tiemewoudstra

Mourir et plaisir or Blood and Roses is a very slow paced romantic story about a couple which is going to be married and another woman who is secretly in love with the groom.

Visually this is a great movie and so are the scores. The story however feels very dated and is paced so slow it was hard to pay attention, especially in the second half of the movie.

Although many point this movie out as being a vampire movie, the horror/ vampire aspects are very minimal as the movie keeps on focusing on the love story.

I really like vampire story's, especially those before the 80s. I really missed the mystery and Gothic atmosphere I am used to see in those movies. The moments which might have meant to build up tension did fail and therefor this movie ended up as a boring experience.

During the 70' Jess Franco made lots of exploitation films with different success. Blue Rita is one of Jess Frano's finest efforts, because of Franco's great cinematography with many colorful scenes and carefully created atmospheric sets. Many of the scenes have a psychedelic touch and the music score is great.

The storyline is kind of absurd, which should be expected by fans of Jesus Franco, involving soft erotic club performances combined with secret agency's and creative torture methods. Somehow the style feels like a combination of Succubus and Ilsa and the Wicked Warden, without the pseudo philosophy of Succubus, focusing on the atmosphere.

For me this feels like one of Franco's most inspired movies and belongs to his best efforts. The overall rating may be lowered because of the many soft erotic scenes and the hard-to-follow / incoherent storyline, but for those who seek great original atmosphere like only Jess Franco could, this is a must see. The German spoken version should be preferred.

Ones looking for gory deaths may like this movie because has plenty of them. However, this movie fails on almost every other aspect. The acting is at best mediocre and most figures act just too stupid to hold up the tension. Therefor this movie fails to scare, because it doesn't matter these characters die one after another.

The location of a supermarket as a desolated place is one of the weakest locations I have ever seen in slasher movies. A supermarket just ain't creepy.

If it wasn't because of the many gory scenes I would have give this movie even lower credits. Only recommended for fans of low-budget slashers like Slaughter High and Sleepaway Camp 2.