Christina, princesse de l'érotisme (1973)

User Rating:

3.5/10   

Directors:

Jesus Franco
Jean Rollin

Writers:

Paul D'Ales (French dialogue)
Jesus Franco (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 October 1978 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A girl arrives from London to visit her estranged relatives in a remote castle for the reading of her father's will...

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Remote | Nightmare | Will | Erotica

Cast

Christina von Blanc	...	Christina Benson
Britt Nichols	...	Carmencé (as Britt Nickols)
Rosa Palomar	...	Aunt Abigail
Anne Libert	...	The Queen of the Night
Howard Vernon	...	Uncle Howard
Paul Muller	...	Ernesto Pablo Reiner, Christina's father
Jesus Franco	...	Basilio (as Jesús Manera)
Nicole Guettard	...	Female Doctor (as Nicole Franco)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fernando Bilbao	...	Male Nurse
Val Davis
Linda Hastreiter	...	Blind Girl
Pierre Taylou

Also Known As:

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (USA) (video box title)
Among the Living Dead (International: English title)
Christina chez les morts vivants (France)
Christine, Princess of Eroticism (USA)
I desideri erotici di Christine (Italy)
Una vergine tra i morti viventi (Italy)
Une vierge chez les morts vivants (France)
Zombi 4: A Virgin Among the Living (USA) (video box title)

Runtime:

Argentina:87 min | Australia:76 min | Spain:85 min | Germany:92 min (DVD version) | USA:79 min (director's cut)

Country:

Belgium | France | Italy | Liechtenstein

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated (DVD rating) | Argentina:18 | Australia:R | UK:18 | Netherlands:16 | Germany:18 | Spain:18

Company:

Brux International Pictures

Trivia:

Listed among "The worst Movies of all Times" by Giesen/Hahn (Giesen, Rolf / Hahn, Ronald M.; Die schlechtesten Filme aller Zeiten ; BVA, Berlin, 2002)

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Brunnen (2005)

Time to put you straight on a few things...

It's a shame that most people here seem to have seen a cut version of this film, because the actual original is absolutely beautiful, and belies the criticism that Franco was a complete hack. It is a perfect example of what can be achieved in the horror genre with an almost zero budget in what was probably the director's busiest period. However most people seem to have seen the US release print, which also circulated on video in the UK in the 80's under the title of `The Invisible Dead'. This film was marketed as being a successor to Fulci's `Zombi', and basically was padded out with scenes from Jean Rollin's `Lake of Zombies' (shot almost 10 years after Franco's original film) and had all nudity removed.

There is another version which circulated with hardcore black mass footage featuring Franco regular Alice Arno and a host of stunt doubles for Vernon, Nichols and von Blanc.

The only video release of the original film at present is on Redemption, featuring a couple of nude mass scenes, some lesbian vampire sucking, a bizarre scene where Christina knocks over a giant phallus and an effectively hypnotic score from Bruno Nicolai. The UK version is missing the rather graphic rape scene present in the Benelux versions.

Christina von Blanc never unfortunately appeared in any other Franco films – in fact only appeared in a couple of others including the giallo `L'Etrusco uccide ancora'. The delightful pairing of Britt Nichols and Anne Libert occurs again in his bizarre `Erotic Rites of Frankenstein' and `Les Demons', amongst other films of the period. If you are interested in Franco, this is one of his best of the period, very atmospheric and deserves to be seen in its original version.