Two Orphan Vampires (1997)

Background: First off, I’ll be doing one or two guest posts for our regular Depths writer until he gets his Internet back. I’m a fellow movie and Netflix lover, although admittedly not as knowledgeable about it as he is. I’m also a lover of offbeat, little-known vampire films, which is what we have on the bill today. Jean Rollin, who is apparently rather well known for his erotic, usually vampire-themed horror films, directs this forgotten 1997 film. The Netflix description of this actually describes him as “the master of the lesbian vampire movie genre,” which I for one didn’t even know exists. Apparently, most would say the same about Two Orphan Vampires, as Rollins is best known for his earlier films such as Le Viol du Vampire (Queen of the Vampires). This was his directorial debut, and it opened in 1968 amid largely negative reactions that almost forced him to quit film. Obviously he didn’t, and went on to make more successful films. There’s enough information about his early films online, but not much at all about the background behind Two Orphan Vampires. I did find out that it’s based on his own novel, and that it was his most extravagant budget yet at $700,000. Also the two stars were wholly inexperienced in film—he found them in a newspaper ad. That’s it for behind the scenes info; now let’s judge the actual thing.

Plot: This movie has a rather long and winding plot, and it’s not in a hurry. It starts with two nuns explaining to a doctor that the orphan sisters, Louise and Henriette, are blind. This starts a movie-long trend of the girls being referred to as angels. Their innocence and sweetness is emphasized throughout the whole movie, mostly by nuns and old women. Their little adventure begins when they get out of bed at the orphanage in the middle of the night. Apparently they can only see at night, and then everything is blue, which explains the blue filter that’s in every other scene. They decide to go join the stray dog that’s hanging out in the cemetery because why the hell not. Fun times are hard to find in an orphanage, I suppose. They frolic around the graves for a bit, then sit down and talk about their past lives. Looking at the camera for a large part of it with odd smiles, they talk about how they’ve had “mishaps,” how they’ve been killed and then came back.

We first see them as vampires in the beginning of a series of flashbacks to past lives. In this one, they ravage their innocent prey on the Brooklyn Bridge (the rest of the movie is in Paris) before gleefully running away. Their flashbacks often try to indicate a different time period by way of their outfits. They also meet a variety of odd characters throughout the movie: a crazy she-wolf at the train station, a ghoul, an old man who chases them, and some kind of ridiculous vampire/dragon lady in a church who gives them a place to hide from the asshole old man.

At some point in the movie they move from the orphanage to the doctor’s house. When he mistakenly shoots Louise outside the house at night (don’t worry, she survives thanks to Henriette being so generous with her blood, and yes it was as weird as it sounds), they decide to kill him. I found it amusing that instead of doing their usual vampire thing, Henriette stabs him from behind with a knife. It was a rather effective scene, since for once we actually see guilt or fear on her face as she hesitates. The rest of the movie, they’re just normal teenagers who smoke and get drunk and sneak out at night and give each other naked hugs. Oh, right, and they suck people’s blood—and they never seem guilty about it. They do seem conflicted about their identity, constantly asking throughout the movie, “Who are we?” At one point, they decide they’re actually Aztec goddesses, and at another they’re convinced they are magicians.

Near the end, they go back to the orphanage and, in another effective scene, the nuns walk in to find them with two dead orphans lying in their bloody laps. Of course, after that, the girls are on the run. Oddly, the old man who chased them earlier sees them and goes after them again with a gun. This time it’s Henriette who’s shot. They stumble into a pond together, and basically just drown themselves. It’s okay though, they’ll probably be back. 

Why Was it Forgotten? It really does drag on a lot (sooo many shots of them just walking up and down stairs), and for a filmmaker known for his erotic horror films, this one has very little horror or eroticism. The gore is satisfying enough, but there’s no real scares (and I don’t believe he was trying for them) except for the scene in which she stabs the doctor, and perhaps when the nuns find them with their dead victims. Even those are more horrific than actually “scary.” There is some brief nudity, but it’s more of an awkward-to-watch sisterly kind. Most people probably go into this hoping for a certain kind of film and finding an entirely different one. It is also easy to find the actresses’ performance alienating, since whenever they are with the nuns or the doctor, their dialogue is stilted and their expressions devoid of emotion. Also, I thought it would be in French; instead, it seems to have been dubbed in English. Disappointing.

What Went Right? It is often a very pretty film, and although usually the high amount of blue filter would bother me, I don’t mind it much since there’s a reason behind it. I also quite liked the score. Also, I enjoyed the girls’ performances. Whenever they were on their own, they suddenly alternated between giddiness and profound sadness. Sometimes it still seemed sort of like they were playacting their emotions, but I think that might have been the point. They’re supposed to be inhuman. Overall, the mood of the film was pitch perfect, it was often rather funny, and the girls’ beauty and wide smiles were appropriately creepy.

 

Verdict: I wish it hadn’t been quite so slow, and I would have preferred a tighter plot. That said, it’s an interesting vampire film that will stick with me.

Score: 70%