The Living Dead Girl (La morte vivante) (1982) (Widescreen)

Jean Rollin is a name instantly recognizable to hardcore horror fans, but meaningless to nearly everyone else. This ignorance is quite unfortunate because this French director concocted some of the sleaziest, most unusual films ever made during the 1970s and 1980s, films usually imbued with a disturbing mix of hypereroticism and bloody violence. I have often tossed Rollin's name around in impolite company with seeming aplomb even though I had never seen even one of the man's films. You read enough plot synopses about someone and you start to feel as though you know every intimate detail about their work. What I did hear from others about this director oftentimes did not bode well. He is apparently well versed in schlock filmmaking--which in and of itself is not a problem with me, a true lover of bad cinema--but several of his films continue to draw raves from a selected minority of genre fans. Well, I finally sat down with a Jean Rollin film, his 1979 effort "Fascination," and was pleasantly surprised with the results. As I viewed the film with a growing sense of intrigue, I began mentally composing a list of other films from this director that I should watch in the near future. First up is Rollin's 1982 gore opus "Living Dead Girl."

"La Morte Vivante," or "The Living Dead Girl," is a shocking tale of a girl raised from the dead against her will, her ravenous hunger for human blood, and the childhood friend who acts as her enabler. Catherine Valmont (Françoise Blanchard) unfortunately passed away at a young age and was buried in a crypt with her deceased mother. And there she lies still in the sleep that knows no time or space until two dolts looking for a convenient place to stash some leaky barrels of toxic waste discover the crypt and start robbing graves. Some element of the glowing green fluid has an unwholesome effect on Catherine's corpse, causing her to suddenly awake and attack the two ghouls. Valmont, barely capable of speech and deeply confused in the world of the living, begins rambling around the French countryside in an effort to relocate her old house. Initially, she only has two memories-of her house and of her childhood friend Helene (Marina Pierro). As she wanders through wide-open fields, a nosy American photographer notices her and takes a picture of the dead girl. The photographer and her goofy husband will soon play a big role in the horrific events to follow.

Catherine eventually stumbles over her house, which is obviously no longer the Valmont residence. The living dead girl starts killing off people who come to the house-a real estate agent, a couple of young kids fooling around on a couch, Jimmy Hoffa-you get the idea. It turns out Catherine must drink the blood of the living in order to remain animate. If she goes too long without quaffing the red stuff, she suffers excruciating aches and pains. Moreover, the more blood Valmont drinks, the more she remembers about her former life. She soon recalls more details about Helene and a strange blood pact the two made as children. By the time Helene appears, and after living dead girl's bestest friend expresses astonishment that her late pal is alive, the two team up to help Catherine cope with her newfound existence. Helene lures a series of people out to the house so Valmont can carve them up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Each encounter between Catherine and a hapless individual is truly gross, a bone crunching, sauce spraying adventure in graphic Technicolor. Then, tragedy strikes. Remember the photographer and her husband? They both arrive on the scene when they learn about Catherine Valmont's death and mysterious resurrection. At the same time, living dead girl begins to express a sense of remorse about the people she kills for food. The movie ends on an especially gory note.

"Living Dead Girl" is a great horror film. I liked nearly everything about Rollin's nasty little gorefest: the French scenery, the actors, and especially the squishy special effects. The director lets the camera linger over the carnage in super close-up, just so you don't miss out on any of the unpleasantness. And it is unpleasant, extremely so. The sound effects alone turned my stomach. Just in case you weary of living dead girl munching on yet another victim, Rollin throws in a hatchet in a head and a person on fire to liven things up. Even the plot going on between the gory horrors is interesting for a low budget Eurotrash horror flick. The acting isn't all that bad, although I can't completely confirm that for sure since most of the dialogue is in French. Sure, the whole thing's a bit contrived, but what horror film isn't? If you like bloody shriek cinema, you should pick this one up right away.

The DVD version of the film is an entry in Redemption's Jean Rollin Collection, which means you get to see a rather racy intro involving two female vampires before the gorefest starts in earnest. Extras on the DVD include a widescreen picture transfer, stills, and a French language trailer with the dialogue replaced by screams. I've only seen two Rollin films up to this point, but "The Living Dead Girl" is the better of the two. Apparently, this one is the best Rollin film, period. I hope not; I like to think more treasures from this director await me in the future. If not, I'll simply watch this one and "Fascination" again. "La Morte Vivante" is a must see for gorehounds specifically and horror fans in general.

for those of you unfamiliar with rollin's works, living dead girl isn't a bad place to start. well, rollin's fans will love this too! although this is perhaps his most accessible or commercial work to date, this film may be a bit gory for those who are more accustomed to subdued, atmospheric horror films. the film starts out with a group of men who are dumping toxic chemical containers inside a vault where mother & daughter are both buried. surprisngly, both cadavers look quite fresh considering they've been dead for atleast a couple of years! for some strange reason, the chemical brings daughter back to life & she attacks the workers who've brought the chemicals & proceeded to rob their coffins. she then decides to return to her childhood home where inevitable memories flood her mind where she is overwhelmed with a great sadness. coincidentally, a childhood friend calls the house & the living dead girl picks up the phone. as the livng dead girl is unable to speak, she plays a music box for the friend on the other end. needless to say, the childhood friend comes running to the chateau in almost disbelief & suspense only to find two dead bodies when she arrives. as the film progresses, the friend makes a decision to help the livng dead girl become stronger by luring innocent victims back to the chateau or attempting to kill them herself. as one can easily assume, the murders here are quite gruesome in the fulci or romero style but should please fans of true zombie horror. unlike previous rollin films, living dead girl delves more into the pyschological or melodramatic & tends to avoid eroticism or gratuitous nudity/sex. on the other hand, rollin supplies more gore than you would normally see in his average film. in fact, there are only two or three scenes of nudity & one brief sex scene which isn't very graphic unlike other rollin endeavors. this is a great film for your next halloween party or maybe just a new dvd you can introduce to your cool friends who think they have seen it all (or better yet, seen it before everyone else.) long live the works of rollin!

This film was highly recommended by all reviewers so I bought it and tried it out. It was a good film overall but I was disapointed in a way. The film just didnt have a great climactic tone to just push it over the edge. The movie was however very different than the average zombie films I have watched over the years. One of the drawbacks to this film was it was just too slow paced. I have a sense that the director did it on purpose to give it an odd and chilling feel to the atmosphere. The director also tried very hard to make it sad and while it worked to some extent I just dont think he made his point across. You didnt really feel sorry for the "living dead girl" because you really didnt get to know her and why she was so sad. He tries to explain this with some flashbacks but were just ineffective to make his point across. I'm sure the translation and low budget always has a problem with this but the director should know this. Having said so, usually it must be done with good acting which it was somewhat effective but not really since it is a B film and high paying actresses are not affordable or done with a lot of action sequences in which there was but it was in spurts. So it sped up then slowed down at times to give you a few seconds of gore and excitement followed by long lulls in the film.

The storyline however is not totally original, so a good film must be made up with lots of action in which it was only in spurts as stated above. In fact, if you watch closely the storyline similarly follows the many zombie films that start with a toxic reaction that wakes the dead (in which after 2 yrs of being dead she, the living dead girl, looks pretty good--I also have to say she is actually goregeous for a B-flick zombie movie actress). Also, it resembles the first Hellraiser in a way where her friend lures people in to be killed so that her friend can stay alive. In that case in Hellraiser, the girlfriend/stepmom was luring men to her house and hammering them across the head so that her boyfriend could come back from hell by feasting on the people she killed.

I painfully gave this one a 4 star because it really deserves a 3.5 star for trying to be unique from the other zombie films. The director has to be given 2 thumbs up for trying very hard to make it a slick film in an artistic way. However it loses the 1.5 star because its just too slow and at times it just took forever for something to happen and is only mildly successful in creating a decent storyline.