Search - The Escapees on DVD

Enter the surreal...

John Everson | Chicago | 09/13/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"French director Jean Rollin has garnered a cult following for his 1970s output of softcore vampire and "living dead" films. Generally shot with the crumbling ruins of European cemeteries and castles as his backdrops, all of his films evoke a wonderful otherworldly feel for an American audience. The frequent focus on lovely lesbians (generally with fangs) doesn't hurt the visual allure of his films either. THE ESCAPEES is one of his later films, and also one of his least seen. Issued in 1981, it differs from much of his catalogue in that it pairs him with a co-writer and eschews any connection to the supernatural, though it does continue his exploration of the macabre.



The film follows two teen girls who escape from an asylum where they were committed for polar reasons. One is afraid of people, the other is looking too hard for sexual adventure. They fall in with a troupe of junkyard burlesque performers, hook up with a pickpocket, and then are lured into the sordid sexual explorations of a yuppie foursome (which includes a brief but powerful appearance by Rollin regular Brigitte Lahaie.) While the settings of this film are largely grey and urban and thus lacking in some of the setting allure of his earlier work, and the vampire element is missing, THE ESCAPEES is still an intriguing film and like so many of Rollin's movies, a bittersweet examination of his two heroines. Its "underground" bar and burlesque scenes evoke some of the same offbeat feel of his earlier film THE DEMONIACS. Overall it is a bit uneven, and certainly not his strongest work, to be sure, but Rollin fans won't want to miss it."

For a Vampire

Bartok Kinski | Prague | 05/22/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Escapees (1981) is a Director Jean Rollin, horror film that tries to sneak up on you with frights, jumping out at you with bizarre genres, like when two young women come out of no where and try to scare you with feelings of degradation.



There are various exploitation scenes but the scene that exploits the most embarrassment is the scene that took place at night with the mother in her insane asylum bed when she saw a bizarre baby coming to the side of her bed.



This film really was not as unpleasant to me as everyone says. The acting wasn't great, it has nothing to do with an insane asylum, and it does lack in some areas and Rollin's actors come across like inanimate eggs but I typically like bad Jean Rollin movies."