The Living Dead Girl
(La morte vivante, 1982)

Jean Rollin

France

86 min, color, French (English subtitles)

Review © 2005 Branislav L. Slantchev

Widely considered the be among Rollin's best films, The Living Dead Girl surely deserves a lot of the praise fans lavish at it. With the incredible Francoise Blanchard as the tormented zombie, the film is already on its way to near professionalism. But this time Rollin actually had time to rehearse his actors, and apparently had the money to spend a bit longer on setting up the shots. With a judicious use of the limited locations, all of this translates into much better production values.

Consequences of dumping toxic trash illegally	Catherine returns to her ancestral chateau

But this is not what makes the film stand out in my opinion. Ostensibly an entry in the somewhat underrated critically genre of flesh-munching zombies, this is an interesting morality tale for by the end of the film we have transferred our sympathies from the living to the suffering dead. It is a story about a friendship whose original purity gets twisted into bizarre possessiveness that eventually deprives a person of her humanity. The film is also a fascinating way to tell this story because unlike most horror films, women are not just on the receiving end. Not only are they the active protagonists here, but we also have a captivating psychological portrait of a woman who must choose whether her own existence is warranted.

Remembering the best friend	The Living Dead Girl

Normally one does not watch zombie (or even horror) films looking for anything more than pure exploitation. Rollin himself is no stranger to making sure his films have at least some commercial appeal (which almost always means placing a lot of naked women in front of the camera). Despite some nudity here, the sexual aspect is underplayed to a much greater dramatic effect. Rollin is not going to apply the tired formula of blood plus T&A equals art but will spend much time focusing our attention on the devastating effect of a moral dilemma upon the main character.

Catherine's mute plea for help	The two best friends

That this main character is a zombie does not really matter. Of course, by approaching the genre from such an unexpected perspective, Rollin goes way beyond the mindless Romero drones that just gorge themselves on flesh that are typical fare in these films. Instead, we are presented with a resurrection that takes Catherine (Francoise Blanchard) from death back to life with all that such a transformation may entail. I do not mean to suggest that literally in the sense that "Gee, I wonder what I would feel if I came back to life and had to eat people to survive" but in the metaphorical sense, a journey from bestiality to humanity. Rollin does ask what it is that makes us human, and the answer is startling. For while the dead slowly awakens to the horror of her existence, the living slowly degrades into little more than a monster.

Nourishment from Helene	We shall get through this together

The story is deceptively simple. An earthquake causes the spill of some toxic matter than resurrects Catherine after being dead for two years (she does look remarkably well preserved for such an old corpse). She is mute, her gaze is empty, she is little more than a bundle of instinct. Her first actions are brutal: she murders three men (who had come to rob her tomb, by the way) almost instantly. She does not feed on them or anything, just kills them. However, given that at this point she is nothing but a beast, one cannot condemn these acts on moral grounds. Catherine staggers back to her family chateau where the familiar objects seem to awaken some sort of remembrance in the dim recesses of her memory.

Dead pigeons don't work	The last moments of Fanny Magier

The most vivid recollection is from her childhood, when she shared a happy friendship with Helene (Marina Pierro). As many children are wont to do, the two made oaths to each other that their bond will last forever and that should one of them die first, the other would follow her in death. This tender moment is fleeting, however, for the beast takes over again. When the real estate agent who is selling the chateau comes with her boyfriend, Catherine attacks them, brutally kills them both, and then feeds on the flesh of the woman. When Helene arrives (having called to check on Catherine's mother who, unbeknownst to Helene has also recently passed away, and heard the melody from Catherine's music box), she finds her supposedly dead friend naked at the piano.

Carina Barone sells own art	Moody shot of living dead girl

Helene picks up the bloodied burial clothes and realizes that Catherine has slaughtered the two people whose corpses are strewn around. Erroneously believing that her friend is deranged, Helene decides to nurse her back to health. Responding to the mute plea in Catherine's eyes, she covers up the murders, and even chooses to ignore the strange taste for blood that her friend seems to have developed. When Catherine shows her that she needs blood to live, Helene cuts her hand to let her drink. But this sort of thing cannot continue and when the next day Helene finds out that only human blood can nourish Catherine, she makes a fateful decision to sacrifice the lives of innocent strangers in order to enable her friend to live.

You could not have died	Catherine wants no more of that evil

It is at this point that the first signs of the parallel transformations that would run into opposite directors appear. Catherine shows some glimmer of rationality when she manages to play a tune on the piano and pronounce Helen's name. For her part, Helen takes this as a hopeful sign that Catherine is on her way to recovery, which is probably how she rationalizes her subsequent behavior. What are a few victims if she can have her friend back? So while Catherine takes the first halting steps toward recognizing what her continued existence must entail, Helene begins her descent into evil with eyes wide open.

Greg and Barbara, still alive	Catherine in her vault

The first victim (Fanny Magier) Helene picks with a fake "I'm out of gas" excuse. She manages to lure the stranger into the chateau's crypt where Catherine savagely attacks her. While she gorges herself, Helene attempts to shut out the desperate heart-rending screams of Catherine's victim who remains alive for some time while the zombie slowly devours her. But then it's all over, at least until the next time Catherine needs blood to sustain her own life. It is not that Helene becomes evil immediately, as her inability to listen to the results of her actions with equanimity show. But she does manage to overcome her conscience remarkably quickly. Ostensibly, it's all for her friend's sake, but in reality it is to satisfy her own lust to restore their relationship.

Helene has gone mad with friendship	Gratuitous shot of Francoise Blanchard

Catherine's mind, however, comes back enough for her moral sense to awaken, and she is horrified at what she and Helene have wrought. This is where Rollin departs from the usual B-film story to say something that we all know but somehow do not take very seriously. On one hand, it is our sense of moral existence that differentiates us from animals. And this sense must inevitably compel us to evaluate the consequences of our actions in a light that goes beyond the mere drive for survival. An animal will kill in order to eat and live. So will humans, no doubt about it. But some humans will have qualms about the worth of a life that requires the constant sacrifice of others. Many will not be able to endure, and Catherine is one of them.

Marina Pierro about to go berserk	Greg on the receiving end of friendship

On the other hand, people will kill for less than survival, as Helene's actions illustrate. What begins as a seemingly noble act of helping a friend quickly degenerates into a self-justifying murdering spree for the sake of her own desires. Helene does not need to kill others to survive, but she is not content to deny herself the company of her friend (perhaps lover too although that is never made explicit). So while our moral sense makes us more than animals, the same high passions can lower us beneath them yet again. It is strange duality of our self-awareness that Rollin plays upon so wonderfully here, and this is the secret of the film's success, at least in my book.

Catherine attempts to drown herself	I am your death

When Catherine finds herself unable to persuade Helene to stop, she attempts to commit suicide by drowning herself but Helene fishes her out. The final sequence is stunning. Catherine regains consciousness and discovers that she is still alive. She begs Helene to go before it is too late. Catherine's desperate act of self-sacrifice intended to restore her world to rights shakes Helene from her moral stupor and she comes to see that her actions have been evil, that Catherine will never recover, and that she is probably worse than her zombie friend who at least has the excuse that she needs human flesh to live. Helene offers herself as Catherine next, and probably last, victim, both because she cannot bear to live without her and because she has to expiate for her atrocious behavior. The finale is painful to watch not just because Catherine tears apart her erstwhile friend but because Francoise Blanchard manages to convey such raw emotion in something that usually would involve gallons of red liquid getting poured over the actress.

The savage fulfillment of an oath	The awful finale

A remarkable film that may be off-putting because its horror sequences are very graphic, The Living Dead Girl is not something you want to miss. The Redemption DVD is pretty decent too. The film is presented in the original 1.66:1 aspect ratio but is not anamorphically enhanced, which appears to happen often with films that are not "too" widescreen. The colors are very nice and the print appears to have been in relatively good shape. The French mono soundtrack (parts of the dialogue are in English because two of the actors play American tourists) is sufficient. There isn't much going on in terms of sound effects but the screaming and the noisy munching on flesh drove my wife nuts as she was trying to work in the next room. In other words, it worked just fine. There are optional English subtitles for the French parts of the dialogue. The extras are limited to a trailer and a photo gallery. I wish there were more.

December 21, 2005