep warning Mark to leave and it’s painfully obvious that something very bad is going to happen to this dope. But it’s damn near impossible to look away. Beauty is just another one of death's masks and this luscious pack of vamps is going to prove it.

This achingly beautiful and morbid film is definitely not for all tastes as many people are bored to tears by Rollin's dark leisure films. Seasoned fans of this fantastic French director that haven’t caught Fascination yet, need to do so immediately. To the uninitiated, I recommend putting this drowsy and odd little film on the back burner until after you’ve seen Jean Rollin’s livelier (if you can really call them that) and gorier films such as The Grapes of Death or The Living Dead Girl.

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Quotes

“Beware, sometimes death takes the form of seduction.”