Its poetic spirit and strong inspiration from American serials did not seem to attract viewers or critics at the time of its release.

Themes developed in his subsequent feature films were already present: vampires, a fascination with old cemeteries, lesbianism and a pronounced taste for eroticism.

The sisters are being manipulated by a sinister old man who alternates between admonishing them to kill newcomers that threaten their exposure and groping their breasts.

He believes it has been induced by the superstitious villagers, who have driven the confused women insane with their religious symbols and persecution.

Thomas asks one of the sisters to bite him to prove her wrong and discovers she is, in fact, a vampire and that his own preconceptions misled him.

She commands her hooded cohort to grab the old man and pin him down to the slab of rock, then proceeds to sacrifice him, and licks the knife covered in his blood.

They do not wish to feed on the living, but are too afraid that if they stay free, their thirst will drive them to murder, so they sacrifice themselves instead, ending their freedom in each other's arms.

[3] In 1967, French retailer Jean Lavie, owner of a Paris network of small theatres including The Scarlett, Styx and Midi Minuit, commissioned a short film from Rollin on the theme of vampires.

It was to serve as a prologue to an old American fantasy film of the 1940s, The Vampire, a Creature of the Devil, which he had bought the rights to and planned to rebroadcast.

With producer Sam Selsky, he was given a budget of 200,000 francs, which gave him the opportunity to assemble a small team and start shooting the film.

Instead, Rollin chose Pourville-lès-Dieppe, a beach near Normandy which was dear to his heart since his teens and had already been used as a setting in 1958 for his first short film, Les Amours Jaunes (The Yellow Lovers).

During the scene, in which the four vampire sisters were attacked, the peasants were played by Polho and several members of the crew, who had been employed for the occasion as actors because Rollin could not hire extras.

[8] Unlike other Rollin films, Le Viol du Vampire remained unreleased on VHS in France for a very long time, due to it being shot in black and white.

It was released again on DVD in Europe on October 20, 2007 by Encore Films in a restored version with a new aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and extra materials including a 28-page booklet.

The Blu-ray, as well as a DVD reissue, contained the film presented uncensored in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio from a newly remastered negative in HD.