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A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

Posted By: Someonelse
SD / DVD IMDb
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 16:9 | Artwork (4 JPGs) | 01:18:20 | 4,18 Gb
Audio: #1 English, #2 Français - AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps (each) | Subs: English
Genre: Horror, Sexploitation

Directors: Jess Franco, Jean Rollin
Writers: Jesús Franco (as Jess Franco), Paul D'Ales (French dialogue)
Stars: Christina von Blanc, Britt Nichols, Rosa Palomar

A girl arrives from London to visit her estranged relatives in a remote castle for the reading of her father's will. After a while she discovers that they are all in fact dead and her decision to live with them turns into a nightmare. Unable to leave she's drawn into a macabre underworld through visions of nude satanic rituals and her own impending sacrifice.



A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

During the early days of video rentals–the era of "mom & pa" stores to be exact–curious horror fans would marble at the various eye-catching boxes for titles they knew little about. A great example would be Wizard Video's release of A VIRGIN OF THE LIVING DEAD. The box art promised Fulci-esque zombies and scantily clad girls galore, but renters who popped this in their VCRs were in for a deceiving surprise. What they got was a slow-moving, badly edited (irritatingly repeating one sequence several times) confusing mess, with no female skin in check and lame zombies who ate too many black jelly beans.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

It turned out that different versions of the film existed consisting of more eroticism and other sensational stuff. For the first time in the U.S., Image Entertainment gives us what is believed to be the director's cut, and it truly is a different experience altogether. While still not for all tastes, this version runs an agreeable 79 minutes with a supplemental section of deleted scenes found in various other cuts of the film.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD concerns a young woman named Christina (sexy Christina Von Blanc from THE DEAD ARE ALIVE) who goes to an old chateau for the reading of her late father's will. When she arrives, she is greeted by her eccentric relatives, including Uncle Howard (Howard Vernon) who plays his piano while a woman is dying in another room, Carmencé (Britt Nichols) who kisses her on the lips and paints her toenails during a funeral, and other assorted nuts. Other people in the vicinity tell Christina that the chateau is empty despite what she witnesses, and her dead dad (Paul Müller) shows up as an apparition and warns her to leave.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

Franco's cut of A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD is flawed but interesting enough, filled with surreal imagery and the bizarre sensuality that you'd expect. Dead bats, severed arms, a black phallus and lesbian bloodsucking flatter some fine cinematography despite his generous (and I do mean generous!) use of the zoom lens. Vernon is pretty funny as the uncle, while Müller appears exclusively with a noose around his neck and ketchup on his mouth. Von Blanc is usually nude, and Franco regulars Nichols and Anne Libert (playing a sort of an "angel of death") also romp around in the buff. Having no shame, Franco casts himself as an idiot deaf servant who plays with a chicken head while doing a Chuck McCann impersonation. Bruno Nicolai's score is effective and even sounds like something done by Ennio Morricone.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

Image has done a fine job releasing A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD on DVD, making it part of their "EuroShock Collection." The film is letterboxed in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced. Overall, the colors are very bright with sharp detail throughout. Except for a few blemishes here and there, the source material is in pristine shape. The mono audio is playable in either English or French, with the optional English subtitles. The preferable English track has those hollow sounding voices you expect from post-synched films of this sort, but dialog is clear as a bell.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

As a bonus, nearly 14 minutes of deleted/alternate footage is included. Most of the footage is the zombie scenes reportedly shot by Jean Rollin a decade later for the tame version seen in the U.S. See actors in greasepaint crawl out from wet leafs and terrorize an actress pretending to be Christina Von Blanc. You'll also see a deleted rape scene with obvious stand-in doubles. Also included is the European trailer and excellent liner notes by Tim Lucas who perfectly sums up this title's convoluted history.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

Special Features:
- European theatrical trailer
- 13 minutes of alternate footage (this footage is in the "Producer's Cut")
- Liner Notes by Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas

All Credits goes to Original uploader.


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