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.
Gli zombi cannibali, Une vierge chez les morts vivants, I desideri erotici di Christine, Christina, princesse de l'érotisme, Das Grauen von Schloss Montserrat, Los sueños eróticos de Christina, Девственница среди живых мертвецов, La noche de las estrellas fugaces, El infierno de los sentidos, Christina chez les morts vivants, Christina - Prinzessin der Lust, Mia parthena gia tous zontanous - nekrous, Una vergine tra i morti viventi, Dziewica wsród zywych trupów, Uma Virgem entre os Mortos-Vivos, Virgen entre los muertos vivientes, Una virgen en casa de los muertos vivientes, Zombie 4: A Virgin Among the Living Dead, Among the Living Dead, Eine Jungfrau in den Krallen von Zombies, La nuit des étoiles filantes, Una Vergine tra i Morti Viventi: I Desideri Erotici di Christine, 行走于活死人之间的处女, 산송장 속의 처녀, Dziewica wśród żywych trupów
France16
ItalyVM18
Spain18
Japan
Germany18
Italy
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Spain
“Your fatal insults slide right off my cold, dead indifference!”
A surreal dream-like venture into the delirious macabre where Franco himself plays a mindless cretin named Basilio who walks the corridors of the insanely gorgeous Portuguese castle talking in gibberish to a severed chicken's head.
I Finally had the chance to watch a cleaned up version of Franco’s cut, Christina, Princess of Eroticism... and holy smokes did I love it—this thing just hit that moody hazy 70’s atmosphere that I go wild for and honestly I don’t think I’ll ever watch the Virgin Among the Living Dead cut (with added Jean Rollin zombie scenes) ever again.
This is highly atmospheric and very unnerving in a good way, working as an impressionistic…
My third time watching the Cristina, Princes of Erotism cut (but the first time for Michelle). I still haven't seen Rollin's zombified version. This is definitely one of Jess' most fully realized dream state movies. It is slow, surreal and moody. It is also an excuse for our dear uncle to show some naked skin, although he does restrain himself somewhat compared to later movies. Bruno Nicolai's score is used to great effect.
Uncle Jess and his three ring circus malaise eroding the centre of the Franco/Rollin coin and letting the cum coated sleaze and ethereal moonlight eroticism bleed together into a guilty melancholic woe of naked flesh, inverted mourning and illusory spectral reckoning.
Fragmented unreality floating along the current of vast spacious lingering, allowing cursory glances at Franco's obsessions. Ghostly and vague, shadowy and lonesome; A Virgin Among the Living Dead lives in an unlived existence, barely holding on to the line stretched across the chasm. A surreal float through an atmosphere of black treacle made translucent through an elegaic sorrow of prose that only has a fingernail tip grip on sense, which somehow manages to make perfect sense within its own…
Don't you just hate it when you visit your long lost family and they turn out to be a bunch of living dead who are hellbent on making you one of their own?
This movie is another fine example of why I enjoy Uncle Jess so much. His way of visual storytelling can be so exquisite. The way he frames his actors is superb; it often has this lush quality to it.
Letterboxd tells me that this is the 41st Jess Franco movie I have seen, but I know I have watched at least 45* of his movies since some of them are far too racy to appear on this site.
I watched Franco's Cristina, Princess of Eroticism cut, which…
There's a moment in this where, just as the nominal plot is starting to unfold at the reading of a will, Jess Franco's character falls asleep and starts snoring loudly. Cut to a woman convulsing on the floor while Franco watches and claps.
This is like mainlining Jess Franco -- pure poetic incomprehensibility, shot at a gorgeous Portuguese castle and scored by Bruno Nicolai. I'd always heard bad things about it, but I'd actually say that it's top tier Franco?
Actually watched the Franco cut of this film entitled Christina, Princess of Eroticism. It's the main feature on the Redemption/Kino Lorber Blu-ray with the bastardized version (A Virgin among the Living Dead) as an extra feature. Some impressive and even haunting shots but it's a bit of a chore to get through. And looks like I'll now be doing a Christina von Blanc deep dive. She definitely leaves an impression.
Watched the Redemption / Kino Lorber Blu-ray
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Two complete different versions of the film
- Featurette: ''Mysterious Dreams'' - one of the last on camera interviews with director Jess Franco
- Deleted Scenes
- Audio Commentary by Tim Lucas
Jess Franco's (and a dash of Jean Rollin!) early 70's erotic horror flick is a dreamy banger of scuzzy imagery unlike anything I've ever seen before.
Christina travels to the countryside to visit her relatives after her father has died and attend the reading of his will. Her relatives might in fact be dead though and upon discovering this the calamity begins to ooze into every crevice of this bizarre trip.
Disjointed, sleazy, campy, and incoherent, but damn when the stars aligned they practically blew up the sky. The ghostly score, moody camera work, and occasional moments of poetic reverie all burst into each other, leaving a trace of sorrow against the somewhat zany hijinks of the rest of the…
Surreal and atmospheric horror fantasy from Jess Franco. A Virgin Among the Livng Dead plays out at a slow simmer. The plot follows Christina, a young girl who travels to a remote mansion for the reading of her father's will. The hazy dreamy story coalesces around the idea that the remaining family might just be dead and Christina might just be in some kind of danger. The film really is remarkably restrained for much of the runtime. There's nudity but it's not graphic or excessive (or zoomed in on), while the narrative retains the understated moody atmosphere for most of the duration with just the occasional descent into rougher territory. The beautiful Christina von Blanc spends much of the movie…
“What is this realm of soft shadows and silence?”
The word that could best describe this feeling
Would be haunted
I touch the clothes you left behind
That still retain your shape and lines
Still haunted
— Love and Rockets, “Haunted When the Minutes Drag”
➡️ The Aching Melancholy of A Virgin Among the Living Dead
As someone who frequently writes about movies, I’m often asked what my favorite movie is. My stock response for the past few years has been “A Virgin Among the Living Dead,” not only because A Virgin Among the Living Dead is my favorite movie, but because I think it’s funny to say my favorite movie is the horrendously titled A Virgin Among the Living…
“Even the flowers have the stench of death”
A hazy, sexually-charged descent into madness. Dream-like in the best sense of the word. This movie draws you in like a pig lead to slaughter. I couldn’t believe how engaging this was. It’s bewildering to think years back I couldn’t even get 20 minutes into this. I clearly wasn’t ready.
The locations are stunningly beautiful, the soundtrack is phenomenal, the women are gorgeous, the atmosphere is it’s own damn character, this was a treat.
So I guess it’s fair to say I’m a Franco fan now!
And this is why I stopped going to family reunions...
Jess Franco's masterpiece! His palace of decadence and depravity brought to life with the somber grace of a poet. Skeletons of the past lost in a clouded world of erotic fantasies, and enigmatic nightmares, while the innocent Christina plays our tour guide into the eternal void. Slipping deeper and deeper, 'til the point of no return has long since faded away. Becoming one with the dream.
Bruno Nicolai's score is as hypnotic and lulling as they come, setting the mood for this hazy other world so fantastically. The scenery inside the mansion feels so inescapably surreal, while the autumnal forest surrounding it suffocates from all sides. And the final shot is still one of the most prominent and hauntingly ethereal slices of film that I've ever experienced. Back below the lily pads, back into the swamp for an immortal rest. Beyond gorgeous.
You know you're watching a Jess Franco film when the amount of zooms has reached a rate of around 100 ZPM and re-focusing has become an afterthought. If you played a drinking game with the zoom shots, you'd be pissed as a skunk in no time. That might actually be the best way to appreciate this film, but it's a riot sober too.
Looking for a plot seems kinda redundant when it's so much about style and atmosphere, but there is one in there somewhere if you're determined to find it: Christina Benton, the eponymous Virgin of the piece, leaves her home in London to travel to her uncle's chateaux for the reading of her late father's will. When she…
