Lady Stay Dead [The Living Dead Girl (1982)]

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Dir. Jean Rollin

France

Film #25, for Thursday 25^th October, for Halloween 31 For 31

I may have started watching films made from the late French director Jean Rollin this year. Amongst all the discoveries and re-evaluations over the last three quarters of the year, I may have seen Zombie Lake (1981), the film that Rollin took over from Jesus Franco, within the early months. Regardless of one’s opinion of Zombie Lake, it did not follow the conventions that I have heard about Rollin’s cinema. The Shiver of the Vampires (1971) however felt closer to the reputation he developed. If you are in the wrong mood for the film, with its melding of sexploitation, slow mood and psychedelic rock to a horror narrative, it would come off as pretentious and difficult to sit through, but looking back at it it grows as something memorable from this year’s viewing.

The Living Dead Girl pushes my interest in Rollin further. When she is brought back to life by toxic waste, Catherine Valmont (Françoise Blanchard) becomes an undead being who feats on the blood of other people. Her childhood friend Hélène (Marina Pierro), who made a blood pact with her, attempts to bring Catherine back to being human and provide her with fresh food, but the paradox of a ‘living dead girl’ is too much for Catherine and the outside world entrenches into their environment. Rollin for me was always depicted as making films involving vampires and sexuality, a crass simplification in hindsight but one that was foisted over him as any filmmaker is forced with a simplified off-colour description of their work. The Living Dead Girl has nudity and gore, but it is far from his suggested reputation of lesbian vampires. It is as much a very artistic film as a horror film, creating a distinct piece that feels out of place even with the later French horror films of the 2000s. As with any country’s cinema, French films have a specific thought process to them, clearly willing to push the content to more idiosyncratic and self reflective tangents over clear narrative and topic lines. The film is more about its mood, following Catherine and the traumatic stasis she is within after death. Completely unable to communicate vocally for most of the running time, her friend Hélène tries to help her, only to have interference from an actress who becomes obsessed with Catherine. With the specific palette and look of a French film from the 1980s – the earthy architecture and countryside against the shell suits of certain cast members – The Living Dead Girl stood out immediately for how well put together it was visually, wide establishing shots and claustrophobic close-ups in closed areas adding a sense of space as most of the film is set at Catherine’s old mansion home and its crypt vault underneath the ground. With access with such a grand location, Rollin used the setting fully, something that was also significant in The Shiver of the Vampires and adds to his moody take on horror tropes.

Attempting to write a review merely on the mood for The Living Dead Girl is difficult, but if you are able to settle into its slower mood, its unconventional tone feels for more liberating while still retaining the paint red gore of European horror cinema. There is a moment later on where the film seemed to be drifting along without purpose, but this was dispelled as it lead onto a climax that ties the treads together fully. As a slow burning film, a unique vampire/undead story, it plays with the ideas of obsessive relationships and the concept of immortality in a new way for me. All exquisitely shot, it surprised me to think Jean Rollin was dismissed as he was as he kept a level of artistry comparable to well regarded art film directors from the country of France; that he worked in horror cinema and with content such as nudity and blood must have been the reason why sadly, especially since individuals like Jean-Luc Godard used the later contents in his filmic experiments to great critical acclaim.

The Living Dead Girl was a great film. With only The Shiver of the Vampires (and to a lesser extent Zombie Lake) before this, it turned out to be an unexpected surprise. French horror cinema has risen in quantity and acclaim since the 2000s, but for me the spots before this boom, Rollin and films like Baby Blood (1990), are far more interesting, not that dissimilar in look and tone to other French dramatic and experimental cinema aside from the extended gore sequences. Unlike the later horror films that have absorbed the influences from popular styles of the genre, a film like The Living Dead Girl feels very specific to its country of origins and retains an individualistic take on its central subject matter, more about the effect of the images to convey everything rather than an elaborate story, but by the climatic sequence, working perfectly.

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