Demoniacs (4 Stars)

"An expressionist film by Jean Rollin".

That's the subtitle of this film. Let me quote the description of expressionism from Wikipedia:

Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality.

In the early days of cinema, from the early 20th Century till the outbreak of World War Two, German cinema was revered as the world's best. Alfred Hitchcock spent time in Germany learning how to direct films, and his early films show clear expressionist influence. One of the features of expressionist cinema was that the viewer was unsettled. He was shown that the film portrayed a fantasy, and yet he was drawn into it, like into a nightmare. The use of black and white actually enhanced the feeling of a surreal world.

This is where Rollin deviates from German expressionism. Rollin uses rich colours to draw the viewer into a fantasy world. His films are usually overwhelming in their use of colour. He also unsettles the viewer with unusual imagery.

The film takes place in a coastal town. A group of "wreckers" make a living by plundering ships. I had never heard of this practice before, but it seems to be a form of landbound piracy. The wrecker uses lights and false signals to mislead a boat and cause it to run aground onto the rocks. He then plunders what is washed ashore. In the film the wreckers are shown to be sadistic, taking as much pleasure in killing the survivors as in the plundering itself.

But this is a supernatural tale. One day the wreckers are picking up treasure from a ship when two beautiful women dressed in white wade ashore. The wreckers rape and kill the two women. The following day the two women appear as ghosts to haunt them. A few hours later they are no longer ghosts, they have come back to life.

The wreckers chase the women to kill them again. The women flee to a deserted ruined church where they are rescued by a clown. (The clown is a common image in Rollin's films as an absurd contrast to gothic horror). The clown and a bishop are keeping an ancient vampire trapped in the ruins. The women free him, and he gives them supernatural power so they can take revenge on the wreckers for killing them.

Does the film make sense? Not really. Think of it in terms of a waking nightmare. This is an example of what makes Rollin such a powerful director.