A young woman travels to the remote family castle for the reading of her dead father's will only to find that all her relatives are zombies!
A heartfelt attempt at poetic horror blending the living dead, morbid eroticism and experimental B genre cinema.
The family unit is a matrix of horror and dysfunction leading into a hallucinatory vortex of arcane symbolism, sex and death.
Memorable images: Ann Libert as Death, Britt Nichols with the scissors and the pink shirt of "Jesus Manera."
This is my favorite Jess Franco. The one that he did. Not the one with the horrid alternate scenes or even the one that is the Japanese release with additional scenes. Just the plain old one. And, funny, I prefer my grey market VHS subtitled version. It's the version I have watched the most and the voices seem the most natural. I love this movie.
ReplyDeleteA favorite of mine too! But I have always been confused, what is Jean Rollin's association with this film?
ReplyDeleteA favorite of mine, too. This was the fourth Franco film I had seen. Before that, I had rented COUNT DRACULA, AGAINST ALL ODDS (KISS AND KILL), and VENUS IN FURS. VIRGIN was quite a different viewing experience (although it was the Wizard tape of the zombie version).
ReplyDeletean Rollin's association with this film?
ReplyDeleteRollin reportedly filmed some additonal zombie sequences for an alternate version produced by Eurocine. These scenes pretty much destroy the mood of the original film.
I can see how that would happen. Granted I have only seen a few Rollin films, but what I have seen was sooooooo slow.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Rollin's involvement ruined the film. It tried to make it a zombie movie, which it is not. I find most Rollin films to be too slow. VIRGIN in it's original state is a rather effective flick.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first Franco movies I saw, and one that I should watch again.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of Rollin's movies - don't judge him by the pointless scenes he shot for this move.
No, I judge Rollin for his own stuff.
ReplyDelete