A Virgin Among the Living Dead (Remastered Edition)

This film has great cover art, but it's very misleading; there are no flesh eating zombies or monsters in the film. The entire film is strange and begins with a woman visiting some family members who live isolated in a luxurious mansion. They all look normal, but her uncle's skin is ice cold; I guess that means he's a zombie. Things now just keep getting stranger as she's around this weird group of people, and the film delivers plenty of nudity. Apparently, from what I saw from the ending, they are worshipping a woman called "The Queen of Darkness" who lives in a swamp. The film has a scene where a fully nude woman is licking the blood off another fully nude woman who she cut with a pair of scissors; but aside from that scene, there really isn't any more gore in the film, and there's also no onscreen violence. The entire film mostly consists of atmosphere, scenery, and nudity. The film is very well directed, has good music, and the films scenery is great; they picked a great place to shoot the film. The pace is a little slow in parts, but I wasn't bored by the film. The main actress, Christina Von Blanc, gets fully nude and is great looking, and the entire film is nice to look at because of the scenery and atmosphere; but I have a small problem with the ending. The ending makes it confusing as to how much was reality and how much was a dream. This film may not appeal to many mainstream horror fans, but I personally thought it was a great classic.The DVD quality is great, and you get a bunch of deleted scenes for the extras. This DVD was first released by Image which has now been discontinued, but it has now been released again by Redemption. I've just noticed that Amazon is mixing the reviews with the older image release with the newer release of the film. I bought the older Image release. This movie was filmed in different versions, and the extras on my DVD has some nudity and those zombie scenes that occur when the main actress is dreaming from the alternate cut of the film. The zombies don't eat anybody and they don't look horrific or anything like that; they just rise up with some creepy music. These zombie sequences are really cheap; but I like those sequences because of the creepy music, along with the effective atmosphere and scenery. From what I've read, the newer DVD has both versions on the disc; so those scenes are just incorporated into that alternate cut that you can now choose to watch.

First off, I really love this movie; it's my favorite Jesse Franco flick. It's beautifully weird and weirdly beautiful. I also own both of the above releases of the movie. So what are the differences and which one do I prefer? The Euroshock version contains what I guess could be called the "directors cut" with the Jean Rollins added zombie scenes presented as additional footage. It has the English dubbed track and the subtitled French track. The Redemption release also contains the directors cut (but retains the 10 second scene that was added by a different director that occurs when Christina is unpacking here bags and hears her uncle and Carmenzi arguing). It also contains a full version of the movie with the zombies scenes. It also has a Franco interview and tribute. The audio tracks are the English dubbed, subtitled French (which are slightly different from the Euroshock), and a commentary track which adds a lot to the understanding of the movie.Now, the important part: the video presentations themselves. The Euroshock version is much cleaner looking, brighter, and more colorful. But, it is also very jittery and seems slightly out of focus. The night scene of the princess of darkness following Christina through the woods and the shots of Christina going up the stairs look better on this disc. The Redemption version has more scratches and video noise -especially during the opening credits- and is darker. But, it is also very clear and in focus, the image is also stable. The scene of Christina following her father through the woods near the end of the movie is SO much clearer and nicer looking. Maybe someday someone will be able to find a negative that combines the brightness and color of the Euroshock version with the clearness and stability of the Redemption release. In the meantime, I'll watch the Redemption release. I'll take clear and stable over out of focus and jittery any day of the week. Truth be told, the Euroshock version gave me a bit of a headache and made the Christina in the woods with her dad scene look like mush - and its one of my all time favorite low budget movie scenes so maybe it made me a bit prejudiced against it. I also liked the subtitles better - even though I liked the yellow presentation of them in the Euroshock version. The audio commentary track is also a real nice addition

This is top notch Jess Franco. Watch the Christina (default) version. It's as close to as Jess intended as you will get and it's better for it.

Jesus Franco nos trae una surrealista película, llena de erotismo y momentos que nos dejaran pensando tiempo después de terminar la película.Cristina visita la mansión de una familia que jamás había conocido, donde encontrara a un grupo de personas que dicen ser sus parientes y lo que encontrara va más allá de cualquier cosa vista antes.En esta edición vienen dos cortes de la misma película, uno de ellos "Christina, princess of eroticism" la cual es la versión original de 1973, dirigida por el prolifero director de culto, Jesus Franco.La otra es la que da nombre al Blu-ray " A Virgin Among the Living Dead" la cual tiene 15 minutos de escenas extras, donde incorporan zombies, en lo personal este corte no es nada recomendable, y sólo debe verse como un agregado.De extras tiene entrevistas con Jesus Franco, y diversos productores que trabajaron con el, un corte la cual iba a ser la tercera versión de la película, con un toque más erótico, y varios trailers de otras películas de Jesus Franco.La película viene hablada en francés con subtítulos en ingles, o con doblaje al ingles.

Inutile scrivere recensioni sul film in se per se, la mia recensione è sulla qualità dei materiali e sui tempi di consegna, che come sempre sono stati brevi. Ottimo.

Orpheline, Christina (Christine von Blanc) est accueillie par ses oncle Howard (Howard Vernon) et tante Abigail (Rosa Palomar) sur le domaine de Monteserrat afin de régler la succession de son père (Paul Müller), décédé tragiquement. Très rapidement, elle est témoin de phénomènes insolites, surnaturels et prend conscience du comportement étrange autant qu'inquiétant des habitants du château.Partant d'une terrible malédiction ayant décimé une famille, Jess Franco (l'inquiétant Basilio, le débile de service dans ce film) explore la frontière entre la vie et la mort. Ce film très onirique et poétique aurait pu être une très belle réalisation fantastique. Malheureusement, comme souvent chez Franco, des longueurs sont à déplorer et les scènes érotiques ajoutées au projet initial dénaturent autant qu'enlaidissent le film. De plus, la qualité de l'image et des couleurs est parfois altérée...C'est assez décevant dans l'ensemble.A noter: contrairement à ce que pourrait laisser supposer la jaquette du DVD, il n'y a ni zombies ni cadavres en décomposition dans ce film; rien que des personnages "vivants" hantant l'haut-delà!

Lovely cover...however be thee wary this is a Franco flick & consequently approaches the themes obliquely.So, yes this is crisp yet eeriely shot mood piece, there is a continual question of reality versus nightmare perception, a dreamy flavour. Those expecting the zombies & perhaps a Fulci or even Bianchi fest will be disappointed. On the extras of this clean Euroshock Collection disc, we see the Rollin shot 'inserts' that were to make it more zombieish. They are utterly tacky, have nothing to do with the rest of the film & involve no one of any consequence. Normally Rollin has a sense of poetry, these scenes are however weak, like a child video camera shooting his own version of Living Dead at Manchester Morgue.The film proper, directors cut most likely as claimed, is poetic and slowly revealing the theme of death, being dead, undead, doom laden, accursed bloodlines etc. As ever if Franco fan, this is a must as it has an hilarious character played by the man Franco himself. He is supposedly mute, or muted at least, but can make strange sounds. At one point watching a ritual he seems to doze off. Class. Add this to odd dubbing usually sellotaped onto his films and one can see he is winking an eye at the entire genre. Though slow, it doesn't outstay it's welcome given the era.Franco, undiluted, not overly perverse, but pervaded with a doomy gloomy atmosphere, punctuated with reality challenging camera work and plot weaves. Should be on a Franco viewing list, far above the likes of oasis of the zombies or similar.