A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) La nuit des étoiles filantes (original title)

Directors:

Jesús Franco
Jean Rollin
(more)

Writers:

Jesús Franco (written by)
Paul D'Ales (French dialogue)

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:

Nightmare | Castle | Remote | Will | Playing Footsie

Cast

Christina von Blanc	...	Christina Benton (as Cristine von Blanc)
Britt Nichols	...	Carmencé (as Britt Nickols)
Rosa Palomar	...	Aunt Abigail
Anne Libert	...	The Queen of the Night
Howard Vernon	...	Uncle Howard
Jesús Franco	...	Basilio (as Jesus Manera)
Paul Muller	...	Ernesto Pablo Reiner, Christina's father
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alice Arno	...	Princess of Eroticism (uncredited)
Fernando Bilbao	...	Male Nurse (uncredited)
Antonio de Cabo	...	Notary (uncredited)
Wal Davis	...	(uncredited)
Nicole Guettard	...	Female Doctor (uncredited)
Linda Hastreiter	...	Blind Girl (uncredited)
Rose Kiekens	...	(uncredited)
France Nicolas	...	(uncredited)
Nadine Pascal	...	(uncredited)
Pierre Taylou	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Jesús Franco		(as Jess Franco)
Jean Rollin		(dream sequence)
Pierre Quérut		(additional sequences) (uncredited)

Writing credits
Jesús Franco		(written by) (as Jess Franco)
Paul D'Ales		(French dialogue)

Produced by
Robert de Nesle	....	associate producer
Marius Lesoeur	....	producer
Karl Heinz Mannchen	....	producer

Original Music by
Bruno Nicolai

Cinematography by
José Climent		(as J. Climent)

Film Editing by
Josyane Gibert		(as P. Belair)

Makeup Department
Elisenda Villanueva	....	makeup artist (as Elisenda Villeneuve)

Production Management
Karl Heinz Mannchen	....	production manager

Special Effects by
Bruno Nicolai	....	special effects

Music Department
Bruno Nicolai	....	conductor

Production Companies

• Prodif Ets.
• Brux International Pictures
• Comptoir Français du Film Production (CFFP)
• J.K. Films

Distributors

• Andrés Salvador Molina (1981) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Wizard Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• Sinister Cinema (2001) (USA) (VHS)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• RsR Multimedia (2004) (Spain) (DVD)
• Cinefear (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Edde Video (video) (as "Zombie 4")
• Lightning Video (VHS)
• P.F.A. Films (2010) (Italy) (all media)

Other Companies

• S.E,R.M.I  music publishing (as Editions SERMI)
• Digitmovies Alternative Entertainment  soundtrack

Also Known As:

"La nuit des étoiles filantes" - Belgium (original title)
"Zombie 4: A Virgin Among the Living Dead" - 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:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:18 | Australia:R | UK:18 | Netherlands:16 | Germany:18 | Spain:18 | USA:Not Rated (DVD rating) | Italy:VM18

Company:

Prodif Ets.

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)

Goofs:

Continuity: Just past the nine-minute mark, when Christina stands next to the guy playing piano, she casts a shadow on the right side of his face, which appears and disappears in each shot.

Quotes:

Blind Girl:What did you do that for? Poor soul! You shattered the big ebony phallus! Poor soul! Misery is now your lot!
Christina Benton:Misery? I'll be miserable?
Blind Girl:Poor soul! Beyond words! You must get away from here. You'll fry in your own hell, believe me. Ask me no questions, just get away from here.

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.