First up was The Living Dead Girl (a/k/a La Morte Vivante) (1982). Directed by Jean Rollin, a director with a remarkably long Wikipedia page for someone who made mostly low-budget erotic vampire films, The Living Dead Girl is about a young woman, Catherine, who dies at a young age, but is revived when some grave robbers spill toxic chemicals in her family crypt. She immediately kills them, of course, and then proceeds to devour them. Confused (and, probably, brain-damaged from her time being, you know, dead), Catherine wanders back to her family home and, somehow, telephones her best friend and blood-sister, Helene. Her blood-sister, who didn’t seem that broken up the first time her friend died, is suddenly very invested in keeping her revived friend alive by finding her fresh meat. Eventually, the titular living dead girl, by slowly regaining her humanity, realizes this is wrong, and tries very desperately to be dead again. Helene is so committed to keeping her alive, however, that she not only prevents Catherine from re-killing herself, but allows the living dead girl to eat her alive. The film mostly features terrible acting, bare-chested young women, and blood that looks suspiciously like paint, but it also features a few scenes of remarkable beauty. Better, it is consistently entertaining, and we both really enjoyed it. (The Living Dead Girl is available for streaming on Kanopy.)
Tonight’s film was Raw (2016), a French coming-of-age body horror film about a young vegetarian woman who, after eating meat for the first time, develops an insatiable desire for human flesh. The impeccably-constructed movie, from recent Palm D’Ore winner Julia Ducournau, is infused with strong feminist themes, and the young women’s burgeoning desire for raw meat is largely symbolic. Don’t worry, though! The film isn’t so committed to its art that it shies away from exceptionally bloody thrills, and the film (which, allegedly, caused some screeners at a Toronto film festival to faint), has enough gore for even the most seasoned horror fans. (Raw is available for streaming on Netflix.)
prfsnl_gmr’s Spook-tacular Horror Month Movie List
prfsnl_gmr’s Horror Movie Month Pre-Gaming…of Death!
