October Horror Movie Challenge: A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

I want to start this "Monster Movie Marathon" with a new one. I got this movie for my birthday and waited till tonight to see it. While I have seen a version of this one before, there are in a sense three movies here. Franco's original, Pierre Querut's added "X-rated" (really only a hard R or NC-17, I have seen worse on Netflix), and Jean Rollin's 1981 additions. I saw the Jean Rollin version, but never the original Jesús Franco version. It is this version I am basing my monster connection on.

Plus I start off with a movie that ticks all the boxes on my checklists. Before 1977, check. Jesús Franco, check. Jean Rollin, check. Another Britt Nichols and Christina von Blanc collaboration, ok that is not on my list, but it should be. And of course a monster from the Monster Manual.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

Original and other titles include The Night of the Shooting Stars (La nuit des étoiles filantes), Christina, Princess of Eroticism (the release title for the Franco version), and The Erotic Dreams of Christine.

Our tale concerns Christina (Christina von Blanc), who returns to estranged (and strange) family in Europe for the reading of her father's will. Here she meets Aunt Abigail, Uncle Howard, Cousin Carmencé (Britt Nichols), and creepy ground's keeper Basilio, played of course by Franco himself.

The plot is paper thin, but that is not why you watch it. Ignoring for a moment all the times Christina and Carmencé run around the villa naked (hard I know) there is something sinister going on here. The plot is very, very similar to a lot of these Euro-horror movies where estranged young (most likely female) relative visits creepy family in Europe only to discover they are Satanists/Vampires/Ghosts or something else.

While there are zombies and the living dead in this film, that is mostly in the Rollin version. The pure, uncut Franco is a bit more subtle.

I did watch all three, but there is not enough differences here to merit counting this as three movies. 

Featured Monster: Ghost

We do see the ghost of Christina's dead father. He was hung and can't enter into the afterlife. We also meet a character known as the Queen of Night. But the only thing that makes sense here is that everyone, including Christina, is dead. 

Ghosts vs. Wraith vs. Spectres. Sometimes it can be bit difficult to determine what a movie monster is in terms of a D&D monster. This is never more true than with the various incorporeal undead like ghosts. In this case I picked Ghost because they seem to be "alive" to each other. A specter is more like the Ghosts of A Christmas Carol and Wraith is something a little more insubstantial.

Groaning Spirits (Banshees) and Shadows are a little easier to tell apart from the others and easier to pick out in a movie. Banshees have a very solid history.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2024
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