La morte vivante

Plot synopsis:
Two men break into an old crypt, seeking to dump toxic waste and rob the graves. When an earthquake causes the toxic waste to spill, Catherine Valmont (Françoise Blanchard), a young woman who died several years ago, is resurrected. She viciously kills the thieves and drinks their blood. As Catherine walks aimlessly through a field, Barbara (Carina Barone) spots her and takes a few photos, though Barbara's boyfriend, Greg (Mike Marshall), takes no notice. Catherine returns to her old house, the Valmont Mansion, and memories of her childhood come back to her, especially her childhood friend, Hélène (Marina Pierro). As Catherine wanders the house, a real estate agent shows an old couple around the property, though they show little interest. After they leave, Hélène calls the house, presumably inquiring about it. However, she hears nothing but a cherished music box, leading her to believe that Catherine may still be alive.
The agent later returns to the Valmont Mansion, along with her boyfriend. Catherine interrupts their sex, killing both and drinking their blood. Hélène arrives and is shocked to discover the dead bodies. When she finds Catherine, naked and playing the piano, she assumes that Catherine didn't really die but was actually hidden for the past two years. Hélène washes the blood off Catherine, puts her to bed, and drags the bodies down to the crypt, where she discovers the bodies of the grave robbers. Catherine creeps down and begins to drink the blood from one of the bodies, but Hélène stops her. Hélène cuts her arm and lets Catherine drink her blood, until she can think of a way to supply her friend with blood.
Barbara goes around the village asking about the woman in her photograph, but the answer is always the same: It is Catherine Valmont, and she died two years ago. Greg thinks Barbara is making too much of it, and discourages her from investigating further. Meanwhile, Hélène tries to understand what is happening to Catherine, trying to teach her to speak again. Deciding to bring her victims, Hélène pretends to be out of fuel and flags down a helpful motorist, drawing her back to the mansion. Hélène offers the woman a drink and locks her in. The woman soon begins to panic, but Hélène throws her in the crypt, where Catherine grabs her and rips her stomach out. Soon after, Barbara shows up at the Valmont mansion, seeking Catherine. Unsettled by Catherine's behavior, she attempts to phone Greg, but Hélène confronts her. They argue, and Hélène tries to take Barbara's camera. Barbara flees.
Catherine, now more in touch with her humanity, realizes that she must be destroyed. She begs Hélène to kill her, but Hélène instead goes back to the village, to bring Catherine another victim. Barbara sees Hélène and eventually convinces Greg to accompany her to the mansion, in order to help Catherine. Hélène tortures the kidnapped girl, but Catherine rejects the unwilling sacrifice and frees her, telling her to return to the village and seek help. Drawn by the screams, Barbara and Greg go to investigate, but they are brutally murdered by Hélène. Overwhelmed by all the death and murder, Catherine attempts suicide, but she is rescued by Hélène, who offers herself to sate Catherine's hunger. Unable to resist, Catherine devours her friend alive.

Tags: violence, murder, flashback

Review:
He has a unique world view and holds a special place in the world of "fantastique" cinema that is indisputable.Still, I find his films a little boring.Case in point THE LIVING DEAD GIRL springs from a simple and fascinating concept of a dead woman, who must drink blood to survive, returning to a château to be with an old friend.As fascinating as the concept is, Rollin doesn't do a whole lot with it.
Jean Rollin's "La Morte Vivante"/"The Living Dead Girl" is an excellent erotic ultra-gory vampire tale and I like it very much.The film has some wonderful atmosphere and some striking images of eternal painful life.There is plenty of graphic gore to satisfy fans of extreme horror.Along with all of the gore there is a large amount of beautiful naked women running around.Rollin's trademark photography is naturally here but this film is much gorier than his other films that I've seen.Francoise Blanchard who plays bloodthirsty Catherine is incredibly beautiful.Overall,I enjoyed this film and you should too if you like zombie/vampire cinema.There is also an unofficial sequel to this one called "The Revenge of the Living Dead Girls"(1987)..
This Jean Rollin feature is an erotic horror about a woman who returns from the dead due to an accident involving an earthquake and toxic chemicals.
She is The Living Dead Girl and she has a vampire like taste for blood.
There are the usual selection of paper thin characters, weak dialogue and low production values; while the story emphasises things that are atypical for a standard horror film, such as a melancholic 'monster' and some poetic imagery.
Living Dead Girl, The (1982) *** (out of 4) French horror film from director Jean Rollin, which mixes tons of sex and nudity with plenty of the red stuff.
This is probably the best place for a newbie to Rollin to start as this perfectly captures the atmosphere of his best movies but also throws in plenty of over the top gore scenes, which will probably make a casual viewer sick.
La Morte Vivante (Living Dead Girl) is considered to be one of Rollin's most commercial efforts.
This being one of the first Rollin flicks that I've seen I can't really compare this to any of his others, that said I will say that  his plain but adequate filming style  goes about things in a leisurely paced fashion but comes alive at the right moments.
Prior to my viewing of 'The Living Dead Girl', my only taste of the master of erotic vampire films, Jean Rollin, was the low quality and overall less than brilliant 'Lips of Blood', and because of that I wasn't expecting great things from this movie.
The Living Dead Girl hinges somewhere between a love story (between two women, no less) and a very gory zombie flick and while it could easily have gone wrong, Rollin has created a film that will both shock, amuse and even touch you, and that's not something that can be said of many zombie movies!
Naturally, being a zombie she brutally murders everyone in the vicinity, but it gets really interesting when we find out that before death, she and a friend were very close, and now that the heiress is back from the dead; the old friendship can be rekindled.On a technical level, The Living Dead Girl isn't all that great, but considering the low quality of the picture, it's not all that bad either.
The script is rather trite, and the film is also rather oddly paced, as it starts off like any other silly zombie movie, only to mature into something much more interesting later on, which may annoy some viewers.
Rollin makes best use of the actresses too, with numerous nude scenes, which help the erotic element of the movie no end.
On the whole, it's not for everyone...but if you like erotic horror sleaze with lots of blood and nudity; see this movie!.
Many scenes like the music box greeting over the telephone and the exploration of the catacombs stand out as very well done, but nothing can compare to the finale:  Frantic flesh eating, echoing screams, amazing special effects, and no happy, Hollywood ending.
Can bad acting, sloppy plotting and woeful gore effects really be that easily ignored?The story revolves around a girl brought back from the dead who needs blood to sustain herself, her childhood friend's efforts to meet her need, and a French-American's efforts to expose what is going on.
I hesitate to call them "art films", but in their own eccentric way they almost are.'The Living Dead Girl' concerns the resurrection of a French heiress via a spill of "toxic waste".
i expected to see a good horror movie, when i bought "the living dead girl" but i was disappointed.
I will say that some of the drama or at least the pathos's does work, especially with the relationship between the two women, (the living dead girl and her friend/ lover.) and the ending is very off beat and well done.
I must say seeing blood squirt on a woman's tits brings a warm feeling to my heart and all I can think is, " they just don't make em' like they use to." unfortunately this does not cure the film of its problems, but it helps.
But, butwhat?" What sets this film apart, though, what makes it worth watching, is the interesting transition taking place in the relationship between the main characters, which intimates a depth of story that Rollin probably didn't intend.
The story is that Catherine (the Living Dead Girl in question) has to kill and feed on her victims, and with each victim she grows more nearly alive.
LIVING DEAD GIRL was my first Jean Rollin experience and I have to say that I somewhat enjoyed it.
The Living Dead Girl is one of the worst horror films ever because it has nothing to offer the audience, not even schlock or eerie premises, what passes as "gore" is supposed to douse us with some appreciation of this awful film, and yes, it is terrible.
Rollin made this simply to cash in on nude horror films, but it doesn't have any atmosphere, story, or fright to propel it along and most of the naked women are dead-dull ugly.
The problem of the film is that it is not interesting, nor even believable, and he neglects to give us any truly frightening moments, instead he overloads us with distracting and annoying fake blood and fully naked waif-like 70's girls who are hideous to behold.
There is no story, just one scene after another that is comprised of the Dead Girl looking for more idiotic victims and tons of shots comprised of the boring French provinces shown in wide angles, including a lackluster French band playing corny music.
A toxic spill revives a beautiful, dead heiress who, with the help of her childhood friend, must quench her insatiable thirst for blood.Is this another Jean Rollin vampire film?
Burglars break into an unoccupied castle crypt to steal from the dead and also dump some barrels of toxic waste but an earth tremor cause the waste to leak and bring back to life the beautiful Catherine Valmont, who then proceeds to kill the men and has a lust for blood.
And in the event of no proper story, multiple scenes not bringing any value to the film apart from extensibility, rather lousy acting (no memorable performance), rambling cinematography, and meaningless nudity (just to stress the French origin and spirit?), the result is mediocre, not grisly and not totally annoying thanks to duration (around 1 hour 20 minutes).
If you are looking for gore or sex then look elsewhere as this is not the film for you.If you want amazing effects then look to Hollywood.If you like Euro sleaze/schlock then try another director.This is one of Rollin's best movies, it is dreamy and erotic and when the horror arrives it is excellent!Jean Rollin rarely disappoints and many people find his films too slow for their tastes, I am not one of those people and although I love gore filled horror shows I also love a movie with a more sedate pace and a unique vision.
This is what The Living Dead Girl offers, you will never see another film like it.Just relax and enjoy....
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.
BTW, there is an extended gore scene at the end which makes you feel like Rollin is going slightly over the top, overplaying.
Living Dead Girl which is directed by frenchman Jean Rollin is one of the better horror films of the 1980's.
Living Dead Girl is not tantamount to earlier Rollin Films such as Fascination or La Rose Du fer but is definitely a must see for anyone who enjoys european horror films..
Grisly, potent shocker from Jean Rollin regarding how a dead young lady of two years, the body surprisingly fresh without rot during that time(?), is revived from a spilled can of toxic waste, put there by some corpse looters, after a minor earthquake.
She has vampire mentalities(..not to mention terrifying fingernails which can tear into flesh with ease) meaning this uncontrollable thirst for flesh and blood from human beings..the girl, Catherine(Françoise Blanchard), calls the evil inside.
A "blood sister", Helene(Marina Pierro)did not know her best friend from childhood had been dead and after a phone call leading to Catherine's discovery(hearing the sound box playing music both listened to as children)she races to the villa to see about her.
The idea of losing her friend a second time, and not being able to come to terms with the fact that Catherine is dead, I think Helene is the tragic character of the film.
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 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.
Sometimes I tend to say that the films of Jean Rollin are Jess Franco movies with more money, but this one is really well done with suspense, dramatic and atmosphere!
However, what makes "The Living Dead Girl" worth to be seen is the fact that director Jean Rollin knows how to combine atmospheric erotic with scenes of explicit gore!
I also loved the gross contrast of trash (The entrance sequence with the toxic waste) and art (The final take when the living dead girl eats her friend piece by piece).
La Morte Vivante, or The Living Dead Girl as it's more commonly known as to English speaking audiences, starts with three men in a white van pulling up outside the Valmont family Castle where they unload some barrels of toxic waste.
Back at Valmont Castle & Helene turns up to find Catherine & two dead bodies, Helene quickly discovers that Catherine needs to drink fresh blood to survive & decides to help Catherine in her quest for victims...This French production was co-written & directed by Jean Rollin & is OK but is maybe a bit weird for most people's taste's.
The basic premise is decent enough & had plenty of potential with with a re-animated flesh eating blood drinking zombie roaming around but in the hands of Rollin he turns it into a tragic love story.
Rollin doesn't forget about the gore either, a man has his eyes poked out, people have their throats ripped open & torn out, there are graphic scenes of bodily mutilation & blood drinking along with a girl being tied up & tortured.
The acting is variable but Blanchard does a pretty good job at expressing emotion & most of the ladies are easy on the eyes.La Morte Vivantes is an OK horror film with some good gore, a slightly deeper & involving story than one might expect & it passes an hour and a half easily enough.
Even with this being the first and only Jean Rollin movie I've watched so far (and having viewed a couple of trailers from his other efforts), I feel like I already have a pretty good idea of what this Frenchman stands for.
Rollin at least has something Franco never had: The man's got style.LA MORTE VIVANTE (AKA THE LIVING DEAD GIRL) tries to be a lot of things.
However, Rollin somehow manages to give it an 'arty' touch (e.g. after Hélène discovered the bodies of the dead couple, she walks in on a naked Catherine playing the piano – just look at the shot where she's sitting naked behind the piano, her back facing Hélène), while in any given Franco movie you can't do anything but pass it off as cheap sleaze.But all the possible merits this movie has, can't prevent you from feeling you are indeed watching a trashy Euro-Horror flick.
From the two main female characters, only Françoise Blanchard (as Catherine Valmont, the Living Dead Girl) manages to do a decent job.
I'm rather a latecomer to this movie, as I don't seek out Jean Rollin movies (based on what little I have seen), but as this is supposed to be something of a classic of it's type, I gave it a go - but it is certainly not converting me into a fan.The slim story sees a dead girl named Catherine unexpectedly revived in her coffin when disturbed by grave robbers.
"The Living Dead Girl" is generally considered one of Jean Rollins' more accessible efforts and the prime jumping-in place by no less an authority then Fangoria magazine.
She goes about jabbing the guys' eyes out and feasting upon their bodies.Catherine, the titular Living Dead Girl, is the childhood BFF of the woman living in the castle, Helene.
The movie quickly devolves into set-pieces of Helene tricking woman (always woman) back to the castle, killing them, and feeding them to her personal living dead girl.There's a subplot involving an American couple vacationing in the country side.
The focus is definitely on the relationship between the two women which is framed as a tragic love story.As exploitation sleaze, "The Living Dead Girl" provides.
Helene is a good friend and supplies victims to The Living Dead Girl.
But the Living Dead Girl is so unhappy in her situation that it tends to drag the movie into zombie melodrama land.
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..
Definitely one of Jean Rollin's Better Films.
My opinion of Jean Rollin, as being a master of style but not at all of substance, rapidly changed when I first saw his near-brilliant 1978 Zombie/Gore film "Les Raisins De La Mort" ("The Grapes of Death").
Unlike "Les Raisins De La Mort", "La Morte Vivante" film does not feature ZombieS, but just one living dead girl.
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".
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.
The Living Dead Girl marks the second film I've seen by the cult French director Jean Rollin.
Few horror films cast vampires or zombies in a sympathetic light, the girl/story has more in common with a ghost tale, which are usually founded on an injustice or unfulfilled pact.