A Virgin Among the Living Dead

Take a dash of Franco and layer in a generous helping of Rollin and, viola!, you have A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD.

This is a work of atmosphere and subtle eroticism. Although it is not a zombie film, death -- and those who wear its cloak -- is its central theme.

Christina von Blanc, an achingly beautiful creature, plays Englishwoman "Christine" who journeys to the rambling estate of her late father (Franco regular Paul Muller) for the reading of his will. Her stay is a nightmarish one as she is harassed by several socially challenged relatives (Howard Vernon being one), a muttering Igor (Franco himself) and local miscreants.

Not as technically accomplished as Franco work such as THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF or even DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER, this piece is, nevertheless, dream-like and filled with mood and unease. Bruno Nocolai's score is quietly evocative and Jose Climent's photography is low rent but brimming with inspiration. The rural locations are gorgeous, too.

Typically, the dramatic revelations are hackneyed and not everything makes much sense, but that is Franco's way, and if you can't accept that, steer clear of his fascinating, uneven oeuvre.

Ms. von Blanc makes every one of her screen moments sparkle and comes closest to possessing the magical aura of the late, great Soledad Miranda, Franco's most exquisite leading lady and muse.

O.k...so if you watch this movie expecting Tom Savini type zombies and lots of hot sex you will be disapointed...this is more like an art house surreal-dream/nightmare flick.Check out The Queen of the night's beautiful haunting song.Definitely a movie for the midnight hour.Great stuff,but only if you have the original uncut version!!

"A Virgin Among the Living Dead" is an unjustly overlooked gem from Franco's mid-period, wherein he fully embraced erotica and dreamlike narratives.

I forget who it was - maybe Truffaut, Maybe Godard - who said that the best way to criticise a movie is to make another movie. "Virgin" functions like a critique of Franco's more famous "Vampyros Lesbos". That one too had a more than average dollop of eroticism and dreaminess. However, in that movie, the eroticism failed to do anything, and the dreamlike nature of the story seemed employed to mask the fact that the script didn't make any sense.

I hazard a guess that the huge, overwhelming majority of movies given the "dreamlike" tag are such pictures. "Dreamlike" is just a polite way of saying "nonsensical". "Virgin Among the Living Dead" is a rare example of a movie that achieves its dreamlike atmosphere, and its eroticism. In so doing it is like a living rebuke to "Vampyros Lesbos". The only thing that movie had over this was the presence of Soledad Miranda. The main actress in "Virgin" is beautiful but doesn't have the hypnotic quality Miranda effortlessly possessed.

The plot is sparse and rather typical of Eurohorror. A young girl comes to stay with her estranged family in a small rural community after the suicide of her family. Yes, she spends the night in a hotel first, where she mentions where she is going and gets a predictable reaction - it really seems like practically all Eurohorror movies begin this way. However, in this case the effect is different as the hotel isn't crowded with people who shut up as soon as she mentions where she is headed - rather, the hotel is empty save for the hostess. This subtle difference foreshadows Franco's off-kilter approach to his familiar material.

Any fans of Eurohorror know that the gods of the genre - Fulci, Argento, Franco, even Joe D'amato - had a hidden reserve of talent they used to breathtaking effect early in their careers, before moving on to bargain basement slop for the lion's share of their working lives. "A Virgin Among the Living Dead" is like a call back to the early days of the '60s, where Franco was a promising director, even in the minds of mainstream critics. It is extremely well shot, and subtly effective - absent is the violence the director would become known for.

It is a must see for Franco, and Eurohorror, fans.

It's a shame that most people here seem to have seen a cut version of this film, because the actual original is absolutely beautiful, and belies the criticism that Franco was a complete hack. It is a perfect example of what can be achieved in the horror genre with an almost zero budget in what was probably the director's busiest period. However most people seem to have seen the US release print, which also circulated on video in the UK in the 80's under the title of `The Invisible Dead'. This film was marketed as being a successor to Fulci's `Zombi', and basically was padded out with scenes from Jean Rollin's `Lake of Zombies' (shot almost 10 years after Franco's original film) and had all nudity removed.

There is another version which circulated with hardcore black mass footage featuring Franco regular Alice Arno and a host of stunt doubles for Vernon, Nichols and von Blanc.

The only video release of the original film at present is on Redemption, featuring a couple of nude mass scenes, some lesbian vampire sucking, a bizarre scene where Christina knocks over a giant phallus and an effectively hypnotic score from Bruno Nicolai. The UK version is missing the rather graphic rape scene present in the Benelux versions.

Christina von Blanc never unfortunately appeared in any other Franco films – in fact only appeared in a couple of others including the giallo `L'Etrusco uccide ancora'. The delightful pairing of Britt Nichols and Anne Libert occurs again in his bizarre `Erotic Rites of Frankenstein' and `Les Demons', amongst other films of the period. If you are interested in Franco, this is one of his best of the period, very atmospheric and deserves to be seen in its original version.

I'm not implying that watching this drunk would be a great idea, I meant it in a "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" kind of way, if that makes no sense. nevermind. Back to the subject. We already have Night of the Living Dead, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, we even got a Hell of the Living Dead, so why the hell not A Virgin Among the Living Dead? They could probably use one. Although, that's not the original title, and has absolutely nothing to do with what goes on, I'm not entirely sure what to think of this one, yet, that's probably why I dig it so much. What almost seems more like some kind of shroom-dream... make that shroom-nightmare, A Virgin Among the Living Dead is director, Jess Franco's exploration into the grey area between life and death, or at least that's what they say. As of this moment, all traditional B-horror rules have now been thrown out the window.

We begin with a young woman, Christina, traveling to an out of the way, castle, in Spain. There, stay the relatives of her estranged father, who has recently committed suicide, soon, there will be a reading of the will. Once Christina arrives in town, she's looked at like shes crazy after asking for directions, she's told no one lives there. The next day, with the guidance of a mute, Christina arrives at Monserat, to find that all her relatives are somewhere between eccentric, and insane. Monserat is filled with some kind of evil/confusion/ insanity, it's just very incoherent. Although her peculiar relatives seem kind of harmless, Christina suspects that something is a little off, when her step-mother warns her to leave, seconds before her death, not to mention bizarre occurrences such as, waking up one morning to find a big, black dildo on the floor, and a blind girl sitting in the corner, walking in on blood sucking sessions, finding dead bats on her bed, just, confusion, after confusion. and not even being allowed to have friends over, also seems a bit suspicious. Besides all the random confusion, it really seems like death is hovering over everything. With this film coming off as a dream, and being about death, then, isn't this just one big nightmare? Possibly, but I think it's deeper than that.

It is said that Jess Franco made this film as a way to cope with the death of Soledad Miranda, hence, the emphasis on death. For a horror film to come off as a genuine nightmare will always be a job well done, regardless of the intended message. Whatever message Franco intended, was intended for Franco, we're just lucky that he shared it with us, because witnessing such surreal magnificence really is a rare experience. The vibe of this film is simply indescribable. For more dream on film, check out Messiah of Evil, and Death Bed, although, You really won't find anything quite like this one anywhere, not even from Franco. Above all else, A Virgin Among The Living Dead is bold, independent film-making in its purest form. 9/10