Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

With having discovered his work during last years October Challenger on IMDb's Horror board,I decided that one of my French fest viewings would be from Horror auteur Jean Rollin. Taking a look at a fellow IMDbers reviews,I spotted a fabulous looking Rollin title,which led to me getting ready to meet the living dead girl. The plot:Looking for a place to dump barrels of toxic waste,two grave robbers decide to put the waste in the crypt of an empty family castle (which since the death of Catherine Valmont has now become a tourist spot.)Putting the waste down,the robbers decide to open Valmont's grave.As they open the grave,an earthquake (!) takes place place,which causes the toxic waste to spill.Hit by the waste,Valmont comes back from the dead.Desperate for blood,Valmont drains the blood of both robbers.Stepping out of the crypt,Valmont starts to walk to the family mansion,in search of her childhood friend Hélène.View on the film:Made with an eye on the US market, (an English version was filmed at the same time,which is now sadly lost)director Jean Rollin & cinematographer Max Monteillet drive the film into an enchanting culture crash,by Valmont's Gothic Horror revival being surrounded by cars,cameras and phones,all of which allow outsiders to enter Valmont's world.Stabbing the movie with rough shots of gore,Rollin impressively makes the lingering effects shots pull open Valmont's feeling of being dead to the world.Weaving the childhoods of Valmont and Hélène in lavish flashbacks,Rollin soaks the film in a decaying fairy tale atmosphere,as elegant tracking shots cover the morbid silence from the Valmont castle,and restrained close-ups unveil the passionate love that Valmont & Hélène have for each other.Whilst being open handed with the gory sides,the screenplay by Rollin & Ralf takes an excellent delicate approach to the love between Valmont and Hélène,as Valmont's realisation over what she is leads to Valmont sinking into despair,and causes Hélène to try and keep Valmont safe from the outside world, until the utterly haunting ending breaks the wall down.Despite being called "Vain" by Rollin, Marina Pierro gives a fantastic performance as Hélène,whose longing love and desire to keep Valmont alive Pierro opens up with expressive body language.Taking on a role that Rollin originally offered to Teresa Ann Savoy,the alluring Françoise Blanchard gives a superb performance as Valmont,thanks to Blanchard's anguished face revealing the sorrow digging into Valmont and the aching,blood- drenched love of the living dead girl.

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

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.

This might be my second favorite Rollin film (right after "The Iron Rose"). I went to watch with zero expectations, and I ended up loving it. Unlike most Rollin films, this one is not slow paced, and has a very engaging script, with some surprisingly likable characters and many twists and turns. It is also visually stunning, as usual, and extremely poetic and sad. The 'look' of the film is very similar to that of "Picnic at Hanging Rock", and the scenes of the ghostly Catherine roaming the French countryside with her bloodstained gown are very "Blood and Roses"-ish. Unfortunately though, the death scenes totally ruin what is otherwise an excellent film. They are tasteless and cheaply made (with the possible exception of Helene's death), and they are more likely to induce laughter than shock. Nevertheless, Rollin manages to create some genuine suspense, and the build-up to the gore moments are quite good. The twist ending is also very disturbing and feels like a punch in the stomach, even though some might've seen it coming. Overall, a gloomy, melancholic, haunting but flawed entry from Rollin. 8/10