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Virgin Among the Living Dead (A) AKA Une vierge chez les morts-vivants AKA Christina, princesse de l'érotisme AKA La nuit des étoiles filantes AKA Christine, Princess of Eroticism (1973)
Following the death of her father, a young girl visits her estranged family at their sinister castle in the countryside, and comes to realize her eccentric and morbid relatives are not quite alive.Director: Jess Franco
Year of Copyright: 1973
Year of Production: 1971
OVERALL: Draw-
OVERALL: Draw
Between the Kino Lorber release for the erotic and zombie versions and the Image DVD for Franco's director's cut (although Kino's erotic version only has one short shot that would not belong in the director's cut).
Director Jess Franco has said, that the "Director´s Cut" is the closest to his original version he had yet seen and was very pleased with it.
This film is also known as:
-Among the Living Dead
-I Desideri erotici di Christine
-Une vierge chez les morts vivants
-Una Vergine tra i morti viventi
-Zombi 4: A Virgin Among the Living
GENERAL NOTES:
The film exists in a number of versions:
- the French theatrical release without the ebony phallus scene
- a reissue with erotic footage shot by Pierre Queret including the "garden orgy"
- the director's cut (~79 minutes at 24fps)
- the 1980 zombie version with footage directed by Jean Rollin (~89 minutes at 24fps) also including footage shot by Pierre Queret including an alternate take of the rape scene with more nudity (some include the garden orgy while others do not)
- the American TV edit of the 1980 zombie version with fogged nudity including scenes shot by Pierre Queret (minus the garden orgy)
- two VHS composites prepared, respectively by Video Search of Miami and Midnight Video, both running roughly 100 minutes attempting to compile all footage shot for the film. The Midnight Video release lacked the River Styx ending in favor of the circular nightmare ending of the TV version (using the Japanese VHS for the body of the film).
- the original Redemption reconstructed director's cut which inadvertently included the nude take of the rape scene (cut by the BBFC but complete on the Redemption Benelux cassette in Holland)
- the second reconstructed director's cut for Redemption which appeared on the Image DVD (~79 minutes at 24fps)
- a German reconstruction by X-Rated that replaced the opening credits sequence entirely with a new montage of shots and featured an English track that looped random dialogue in scenes where the audio was missing (~79 minutes at 24fps).
- a Japanese reconstruction utilizing the Redemption/Image DVD reconstruction but inserting all of the erotic footage from VHS
- a hybrid director's cut/erotic version with a single shot directed by Pierre Queret that should not be present (~79 minutes at 24fps) which appeared on the Blu-ray editions -
CUTS:
- R0 America- Kino Lorber - No cuts - Contains both the erotic version (79:09 NTSC) and the zombie version (89:51 NTSC)
- R1 America- Image Entertainment - No cuts - director’s cut (78:20 NTSC).
- R2 Director's Cut Germany- X-Rated KultDVD - No Cuts, "Director's Cut" (75:20 PAL).
- R2 Limited Edition Germany- X-Rated KultDVD - No Cuts, Includes both the "Director's Cut" (75:20 PAL), and the "Producer's Cut" (88:49 PAL)
- R2 Japan- King Records/Pioneer - This release includes inserts that were not originally included in the film but were added later by Eurocine to add a bit more sex and violence. The inserts include the "Garden Orgy" scene, an extended rape sequence and a sex scene not found in Jess Franco's original version of the film. Also included as a special feature is the 88 min version re-release with added scenes directed by Jean Rollin. Note that there is optical censoring of genitalia.
- R2 Spain- RSR Multimedia - Yes, director's cut (75:10 PAL)
- R2 United Kingdom- Arrow Films - Yes, (75:32 PAL). This seems to be using the old "Redemption UK" master, which is cut by the BBFC (1:19 min, "rape sequence" is omitted). It also seems, that this is not the same "Director´s Cut" than the German -release (from "X-Rated KultDVD"), since the "rape sequence" is only in the "Producer's Cut".
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Comparison added by Noor_Razzak on 04/04/03
Comparison last updated by Eric_Cotenas on 24/10/23UPDATE LOG:
01/04/11: Fixed typo in the film title.
Please ensure you read our disclaimer.
23/11/19: Revised title
06/05/20: typo
11/02/21: added caps-a-holic.
14/02/21: revised Image entry.
17/05/21: added Kino Lorber, dates.
25/10/23: Updated Image specs.
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