To the unaware and on the surface, this film may seem like a 70's exploitation film but it has deeper meanings. This film is almost unknown and has never received wide distribution. It was banned in France -- it's country of origin. It is one of the few "real" horror movies to come out of Europe.
In this film, Boris Zaroff, initially represents the new France of business and corporate take-overs but has fallen under the spell of the old world via a portrait of the dead Anne De Boisreyvault -- a former inhabitant of the château. If Boris is to be kept on the true and narrow, schooled as a true Zaroff, he must reject this misty-eyed romantic view of turn of the century France. It is no accident that the dead woman under whose spirit Zaroff has fallen was buried in 1912 -- just before the onset of the Great War -- the war that destroyed the leisured lifestyle of the aristocrats of old France.
Unknown to many is that this movie is said to be an unconscious archetype: it derives much of its power from one of Europe's oldest and most potent myths, the ancient story of The Bride of Corinth. The tale tells of a young man who visits the family of his intended. He finds the house empty and everyone seemingly gone away. He decides to stay and that night his bride visits him, only to tell him that she is already dead.
The story was first recorded in the 2nd century AD in Phlegon's Marvels. It was popularized in the 18th century by Goethe who made the woman a vampire.
In it's purest form, the story is actually about the death of the old gods, the end of nature and the triumph of the new European order -- rational, anti-pagan Christianity.
Likewise Boris falls in love with the spirit of the dead Anne De Boisreyvault -- fallen in love with the ghost of a world long gone.
The background and music fit this film well.
There is also one scene with a Negro. It's not your typical Hollywood Negro character, IE The Hero. He represents the dark unconscious mind of a white woman's unrestrained sexual drive.
In this film, Boris Zaroff, initially represents the new France of business and corporate take-overs but has fallen under the spell of the old world via a portrait of the dead Anne De Boisreyvault -- a former inhabitant of the château. If Boris is to be kept on the true and narrow, schooled as a true Zaroff, he must reject this misty-eyed romantic view of turn of the century France. It is no accident that the dead woman under whose spirit Zaroff has fallen was buried in 1912 -- just before the onset of the Great War -- the war that destroyed the leisured lifestyle of the aristocrats of old France.
Unknown to many is that this movie is said to be an unconscious archetype: it derives much of its power from one of Europe's oldest and most potent myths, the ancient story of The Bride of Corinth. The tale tells of a young man who visits the family of his intended. He finds the house empty and everyone seemingly gone away. He decides to stay and that night his bride visits him, only to tell him that she is already dead.
The story was first recorded in the 2nd century AD in Phlegon's Marvels. It was popularized in the 18th century by Goethe who made the woman a vampire.
In it's purest form, the story is actually about the death of the old gods, the end of nature and the triumph of the new European order -- rational, anti-pagan Christianity.
Likewise Boris falls in love with the spirit of the dead Anne De Boisreyvault -- fallen in love with the ghost of a world long gone.
The background and music fit this film well.
There is also one scene with a Negro. It's not your typical Hollywood Negro character, IE The Hero. He represents the dark unconscious mind of a white woman's unrestrained sexual drive.