THE LIVING DEAD GIRL (1982)
(aka. "La Morte Vivante")

Starring: Marina Pierro, Francoise Blanchard, Carina Barone, Mike Marshall, Patricia Besnard-Rousseau,  Fanny Magier. Written by Jacques Ralf & Jean Rollin. Directed by Jean Rollin. France. 85 minutes.

The Living Dead Girl is for Rollin what the 1986 re-make of The Fly was for David Cronenberg - it's considerably more mainstream and commercial  than any of his previous works and yet, at the same time, it still manages to be a personal film that explores some of the director's favorite themes and obsessions.  It bears more than a passing resemblance to Franju's Eyes Without a Face - it's a poetic horror movie that stylishly blends graphic, sadistic violence with a surprising amount of poetic imagery and pathos. On this shoot, Rollin was afforded a few luxuries to which the guerilla filmmaker wasn't normally accustomed to, namely the opportunity to rehearse his actors before shooting and the skills of a talented special make-up effects artist, and ol' Jean made good use of them here.

The film opens with three bumbling shitworkers dumping steel drums filled with toxic waste in the tomb beneath an old castle. While stacking the barrels against a wall, they come across two coffins containing the (perfectly preserved) bodies of a beautiful blond young woman  (Blanchard) and her mother. What appears to be an earth tremor or a lightning strike (it's never made clear which) sets some stones loose and knocks one of the steel drums loose. The toxic waste melts the face of one of the workers and ressurects the girl, who proceeds to tear the other two men up with her long, claw-like fingernails. In a somnabulistic daze, she wanders forth from the tomb.

Meanwhile, an aging, faded former actress named Barbara Simon and her amiable American boyfriend Greg are in the nearby village on a sight-seeing tour. While exploring the countryside on her own, Barbara spots the living dead girl from afar and snaps a few quick pics of her with her camera. When she shows them to one of the townsfolk, the young lady is identified as one Catherine Valmont, who's been dead for years. Barbara quickly becomes obsessed with the subject of her picture, determined to find out the truth and prove that  Valmont is indeed very much alive.

Wandering through the old chateau that used to be her home, Catherine comes across objects from childhood that slowly begin to jog her memory. The discovery of a music box leads to a flashback in which see her as a little girl making a blood pact with her best friend, a brunette child named Elene. If one of them dies, the other swears to follow. Drawn to the chateau by an eerie phone call, the grown-up Elene (Pierro) discovers her old girlfriend has come back -- and that she has a junkie-like need for human blood. Without her fix of the dark red stuff, Catherine suffers excruciating withdrawl symptoms, and it's not long before Elene is out finding victims and luring them back to the chateau to keep her homegirl supplied with blood. Despite what her eyes and heart tell her, Elene remains in complete denial, refusing to believe that her beloved Catherine is now a bloodsucking ghoul.

Far more linear and conventional in form than is the norm for Rollin's work, Living Dead Girl still doesn't lose any of his power or personality for that fact. Graced with a sorrowful score by Philippe d' Aram and grizzly special make-up effects, Living Dead Girl really should have been the film that once and for all made Rollin the internationally renowned horror star he deserves to be, but it ran into distrubution problems (not something Rollin is altogether unfamiliar with) and it wasn't widely seen. Such a shame, because it's a lovely-looking, blood-soaked celluloid poem saturated with a deep sense of melancholy and loss. Like Rollin's earlier Fascination, it can't help but leave you sighing heavily, relieved to be leaving the place and people you've spent the last hour and a half with, but grateful for the experience.

*** Three Music Boxes Full of Maggots.

* Dead meat, ripe and reeking.
** Moribund, but showing a slight flicker of life.
*** Good n' healthy.
**** Brimming with vitality!