The Living Dead Girl

Now this is more like it. While no masterpiece, Jean Rollin's La Morte Vivante, or The Living Dead Girl, is a work of genius compared to The Nude Vampire. It is at least coherent, and has some shocking gore.

Graverobbers break into a crypt under a castle. They are multitasking crooks, as they are not only stealing from graves, but they are dumping toxic waste. An earthquake spills the waste, which brings a woman back to life after being dead two years. Remarkably well preserved, this girl (Francoise Blanchard) needs human blood to survive. She dispatches the graverobbers, using her long fingernails (nails grow after death, you know), and then feasts on the real estate agent selling the castle and her boyfriend, while they are having sex.

A vacationing couple take pictures of the girl, and the woman decides to investigate. Bad idea. By now Blanchard's childhood friend, Marina Pierro, has snapped into action, procuring people for her living dead friend to feed on. But Blanchard despairs at being caught between life and death, and just wants to end it all.

As horror films go, this isn't too bad. It's cheap, for sure, and the acting is wooden, but the chills are there. It is also extremely bloody. Throats are opened up, and Blanchard uses her nails to dig around in the chest cavity of a still-living woman. A scene at the end, in which she devours a throat, has some impressive prosthetics.

Of course there is the requisite nudity, but not as much as some of Rollin's other films. Blanchard, who died mysteriously in 2013 at age 58, gives the character some dignity and pathos, as well as looking good naked.