6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A toxic spill revives a beautiful, dead heiress who, with the help of her childhood friend, must quench her insatiable thirst for blood.
Starring: Marina Pierro, Françoise Blanchard, Mike Marshall, Fanny Magier, Sam SelskyHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 49% |
Supernatural | 7% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
French: LPCM 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Jean Rollin, low-budget maestro of le fantastique and one of the more under-appreciated Euro-trash auteurs, didn't
typically yield to horror
movie trends and staples. Many of his early films—The Rape of the Vampire, The Iron Rose, Lips of
Blood—are convention-
shucking mood pieces that rely more on atmosphere and quiet surrealism than body counts or gore effects. Sadly, Rollin's
brand of dreamy/spooky
gothicism—all crumbling French manors and mouldering, overgrown graveyards—grew progressively out of fashion during the
1970s. After getting a
taste of blood and guts with George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, John Carpenter's Halloween, and other
boundary-pushing, viscera-
addled fright films, audiences clamored for ever-gorier kills and horror flicks that were more comic-bookish than literary.
Money follows commercial success, of course, so for 1982's The Living Dead Girl, Rollin was obligated to take a more
explicitly violent approach.
Still, over the course of his career, the director had a developed a keen talent for acquiescing to producers while still putting
his own characteristically
poetic spin on his work. The Living Dead Girl would become his biggest international hit, and though it's decidedly
bloodier and more
superficially shocking than many of his previous efforts, it's unmistakably a Jean Rollin film—haunting, sensual, and strange.
Best friend...forever.
As we've seen from the other Jean Rollin Blu-ray releases, the director's films often have a grubby, budget-constrained look, so The Living Dead Girl's general cleanness and overall sharpness come as a bit of a surprise. The film's 35mm negative has been given a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that looks faithful and unhindered by compression problems or unnecessary digital tinkering like DNR or edge enhancement. As usual for Kino, the print is essentially presented as-is, so you will notice some white specks and small scratches on the footage, but these are rarely noticeable, let alone distracting. What you will notice is the level of clarity, which easily bests the film's now-ancient DVD edition, which was put out by Image Entertainment way back in 1999. An update was in order, then, and this Blu-ray obliges with newfound detail in facial features, clothing textures, and background details. Granted, the material isn't exactly sharp by today's standards, but any softness here is inherent to the way the film was shot. Color is satisfyingly dense too—neutrals are rich, skin tones consistent, blood reds vivid—and contrast is balanced, with deep but rarely oppressive blacks and highlights that are never blown out. One of the best-looking Rollin releases yet.
The Living Dead Girl is presented with an uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 stereo track that occasionally shows its age, as well as the limitations of the low-budget 1980s recording techniques. That said, while the "true-to-source" elements of the vintage mix are apparent—a slight hiss in the background, flat dynamic response, peaking during some of the screams and louder noises—this is a solidly listenable experience, with no shrillness, thinness, or other major distractions. Everything sounds as it ought to sound, including Philippe D'Aram's unusual score, which features flute, timpani drums, and strange metallic sounds made by scraping a double bass bow agains the rims of cymbals. Dialogue, both French and English, is fairly cleanly recorded and always easy enough to understand. The disc includes optional English subtitles, but do note that the portions of the film in English are not subtitled.
The Living Dead Girl might not be the archetypal Jean Rollin film—the director had to make some clear concessions to his producers that inherently diminished his vision—but it is one of his more accessible movies and a good entry point for those unfamiliar with Rollin's dreamy, slow-burning gothic stories. As with their other Rollin Blu-ray releases, Kino and Redemption have done a bang-up job with this disc, which features a surprisingly sharp high definition transfer and a wealth of special features. A must-buy for Rollin fans, a good bet for gothic horror enthusiasts, and a worthwhile rental for those new to the cult director.
Les Raisins de la Mort
1978
2012
La perversa caricia de Satán
1976
Quella villa accanto al cimitero
1981
2015
2013
Limited Edition | Indicator Series
1979
La notte dei diavoli
1972
1980
La noche del terror ciego | Standard Edition
1972
AIP Cut | 60th Anniversary
1963
1968
2015
2013
2014
La orgía nocturna de los vampiros
1974
呪いの館 血を吸う眼 / Noroi no yakata: Chi o suu me
1971
幽霊屋敷の恐怖 血を吸う人形 / Chi o suu ningyô
1970
Collector's Edition
2019
2018