Vampire of Ropraz

1903, Ropraz, a small village in the Jura Mountains. The virginal daughter of a local judge dies of meningitis. On a howling December day a lone walker discovers her tomb recently opened, her body violated, left hand cut off, sex mutilated and heart torn out. Horror in the nearby villages, the return of atavistic superstitions, mutual suspicion in the heart of winter. Garlic and crucifixes are again brandished in this Protestant region. Then two more bodies are violated. Now a suspect must be found. Fevez, a stable boy with blood-shot eyes is arrested. He is convicted, subjected to psychiatric treatment and then vanishes in 1915. Chessex takes this true story and weaves it into a lyrical tale of fear and cruelty. This portrait of late 19th century country folk still in the thrall of vampirism sheds new light on our early 21st century urban obsessions with multiple rapists and psychopathic serial killers.