A Virgin Among the Living Dead

Many of the comments here are written about the hacked up version of 'A Virgin Among The Living Dead' so ignore them. This is actually a very watchable movie, not the best Jess Franco I have seen, but still above average. More an erotic fantasy than a horror movie per se, it will appeal to fans of 60s/70s Euroschlock like 'Nude For Satan' and Franco's classic 'Vampyros Lesbos'.

The stunningly beautiful Christina von Blanc plays the lovely innocent Christina Benson, who is summoned from boarding school in England to the reading of her father's will in a spooky castle. She never really knew her father, or had previously met her bizarre relatives who live in the castle, which according to the locals is deserted. It doesn't take much to work out her family's "secret", the title tells all. Christina however, is a bit slow to catch on. She spends most of her time wandering around in a daze, often naked (great news for us viewers!), and increasingly unable to tell dream from reality.

There's not much action in this movie, and very little horror, but it has an almost Argento-like nightmarish feel to it, and like most of Franco's output, is very stylish despite the obviously low budget. The sight of the gorgeous Ms. Blanc is more than enough for me to recommend this movie. One look at her and any failings 'A Virgin Among The Living Dead' has will quickly be forgotten! An enjoyable fun movie.

And does that EVER apply here! I have a really soft spot for this crapper. Long, long ago, I saw it under the title "A Virgin Among the Living Dead". It made no sense! Then, years later, in my pursuit of obtaining bad films, I found an almost-uncut version. There are so many different edits of this film, it's hard to find the definitive cut. The one I currently have makes much more sense than the usual rental version.

To clear things up, zombies were not part of the original film (titled "Christine, Princess of Eroticism"). The zombie footage was taken mostly - if not entirely - from "Zombie Lake" (1980), which means they were spliced in well after "Virgin" was released (1971). Anyway, "Virgin" is about a girl named Christine, who journeys to her uncle's chateau for the reading of his will. What she finds is both revolting (to the squeamish) and humorous. Jess Franco does his job of playing the disheveled freak rather well. He just looks like a sleazebag. He also does an adequate directing job. The movie is very stylish as is typical with Franco's work, but also rather visually stunning, with the shots of the lush forest surrounding the chateau. There is even some strong atmosphere, particularly when, in one scene, Christine's uncle is drawn back into the shadows after speaking to her.

The film culminates in a sexual ritual that is severely--not to mention ridiculously, at least with the "Zombie 4" version--edited on any of the American prints. In fact, many of the scenes that help make the film more cohesive are also excised from American prints. The (as close as possible to) uncut version is really good if given a chance. Though not necessary, outside. . .influences can only help the viewer (and no doubt were used during the making of this trash classic). "Virgin" + melatonin + dank fun dreamy state.

Unfortunately, as so many others have mentioned, you won't see Christine nude unless you can find a completely unedited tape. She sure is hot! Shame she was only in three films (at least according to the IMDb). So that's it. I like it, but most don't. It's worth seeing just because it's better than any given American slasher flick.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead was directed by the mega prolific Jess Franco at a period when he was delivering his most consistently interesting work. It's definitely one of his better films. It's another low budget sexploitation flick that was obviously cheaply made but there is no denying that this was one of the movies where Franco took a bit more care. The result is an effectively dream-like and quite stylish erotic horror.

The story revolves around a girl who travels to a remote mansion for the reading of the will of her recently deceased father. While there she encounters her very strange relatives and pretty soon a series of bizarre events start to occur, including strange supernatural happenings.

This is one of the movies that really shows that Franco definitely had something interesting to offer. His filmography was wildly erratic and uneven, which is really to be expected for a director responsible for two hundred films. However, on occasion his left-field, slightly surrealistic style produced movies that were amongst the best in the erotic genre. There is definitely an interesting ambiance to this one. The selection of weird characters and the strange events experienced by the heroine are all successfully dream-like. There is a fair bit of striking imagery such as the seated man who is pulled slowly backwards into a black void, a strange night-time walk through the woods, a vampiric lesbian coupling and the occult ceremony near the end. The latter is scored by cool music by Bruno Nicolai whose soundtrack is very good throughout the film and helps sustain the mood. Franco regular Howard Vernon plays a lecherous uncle but best of all is Christina von Blanc in the title role. She was very beautiful and this is one of her rare appearances.

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!!

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.