The Living Dead Girl (1982)

Desolated castles, music boxes, grindings, torches, vamp women with loose hair and loose clothing, streams of blood resembling paint... Sounds odd and hackneyed, at least in 2015, when horror and repulsion are mainly based on suspension and psycho, and the elements mentioned above would unintentionally bring along chuckles or blah-feelings. And in the event of no proper story, multiple scenes not bringing any value to the film apart from extensibility, rather lousy acting (no memorable performance), rambling cinematography, and meaningless nudity (just to stress the French origin and spirit?), the result is mediocre, not grisly and not totally annoying thanks to duration (around 1 hour 20 minutes). Not my cup of tea, really, and I am unable to ponder whom I could even recommend this film to. If I had watched it after its release, I would perhaps be of another opinion, but you never know...

No doubt the lovers of the genre will absolutely love the start of this movie and prepare themselves for lots of more great and fun things to come. However this doesn't ever really happen, which in the long run makes this movie a bit of a disappointment.It's funny how the French seemed to be 10 years behind with these sort of movies. It's the type of horror that was popular in Italy in the '70's. The sort of horror that is being extremely gory and violent and features lots of sex and nudity as well. This movie is build up exactly in the same way as one of those Italian '70's productions and also features all of the 'classic' genre ingredients.Yes, there really is quite a lot of gore in this movie, which should definitely please the fans and was also the reason why I still am able to consider this movie to be a watchable one. There is really some hardcore stuff in this movie, which you perhaps would normally only see in a zombie-flick, for instance.I only wished the movie worked out better and more intriguing with its story and characters. There is no real 'conflict' that needs to get resolved. No villain, no hero and the gore and violence is not enough to raise this movie to an higher level, or make it an effectively entertaining one.Obviously a movie for genre lovers only, even though chances are they will also end up somewhat disappointment but at least the movie still has some redeeming qualities for them in it.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I obviously must have started my venture into the world of Jean Rollin with the wrong films. Until recently I did not fully understand the man's cult-status among some of my fellow Eurohorror fans, as the films I had seen ranged from stylish but flawed (e.g. "Fascination") and stylish but boring (e.g. "La Rose De Fer") to ridiculous ("Le Lac Des Morts Vivants"). My opinion of Jean Rollin, as being a master of style but not at all of substance, rapidly changed when I first saw his near-brilliant 1978 Zombie/Gore film "Les Raisins De La Mort" ("The Grapes of Death"). When I recently saw this film, "La Morte Vivante" aka. "The Living Dead Girl" of 1982, I was in for another positive surprise. "La Morte Vivante" is so far my second-favorite Rollin film, and while it isn't as good as "Les Raisins De La Mort", it is quite original, creepy, very weird and very gory to say the least. Unlike "Les Raisins De La Mort", "La Morte Vivante" film does not feature ZombieS, but just one living dead girl. As it is the case with the zombies in "Les Raisins...", the girl owes her state to irresponsible treatment of the environment.A couple of men break into a tomb to get rid of some barrels of toxic waste. After one of the crooks suggests to rob the graves, a small eruption makes one of the barrels fall, and released the toxic waste, which brings the recently deceased beauty Catherine (Françoise Blanchard) back to life. The ravishing blonde is not too grateful for her resurrection, as she butchers the grave-robbers, and escapes her tomb, continuing a sanguinary rampage in order to satisfy her insatiable blood-lust. When she is found by her best friend, Hélène (Maria Pierro), the latter decides to supply her beloved friend with the blood she needs...The film is bizarre and may have some holes in its inner logic, but not to the extent that made some other Rollin films difficult to sit through at times. The female part of an American couple (played by Carina Barone), for example, is not only annoying, but inexplicably interested in finding Catherine after randomly seeing her once on a field. The film has many creepy moments, however, and the gore is very intense. As all Rollin films, the film is elegantly filmed in wonderful Gothic locations that simply ooze atmosphere. The rural French areas where Rollin filmed many of his film have enough chateaus and tiny old villages to make great Horror locations. As almost all Rollin films this is full of elegant female nudity (though the focus on eroticism is still low for a Rollin film). The eponymous beauty played by Françoise Blanchard is a tragic monster, in a way, as she is unwillingly brought back to life, and has to follow her insatiable thirst for blood. The film has a very strong lesbian subtext, although there are no scenes of explicit lesbianism (unlike it is the case in many other Rollin flicks). Overall, "La Morte Vivante" is a atmospheric and elegant wholesome filled with Rollin-typical female nudity and female blood-lust, combined with some truly creepy moments. Recommended to my fellow Eurohorror fans, especially those who like Rollin.

Even with this being the first and only Jean Rollin movie I've watched so far (and having viewed a couple of trailers from his other efforts), I feel like I already have a pretty good idea of what this Frenchman stands for. While Rollin clearly is in the same league that produces – what many call – Euro-Trash movies, I think he is at least one step above Über-Euro-hack Jess Franco. Rollin at least has something Franco never had: The man's got style.LA MORTE VIVANTE (AKA THE LIVING DEAD GIRL) tries to be a lot of things. One could say it's got some sort or 'arty' semblance or contains poetic visuals (e.g. after Catherine sets free the wounded girl from the catacombs, look at the exterior shot where she stumbles towards the water – the way it is lit, the red boat in contrast with the green grass, the shadows separating that scenery from the concrete of the castle-wall on the right, her white dress reflecting in the shimmering water, the violin playing on the soundtrack). Of course, there's a lot of female nudity at display throughout the whole movie (and for the girls: there's even a male generously providing a glimpse at his ding-dong too). However, Rollin somehow manages to give it an 'arty' touch (e.g. after Hélène discovered the bodies of the dead couple, she walks in on a naked Catherine playing the piano – just look at the shot where she's sitting naked behind the piano, her back facing Hélène), while in any given Franco movie you can't do anything but pass it off as cheap sleaze.But all the possible merits this movie has, can't prevent you from feeling you are indeed watching a trashy Euro-Horror flick. The acting is barely tolerable, the editing is rather rudimentary and on top of that, the pacing becomes a bore sometimes. From the two main female characters, only Françoise Blanchard (as Catherine Valmont, the Living Dead Girl) manages to do a decent job. Her performance can easily be described as eerie, disturbing and captivating. Marina Pierro (as her life-long friend Hélène) on the other hand, fails to deliver. She comes off as uninspired and emotionless. During close-ups, it even looks like she's heavily drugged. Her gazing eyes made it look like she was on morphine during the entire shoot of the film. I might have gone a bit easier on the girl if she would've at least shown her voluptuous roundings unclothed, but she even failed to deliver that. The subplot with the foreign couple (both amateur-photographers in their role, and poor actors in the movie too) doesn't even lead to anything. In fact, they're quite annoying: All they do is argue about everything up until the point you just wish they'd break up and disappear from the movie. Well, actually… Them being in the movie does lead to something. While you might think that, with all their investigating, they will play a pivotal role in the plot, all they accomplish in the end is… getting themselves killed. Which leads us to the next thing this movie has to offer: The gore. Bloody gruesome activities happen on a regular base in LA MORTE VIVANTE. And while the blood-splattering, eye-popping, gut-munching, skull-splitting (by axe), throat-ripping (etc.) is all very enjoyable, the on-screen execution of the effects often leave a lot to be desired (i.e. you can see just a little too easy that it's all fake).So, yes, there's not much in this movie that really works well. Except for the drama-part between the two girls (and that's a strange thing to say for a sleazy gore-flick). The relationship between the two of them, and how it evolves, is very interesting and keeps me from calling the movie over-all boring. It's intriguing how things change between them, even in such a manner that by the time the movie ends, the roles of protagonist and antagonist have somewhat shifted. Catherine needs blood and kills, yes. But when the story progresses, she develops a severe aversion towards her actions. She becomes repulsed by them, so much even that she doesn't want to live (or should I say "be undead") anymore. Hélène, on the other hand starts providing her with fresh victims and near the end even starts killing anybody who comes too close to discovering their secret. So the drama between the girls is what almost makes this a good movie. That, and the ending. Now, I myself saw it coming even before the first act of the film was finished. The ending's predictability could be a big 'thumbs down' for the movie in general, but I must say I didn't feel all that negative about it. The execution of that final scene (starting from the events at the water, the shocking gore footage – for once looking realistic, Blanchard's performance, to the final frozen frame) is what saved the ending. And then the end-credits scroll the screen while a darkly ominous drone colours the soundtrack. A solid ending to a rather weak movie featuring one of the most ridiculous opening-sequences ever in horror history (which I failed to mention earlier in this review).