EP575 - The Summer of ROLLIN Ep.2 - Shiver of the Vampire (1971) & Requiem for a Vampire (1971)

Welcome to episode 575 of The Podcast Under the Stairs.

The Summer of Rollin continues...and Jean Rollin is starting to become Jean Rollin.

In Episode 575, we journey into The Shiver of the Vampires (1971) and Requiem for a Vampire (1971), two films that show Rollin evolving from an experimental filmmaker finding his voice into an auteur who has seemingly discovered exactly what kind of cinema he wants to make.

With The Shiver of the Vampires, Rollin pushes further into his fascination with nudity, sexual liberation, desire and the female form, while surrounding it all with the crumbling castles, deserted landscapes, gothic imagery and dreamlike atmosphere that were rapidly becoming his trademark.

But beneath the naked bodies and vampire mythology is something far more interesting: isolation.

Rollin's characters often seem detached from the real world, wandering through beautiful spaces that feel simultaneously romantic, threatening and completely unreal. His films aren't simply stories happening in strange locations, the locations themselves become part of the story.

Then comes Requiem for a Vampire. And Rollin basically decides that dialogue is optional.

For almost 40 minutes, the film barely speaks a word, instead allowing imagery, music, movement and atmosphere to carry the narrative. It's a bold, egotistical and utterly fascinating decision — one that could have collapsed into pretension but instead becomes one of the clearest demonstrations of Rollin's confidence as a filmmaker.

We'll explore how Requiem strips away conventional storytelling and replaces it with something closer to a cinematic dream, a film where logic takes a back seat to mood, composition, sexuality, fantasy and the hypnotic power of the image.

Along the way we'll explore:

  • The evolution of Rollin's vampire mythology.

  • Nudity, eroticism and sexual liberation in his cinema.

  • The beauty and isolation of his locations.

  • Rollin's growing obsession with dream logic over conventional narrative.

  • The audacity of almost 40 minutes without dialogue.

  • How these films cement the visual and thematic DNA of a Rollin movie.

  • What makes his cinema so instantly recognisable — and so difficult to imitate.

By this point, Rollin isn't simply making vampire movies. He's creating Rollin movies.

Beautiful, bizarre, erotic, melancholic, surreal and often completely unconcerned with whether the audience knows exactly what the hell is going on.

So once again, pour the wine, head for the nearest crumbling castle and prepare to lose yourself in the strange, seductive world of Jean Rollin.

The Summer of Rollin continues...

Timecode For Episode 575:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:03:44 - Shiver of the Vampires

00:14:18 - Requiem for a Vampire

00:26:54 - The Indicator 4KUHD's

00:32:14 - Closing the Show

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Duncan McLeishthe summer of rollin, shiver of the vampires, requiem for a vampire