La morte vivante (1982)

Director:

Jean Rollin

Writers:

Jacques Ralf (writer)
Jean Rollin (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A toxic spill revives a beautiful, dead heiress who, with the help of her childhood friend, must quench her insatiable thirst for blood. |

Plot Keywords:

Blood | Spill | Erotica | Female Vampire | Lesbian

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Marina Pierro	...	Hélène
Françoise Blanchard	...	Catherine Valmont
Mike Marshall	...	Greg
Carina Barone	...	Barbara Simon
Fanny Magier	...	6th Victim
Patricia Besnard-Rousseau
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean Berel
Jean-Pierre Bouyxou	...	Burglar
Véronique Carpentier
Jean Cherlian
Delphine Lapointe
Jacques Marbeuf
Sandrine Morel	...	Teenage Catherine Valmont
Lise Overman
Alain Petit
Véronique Pinson
Laurence Royer
Sam Selsky	...	Old American Man In The House Of Catherine
Dominique Treillou	...	First Female Victim

Also Known As:

The Living Dead Girl (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

Australia:86 min | Germany:85 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | UK:18 (cut) | West Germany:(Banned)

Company:

Films A.B.C.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Barbara and Greg are arguing in the field, Barbara throws her camera at Greg and walks away. A few seconds later when Barbara sees Catherine Valmont, she starts to take pictures of her with the camera she threw at Greg. Greg did not give her the camera back.

get's lost in mellow drama

It really troubles me that this is one of the few examples where director Jean Rollin was able to rehearse the dialog with the actors before shooting, because frankly, it is bad. Every line of dialog which comes out of the American couple's mouth is like nails on a chalkboard, although it does have a pay off. I do have a soft spot in my heart for the films of Jean Rollin, but I do not believe that he has achieved the ability to crate well done drama, he just has the ability to make films unusual. This film is quite unique, and I really haven't seen any other entries in to the sexy, French, lesbian, flesh eating, depress, zombie genre. I really enjoy the plot and for the most part, the look, with the exception of some bad conservative late seventies cloths and a French ho-down. (Which sounds much more entertaining than it is.) I guess what really got to me about the film is just the sappiness of it, the flash backs, the living dead girl weeping on the floor, all of this, it corny and completely over done. I do not object to drama, only as long as it is well done, and unfortunately this does not fall in to that category and for the most part spoils the film. I will say that some of the drama or at least the pathos's does work, especially with the relationship between the two women, (the living dead girl and her friend/ lover.) and the ending is very off beat and well done. Where this film really shines is in the two ingredients to a quality horror movie, (and these are very much absent in most contemporary horror cinema.) sex and violence. I must say seeing blood squirt on a woman's tits brings a warm feeling to my heart and all I can think is, " they just don't make em' like they use to." unfortunately this does not cure the film of its problems, but it helps. I do not agree when people when they label this jean Rollins best film, I personally enjoyed 'Shivers of the Vampire' more with its hippy silliness, or even 'Rape of the Vampire', although it made no sense and was a bit amateurish. Would I call 'Living Dead Girl' a bad movie, no. Is it flawed and occasionally over acted with a horribly obnoxious American couple, yes.