Is La fiancée de Dracula Trash or Treasure?

Blu-ray Distributed By: Redemption Films / February 19, 2019

As Eurohorror pioneer Jean Rollin (Requiem for a Vampire, The Iron Rose) approached the sunset of his career, he distilled the dreamlike images and themes of his work into films that were deeply personal and unapologetically cryptic. Dracula’s Fiancee stars Jacques Regis as a vampire hunter whose pursuit of the descendants of Count Dracula leads him to a convent (The Order of the White Virgins), where supernatural beings of a parallel world are unleashed, including a bloodthirsty ogress (Magalie Aguado), a wolf-woman (Brigitte Lahaie, Fascination), and a young woman who is being prepared as Dracula’s bride (Cyrille Iste). Also included is Lost in New York, perhaps the most dreamlike of Rollin’s “sister” films, a modern-day Alice in Wonderland in which two siblings explore the wastelands of Manhattan.

Jimbo’s Take  (2 / 5)

Will anyone other than Jean Rollin fans be satisfied with this rootie-tootie-frenchie-fruity vampire flick? I presume not.

Rollin certainly has enough ingredients in La fiancée de Dracula for a robust vampire flick. There’s a Van Helsing-like Professor and his trusty apprentice hot on the trail of Dracula. They find a potential pawn to lead them on their quest, embodied in Isabelle (Dracula’s fiancee). But between them and Dracula stands a number of obstacles. A convent of insane white nuns is tasked with protecting Isabelle and would prefer these interlopers not put her in danger. Then there are the followers of “The Master” – human “parallels” with a psychic link to Dracula, a vampire lady, a baby-eating “Ogress”, a She-wolf (whom never turns into a wolf), and a circus dwarf.

But an eclectic group of characters isn’t enough for me to enjoy this one. My problems with the film are too numerous to list without drafting a dissertation. However, I can boil it down to one important question: What’s at stake? (And that’s not meant to be a vampire pun.)  But seriously, why should I care? The Professor and his apprentice, Eric, are looking for Dracula. But we’ve never seen this Dracula do anything evil or heinous. We’re just supposed to assume he’s evil because everyone says so? And no one, not even the loyal followers of “The Master” have ever seen him. Are we supposed to worry and sympathize with Isabelle? She’s insane, so I don’t. And because the Professor and Eric never seem to be in peril, you begin to wonder why they don’t just pack up and go home to their families. You can even make the argument that everything was under control until the Professor and Eric arrive and muck everything up, leading to confrontation, and even death.

I know Rollin film fans will counter with “Jimbo doesn’t like it because it’s not a ‘traditional’ vampire flick.” To which I would counter, neither is Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers, Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In, or Taika Waititi’s What We Do In The Shadows, all of which take vampire lore and turn it on its head. But the main difference with Rollin’s film and the ones I highlight is the ability to take the sum of parts and make a cohesive, and memorable whole. Rollin has all the elements to make the movie engaging and interesting but can’t marry them as successfully as Dracula marrying his fiancee.

And tone is all over the map. Sometimes it’s gruesome, sometimes wacky, and sometimes just weird. I’m never certain how I’m supposed to feel during a particular sequence. When my mind and eye starts to wander, and I spend more time noticing light stands or wondering why the Professor has a painting of a woman with massive breasts above his desk; then you know the movie isn’t working the way it should for me.

But, then again, I don’t doubt that this is the movie Rollin intended to make. I do feel like the director’s fingerprints are all over it and his characters are behaving in a way he has constructed. We would just disagree on whether he made the right or wrong artistic decisions. So if you’re new to Jean Rollin, don’t start with La fiancée de Dracula. Start with one or two of his titles from the 1970s, maybe Requiem for a Vampire, or Lips of Blood, if we’re keeping to the vampire genre. But I have no doubt Jean Rollin fans will be tickled silly by this ‘non-traditional’ take on Dracula mythology.

Video  (3.5 / 5)

The image for Dracula’s Fiancee looks very clean and sharp. There’s a healthy and natural level of film grain that always makes me very happy. And I assume the film elements used for this transfer are in much better shape since this film isn’t that old. So blemishes and anomalies, although present, are kept to a minimum. However, I did notice some strange video processing anomalies in the very far right hand side of the frame. And this makes me wonder where and how the movie was dumped onto Blu-ray. However, you don’t need to worry about it because your TV has a natural over-scan so you’ll probably never see it. And even if you watch the movie on a computer monitor, the anomalies are so small you probably won’t even notice unless you’re actively searching like I was.

Lost in New York on the other hand is a video dump replete with scratches, degradation, and anomalies. Regardless, the movie is good enough to watch. Just don’t expect a new transfer or remaster. It was treated simply as a bonus feature.

Audio  (3 / 5)

Both films have their original French language track and subtitles for those of us that only passed French class in high school because the Valedictorian whispered the translation in his ear (yeah, that was me). It’s a low budget picture, so don’t expect sweeping scores or anything beyond stock sound effects. But all in all, it works for this release.

Extras  (3 / 5)

The extras are few, but for the Rollin enthusiast will be very welcome. I didn’t particularly love the audio commentary, but I’m not the target audience. Samm Deighan is clearly a Rollin scholar and she knows enough about the late director to help educate and enlighten someone like myself. Even though I’m not a fan, the commentary at least promotes an appreciation for his work. Naturally, I suspect any Rollin apologist will gobble the commentary up.

The second extra is another movie! A two-fer is always a nice touch. My brief review of Lost in New York: It’s a weird, dreamlike, experimental film. Viewers will recognize the use of the same shooting locations from Dracula’s Fiancee. I liked it a little more than the main feature…

• Audio commentary by Samm Deighan (editor of Lost Girls: The Phantasmagorical Cinema of Jean Rollin)
• Jean Rollin’s 1989 film Lost in New York

Trash or Treasure? Overall Recommendation

This one’s an easy decision. If you’re a Rollin superfan, there’s no need to delay on picking this up. The Kino and Redemption partnership have birthed another solid Jean Rollin movie from their collection. For the casual viewer or for someone just coming into view of Rollin’s body of work…test the waters elsewhere. Below are links to other Rollin films that may be more consumable before splurging on Dracula’s Finacee.

Movie:	(2.0 / 5)
Video:	(3.5 / 5)
Audio:	(3.0 / 5)
Extras:	(3.0 / 5)
Average:	(2.9 / 5)

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