In late 2006, legendary director Jean Rollin was told he only had a few months to live. He'd been diagnosed with Stage III Cancer. At this point, it had been years since his previous picture. In the face of impending death, Jean began writing a new script that - he believed - would become his swan song. The harsh realities of his tenuous situation frustrated Rollin's creativity. Without a guarantee that the director could live to finish the production, his usual backers pulled financial support. He decided this new project would be his first independently produced since 1968's RAPE OF THE VAMPIRE. And he felt invigorated by that. Perhaps, because Jean knew this movie would stand as his coda, he was determined to make it as personal as possible without drifting rudderless into sentimentality. But as Jean Rollin wrote that screenplay he DID drift into nostalgic sentimentality, surging far beyond into maudlin, absorbed, self-indulgent. In short, Rollin had created a script that became HIM, almost embarrassing, but more personal than anything since LIPS OF BLOOD (Lèvres de sang) and it was flawed, yet brilliant. Jean Rollin had written his own obituary.

Embedded in his familiar landscape (fantasy, hallucination, chimera), Rollin takes the audience far beyond the traditional horror element by peeling back the façade, touching/embracing his own life in his art. An array of his most famous characters have been frozen in time, cursed to repeat their same performance for eternity. [Perhaps that's better than having no lasting impression?] This film stars Ovidie who - like Rollin's muse, Brigitte Lahaie - came from a decade of adult films. Under Jean's guidance, she also manages to capture the dreamy consistency of his other memorable female sirens. She plays a young woman on a nightmarish journey to find her missing uncle, a reclusive horror filmmaker named Michel Jean [note: the forename of Jean Michel Rollin Le Gentil]. Through her journey, she is guided by characters from his movies as well as the actors who played them (i.e., Dominique from REQUIEM FOR A VAMPIRE, Françoise Blanchard from "Living Dead Girl," Natalie Perrey from TWO ORPHAN VAMPIRES, Solange Pradel from RAPE OF THE VAMPIRE, et al), a collection of cinematic ghosts who beckon for unsuspecting victims to follow them into the hourglass of time.

In a twist of fate, Jean Rollin's health remained relatively strong. He finished the film. But his life had not ended. A few years passed. Jean's wife Simone Rollin convinced him to take some recent essays and shape them into a film. That movie became MASK OF THE MEDUSA, completed and released in 2009. Mr Jean Rollin died from his spreading cancer in December of 2010 at age 72.

A French film with optional English subtitles; widescreen format,
uncut 92 minutes, DVD Package encoded for ALL REGION NTSC FORMAT.
Extras include Interview: Jean Rollin discussing this film.

Nudity/Graphic Violence/Drugs
Recommended for Mature Audiences