9. Fascination (1979)
French eroti-horror from the master of vampire sex movies - Jean Rollin. Fascination, is for me, the most memorable and polished of Rollin's movies. At the turn of the 20th century, some bourgeoise Parisian women drink blood at an abattoir to combat anaemia. A thief called Mark has split from his fellow group of thieves and has a hell of a lot of money on him. He wants to go to London but first holes up in a mansion looked after two bisexual maids called Elizabeth and Eva who are awaiting the return of the Marchioness and her servants. Not in the slightest bit scared that Mark is taking them hostage, the women use him as a sex toy. He shags Eva and Elizabeth is jealous. The thieves are waiting for Mark outside the mansion grounds. Eva shags them all and then kills them. The Marchioness arrives back with her servants. A party is held where Mark is the only male and receives a lot of attention because of that. But ultimately, the women bring back guests to vampirise and drink their blood. Elizabeth helps Mark escape and they hide in the stables. Eva is eaten alive by the servants. Elizabeth reveals she never had any feelings for Mark and kills him. She walks off into the sunset with the Marchioness. A striking film from Jean Rollin, perhaps the most exciting aspect of the film is French hard core porn legend Brigitte Lahaie in an appearance as Eva. She is an incredibly good looking and charismatic actress, when she wields the scythe, she looks like the most amazing avenging angel. Rollin, of course, peppers the film liberally with lesbian scenes, but they are artistically filmed and not seedy or gratuitous. It is after all an erotic horror movie and on that level it succeeds, more so than previous Rollin efforts.