Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Scenes from A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1973)

I'm working away making notes for the next 'Beyond Naschy' episode of the podcast and I realized I must rewatch all the bizarre, unnecessary additions to the film made by other hands. That is how dedicated I am to providing our listeners with the most informed Spanish Horror information possible - and I'm obsessive. Franco never wanted these sad 'living dead' scenes in his darkly poetic film but Jean Rollin hacked them out for the producers anyway. These dream sequences are pointless and silly but Rollin, as always, manages to get a few good images and ideas into even this cheap-ass crap. Seeing this outside of the film is actually the best way to see it at all. Plus, when seen alone you don't have to laugh at the sad way they tried to hide the actress' face because they couldn't get Christina von Blanc back to film the stuff! Doesn't everyone run around with their face completely covered by their hair?



And to demonstrate how even Franco's excellent dream like atmosphere can be undone by a bad dub job, here is the scene from the film that introduces Howard Vernon's character. Trust me- the French version is much better.






1 comment:

CJG said...

Virgin among living dea is a fantastic film. I prefer Italian and asian films but this is a good one