Rollin’s Sadomasochistic Side…

In Demoniacs, director Jean Rollin has created a violent world of rape-revenge, ghosts, and pirates; in what is for him a rare departure from his usual vampire universe. With a brutal and disturbing opening scene, and Joëlle Coeur (Schoolgirl Hitchhikers, Seven Women for Satan) in one of her most memorable performances; the souls of two shipwrecked and then abused women return to haunt their killers, and to exact a terrible revenge on them. Whilst Demoniacs is in places an uneven film, it nevertheless features many of Rollin’s key trademarks, including everything from burning ships and flying religious icons, to ghosts and scenes of frenzied female masturbation by the seemingly sex-crazed Coeur!

“Succeeds by its sheer uncompromising nature”

Schoolgirl Hitchhikers AKA Jeunes Filles Impudiques, 1973, 79 mins

As well as his more well known vampire movies, French filmmaker Jean Rollin frequently indulged in the softcore (and occasionally hardcore) sex film. Among the more personal of these films is Schoolgirl Hitchhikers, which reflects many of the themes and fascinations that run through his esoteric body of work.
Joëlle Coeur (Demoniacs) and Gilda Arancio star as a pair of lovers enjoying a blissful cross-country hike, however things turn suddenly dark when the women are set upon by a band of thieves who think they have stolen their loot, and use sadistic means to force a confession.

“good old fashioned 70s sexploitation” – rockshoppop

Sidewalks of Bangkok AKA Les trottoirs de Bangkok, 1984, 85 mins

Inspired by the 1932 Boris Karloff classic, The Mask of Fu Manchu, and starring the late Françoise Blanchard; who had mesmerised with her performance in Rollin’s The Living Dead Girl (1982) the previous year. With Sidewalks of Bangkok Rollin wanted to pay homage to the adventure films that he had loved watching in his youth, and in many ways Sidewalks achieves its goal. Rollin mixes themes of action, crime and mystery while throwing in some scenes of sadistic sex for good measure, creating an almost comic book tribute to his heroes.

“Playfully perverse, pistol-packing fun” – letterboxd