Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Let's be realistic.

Brilliant and touching

Absolutely the worst movie.

After getting stranded in a strange cemetery, a woman and her boyfriend find themselves in a nightmarish world of illusions and deranged fantasies and must try to survive in order to escape.This is a somewhat disappointing effort, mostly due to the fact that there's just something missing from this one that really hurts it overall. The main thing here is Gothic atmosphere, and it's the old-school kind where it takes place in a cemetery so there's a lot to do with the gravestones and monuments all over the place, as well as the huge amounts of fog rolling in all over the place make for some incredibly chilling ideas and images. There's also a lot of pretty fun sequences running through the whole landscape, but the main problem here is the very over-done and incredibly irritating manner of yakking on about everything with a very philosophical manner, almost like it's an art film instead of a sleazy horror film which continues throughout the whole film and gets old very fast, and combines with the slow, dragged-out pace to lower it but otherwise this isn't that bad of a film.Rated Unrated/R: Adult Language, Full Nudity and Mild Violence.

Like LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (one of the greatest if most often underrated vampire movies ever made), ROSE OF IRON is a quiet, subtle little exercise in terror. While it lacks the heart-stopping jolts that help make LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH so unforgettable, it DOES boast some low-key moments of pure fright that are nigh unforgettable: when the lovely Ms. Pascal begins to feel something strange coming over her, for instance, or when she begins to show signs of possible possession or- my favorite- when she entombs her boyfriend in an airtight underground tomb. The ending alone makes this one a classic. The director's focus on the couple as they wander through and then become lost in the graveyard is commendable, though I would've liked to have seen more close ups when the "changes" started to occur.

More than a few European horror directors in the 70's went on to do hardcore pornography, and Jean Rollin in no exception. What differs him from the likes of Joe D'Amato, however, is that Rollin was a real, though neglected craftsman, and possibly one of France's finest auteurs. He injects each and every one of his horror films (save for "Zombie Lake", which is as much a Jess Franco film as Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist" is a Steven Spielberg film) with such relentless atmosphere of death prowling every inch of the frame, and "The Rose of Iron" is where he excels. One of the finest poets of all things morbid and decadent - think the cinematic equivalent of Edgar Allan Poe, Rollin creates a minimalist, lyrical, unusual and disorienting beautiful ode to Death, that save for very few exceptions, has never been bettered elsewhere in the genre. The fairly simplistic, but multi-layered plot follows a young couple getting trapped in a cemetery after-hours, unable to find the way out as the girl slowly succumbs to madness. "The Rose of Iron" is a difficult film and thus not for everyone, as even Rollin fans might find themselves disappointed, as there is none of his trademark vampire girl-on-girl action nor is there the slightest bit of gore and camp. Nudity is minimal, and so is the cast, composed of only two actors for nearly it's entirety, with only one setting. Nevertheless, what one can simply describe as boring and uninteresting, I find be a cerebral, hypnotic tour-de-force, that keeps you glued to the screen from beginning to end, if you're willing to be bewitched by it's atypical quality. Although most Euro-horrors of it's time were criticized for poor acting, "Rose..." proves otherwise by having brilliant performances from Françoise Pascal and Hugues Quester as the young couple. They are one of the few Rollin performers who actually manage to enjoy a more successful career in French cinema, and rightfully so. They manage to carry the film brilliantly, even with the limited and often surrealistic dialogue. Quester evokes a genuine sense of paranoia as the film progresses, and Pascal's spiral descent into insanity is equally raw and visceral, in spite of the film's otherworldly nature. Pascal's acceptance and consequent embracing of the world of the dead very much represents Jean Rollin's own utopia - a twilight world that transcends time and space, where both the living and the deceased live among one another, to the point they become one. Rollin's passion for crumbling, ancient grounds also mirrors this ideal dreamland, and he makes the best out of this often-used setting, bringing it to life through some delirious camera-work that would make Argento envious, and an equally foreboding, experimental musical score by Pierre Raph. Overall, if you dare give yourself up to the unique, morbidly beautiful dream-world of France's most underrated filmmaker, "The Rose of Iron" is the film for you.

A very odd film from Jean Rollin, a horror film completely without traditional horror elements and threats - it's about getting lost! A young couple gets lost at a country churchyard one night and lots of panic, statues and typical Rollin-doomed romanticism follows. It's a sympathetic, sometimes beautiful films with an interesting idea that still could have been executed a lot better. Lack of pacing was to be expected but the bad actors are the biggest problem. Usually Rollin's use of non-professionals is greatly to his advantage - bored-looking non-actors delivering pretentious dialogue in a very stiff way is part of his aesthetic style, but here the actors actually tries to act and it doesn't really work. Still, a pretty good film with some memorable scenes (the lovemaking in the tomb with spinning cameras was great!). A film for friends of Rollin.