StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

GazerRise Fantastic!

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

thecultofhorror Jean Rollin, French Horror Sexploitation Auteur hits hard with a Zombie- Lesbo love tale about a resurrected woman, Catherine Valmont (Fransoise Blanchard) and her long time girl friend Helene (Marie Pierro) and their exploits of lust-filled murder, kidnapping and the consequences that follow.Foolish Grave Robbing Thieves, who also dump toxic waste meet their eye- gouging demise with the beautiful Living Dead Girl after a small tremor awakens her from her coffin. After Catherine racks up a 3 man body count, she wanders the beautiful French country side barefoot and only wearing a white gown and is photographed by a tourist and her husband. The tourist woman becomes obsessed that this Living Dead Girl is the young Catherine only back from the dead and confronts her. After a few more naked dead people pile up, Helene unscuccessfully attempts to feed Catherine with a dead bird, then kidnaps a random woman and gives her to Catherine who then tears the victim apart.Most fans of Rollin expect his films to be loaded with French styled gore and nudity and also are aware of the slow pacing in between scenes. Such is the staple for Euro Sleaze.The films last 10 minutes kick in to high gear and to honest, it is pretty damn grueling to the degree of saying out loud "what other horror film can offer such goodies"?(Spoliers) Catherine then frees her next stripped bare victim and sets her loose, realizing that she is evil and hates herself. Then Helene sets a tourist on fire who flees screaming and jumps of a bridge and chops another tourists head with a midieval axe. Catherine attempts to drown herself in a lake but is rescued by Helene. In Catherine's fury she rips her to shreds and devours her with a slow backwards moving camera shot, leaving the blood-soaked Catherine alone in the dark.www.thecultofhorror.blogspot.com

Boba_Fett1138 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/

lost-in-limbo Jean Rollin seems to have a reputation that you either love his work or not. Very little middle ground. Probably more well known and infamous for his erotically surreal vampire features, but I decided to make my first taste of his output the zombie splatter effort "The Living Dead Girl". From this one I really liked the vigorous style, and look forward to delving amongst more of his unique creations.The deceased Catherine Valmont is resurrected by a chemical substance that was being stored within her family's tomb. After dispatching and feeding upon those involved she heads back to her family castle, where memories come flooding back. One of those included her special bond with a childhood friend Hélène. By accident Hélène heads to castle to find Catherine, where she learns that she was dead to only be brought back to alive and that she needs human blood to survive. So in the name of love Hélène fulfils Catherine's lust for blood, but Catherine doesn't want to go on living. Things get worse for them when a stubborn actress on vacation with her husband takes a picture of Catherine and then wants to learn more about her.Now it could be easy to classify it as exploitive trash, but Rollin's attempt is a lot more original and meaningful within its context, imagery and performances than just going by its raw shocks effects with crude looking FX. Those death scenes (where flesh is torn and ripped apart with some nasty looking finger nails) might look nauseatingly cheap, however they weren't too distracting in this strange mixture. Where it had me engaged was that of the emotional performances of the two central ladies (an excellent Francoise Blanchard and Marina Pierro) and the relationship (a doomed love story) shared between them. There was a real genuine sense of remorse, devotion and boiling tragedy. The transformation of these two characters is interestingly pitched and deeply layered (from its flashbacks to their recent scenarios), as the monster roles are disturbingly switched around (as a reluctantly indisposed Catherine is disgusted of what she has become and soon Hélène with an elated smile would do anything to keep them together as the two would share a desirably unstoppable sacrificial habit) that when it comes to its closing it would make the graphic, but powerfully grief-stricken conclusion more so harrowing and unsettling. The cohesive story is minimal and straight-forward with few surprises, but accomplishedly brought across with measured style on mood and dreamy atmospherics. Rollin makes it attractively haunting, but at the same time vividly ghastly. Like the hypnotically idyllic sequence of Francoise Blanchard's dead character roaming through the grass fields in a white gown covered with blood and the sequence of her in the doorway heading towards the dead girl lying on the front steps of her castle mansion. Blanchard breathes of innocence, despite her character's tendencies and she really does hold you there in lot scenes. Rollin's positional composition achieves some lasting visuals and the gliding camera-work is effectively implemented in showcasing it --- with potent backdrops of the remote castle, surrounding countryside and underground crypt. The musical score is lightly cued, but expressively melancholy. Carina Barone and Mike Marshall also star.

Vomitron_G 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).