Requiem For a Vampire Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Requiem For a Vampire" or "Caged Virgins" or "Dungeon of Terror" or "Vierges et Vampires" )

directed by Jean Rollin
France 1971

Two girls disguised as clowns have broken a convict associate out of prison. When he is shot during a car chase, they abandon the vehicle and their disguise and take off on foot. After using their wits and their figures to steal food and escaping being buried alive in a cemetery, they eventually find themselves in a remote castle inhabited by a clan of vampires. If not for the abundant nudity (and a sadistic, red-tinted sequence of the vampires attacking women in chains), this lyrical film would make an ideal companion piece to the Czech fantasy VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS or even Rollin's underrated TWO ORPHAN VAMPIRES. REQUIEM was not only one of the few Rollin titles dubbed into English, it was also one of the more accessible ones in America in that (unlike NUDE VAMPIRE and SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES which were licensed by grindhouse distributor Harry Novak's Box Office International but never distributed in the U.S.) it not only had theatrical play under a number of titles including CAGED VIRGINS it was released on rental-era home video in abbreviated form as DUNGEON OF TERROR paired with a similarly shortened version of the American horror sleeper THE CHILD as a double-feature rental tape.

Eric Cotenas

Posters

Theatrical Release: August 1973

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Encore Entertainment (3 disc edition) - Region 0 - PAL vs. Redemption - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for all the Screen Caps!

1) Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT

2) Encore Entertainment (3 disc edition) - Region 0 - PAL - MIDDLE

3) Redemption - Region FREE - Blu-ray - RIGHT

Box Covers
Distribution	Image Entertainment Region 0 - NTSC	Encore Entertainment Region 0 - PAL	Redemption USA Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:26:48	1:23:12 (4% PAL speedup)	1:26:48
Video	1.48:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.16 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.44 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 36,017,434,020 bytes Feature: 21,734,256,091 bytes Video Bitrate: 25.93 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Image Entertainment
Bitrate: Encore Entertainment (3 disc edition)
Audio	French (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono); English (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono)	French (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono); English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)	LPCM Audio French 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Subtitles	English, none	English, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, Norweigian, Swedish, Polish, none	English, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Image Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Widescreen letterboxed - 1.48:1 Edition Details: • French Theatrical Trailer (4:3; 3:09) • English Theatrical Trailer (4:3; 3:09) • Behind the Scenes Still Gallery • Production Stills Gallery • Publicity Gallery DVD Release Date: 3 August 1999 Snapper Case (later in amaray) Chapters 13	Release Information: Studio: Encore Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Introduction by Jean Rollin (in English - 16:9; 7:18) • DISC TWO • Interview with Louise Dhour (in French with English subtitles - 16:9; 10:06) • Interview with actor Paul Bisciglia (in French with English subtitles - 16:9; 16:24) • Jean Rollin reads from his last book (4:3; 8:54) • French Theatrical Trailer (4:3; 3:00) • English Theatrical Trailer (4:3; 2:59) • DISC THREE • Selected Scenes Commentary by Jean Rollin (in English - 8 scenes - 22:42) • 3 Alternate Clothed Scenes (2:52) • Photo Gallery • 64 page booklet DVD Release Date: 13 October 2005 Digipack in Sleeve Chapters 12	Release Information: Studio: Redemption Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 36,017,434,020 bytes Feature: 21,734,256,091 bytes Video Bitrate: 25.93 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Introduction by Jean Rollin (2:27 in 1080P) • Documentary: The Shiver of a Requiem (17:41 in 1080P) • Louise Dhour Interview (10:07) • 3 trailers (French, English and Us as 'Caged Virgins') • 16-page booklet 'The Cinema of Jean Rollin's Blu-ray Release Date: May 29th, 2012 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 10

Comments

NOTE: These Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Redemption - Region FREE - Blu-ray (May 12'): Again I will plead ignorance as to haw this film looked originally. The Redemption Blu-ray excels in a few areas with brighter colors, some grain but there is still a hint of greenish hue. I think of the three recent Redemption/Jean Rollin Blu-rays this may look the best. It can be darker and occasionally soft but in-motion it did look... decent. The 1.66 framed image seems to be better balanced than the DVDs and may be the best presentation of the three.

This 1080P package offers linear PCM tracks for both French and English in 2.0 channel. There are optional English subtitles.

Supplements include a 2.5 minute introduction by Jean Rollin, the 17-minute documentary 'The Shiver of a Requiem', a 10-minute Louise Dhour Interview and 3 trailers for the film (French, English and US one as 'Caged Virgins'). The package contains a 16-page booklet.

Another sex-filled but actually sexy (IMO) Rollin film. I liked this one better - an adventurous spirit without as many weird unknowns (although they certainly exist). Recommended to Rollin fans... only.

- Gary Tooze

***

ON THE DVDs: Image's DVD seems to run at correct film speed but it has been encoded interlaced and exhibits additional ugly chroma banding on fine lines (note one of the girls' striped shirt in any scene with movement) and pixelation. The English track is louder and has been cleaned up but both hiss is present in both tracks. There are 16 chapters on the Image disc but only 13 are for the feature (the first is for the tacky/boring Redemption intro and the last two are for the French and English trailers; early Image releases placed the theatrical trailers in the same titleset as the features with selection from the scene menu as well as from the extras menu in some cases). Encore's 3 disc set features an improved anamorphic transfer in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Sometimes the top is cropped and sometimes more picture information is revealed on the sides. The image quality is much improved but the audio tracks sound similar to the ones on the Image disc quality-wise.

The extras have been spread over two discs with the feature confined to the first single-layer disc (at a lower bitrate than the Image release although it looks superior). Disc 2 is only 1.59 GB and while Disc 3 is 1.48 GB and the entire package could have fit on a single dual-layer disc (better yet, the feature could have received a dual-layer encode and the extras given their own DVD5). Jean Rollin comments on 8 selected scenes in English and there are some alternate clothed scenes for the French version. Actors Louise Dhour and Paul Bisciglia provide interviews and Rollin reads from his last novel. As with other encore releases, the 64 page booklet is very informative with tons of behind the scenes stills, posters, Rollin's lengthy reminiscences on the film's making and some of the text from his last novel. It is likely that Redemption USA's more recent release is a standards-conversion of the newer anamorphic PAL master as the disc carries over some of the Encore set's extras.

- Eric Cotenas

Menus
(Image Entertainment - Region 0 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Encore Entertainment (3 disc edition) - Region 0 - PAL - RIGHT)