Revenge of the Living Dead Girls — Revenge of the Living Dead Girls( Blu Ray & CD)

This French production was directed by Swiss porn director Pierre B Reinhard in 1987 and has since caused quite a stir in the horror industry, what started life as a homage to French horror/exploitation director Jean Rollin has become celebrated as one of France’s most recognisable sleazy, low budgets splatterfests. The only real name attached to the film was that of producer/writer Jean-Claude Roy who had worked in the French film industry for many years as a writer, director and producer. Roy is most well known as the director of the 1957 movie, A Night at the Moulin Rouge and the 1971 comedy Good Little Girls, neither of which would have prepared him for writing Revenge of the Living Dead Girls.

After picking up a beautiful young female hitchhiker, the driver of a milk tanker stops to seduce her and while he is away from his vehicle a mysterious motorcyclist stops and pours a bottle of liquid into the tanker. Three women die from drinking the tainted milk and are buried in a graveyard that just so happens to be the place where several barrels of toxic waste has been dumped. The toxic waste seeps into the soil, causing the three poisoned women to reanimate and rise from the grave.

Don’t get me wrong this is a terrible film, however, it’s also loads of fun. The zombies themselves stagger around like a drunken hen party in bad Halloween makeup, and the whole thing seems to be an excuse to show lashings of gore and nudity. There is a genuine reason for the performances of the zombies that shall become evident if you watch the film, but I’d rather not spoil the plot for those who may watch it. The aforementioned Jean Rollin influence is there for all to see; however, this is more akin to the Jean Rollin of Zombie Lake than the man who directed the stylish and beautiful Le Frissons Des Vampires and Requiem pour un vampire. Aside from the terrible zombies the performances of the cast are as one would expect from a film of this type. Where the film really triumphs is the special effects, some of the murder sequences were incredibly inventive, and when the gore effects by Benoit Lestang (Wax Mask and Martyrs) are used it appears that they took up a fair old chunk of the film’s budget. I was particularly fond of the scene where a stiletto heel is impaled in the forehead of one unlucky cast member. Besides that, the soundtrack by Christian Bonneau is fantastic, and I was so pleased to see a CD of it included as part of this package.

DVD Drive-in called this a “fetishistic ode to blood, breasts and brutality” and I think that perfectly sums up Revenge of the Living Dead Girls, it really does deserve to be described as a sleazefest. That said, I enjoyed it and the uncut Severin disc looks absolutely fantastic, images are clean and crisp, and the colours are natural and vibrant. As mentioned, there is a second disc included featuring the brilliant Christian Bonneau soundtrack, as well as a host of bonus materials on the Blu-ray disc including interviews with Benoit Lestang, Jean-Claude Roy and Pierre B Reinhard. Overall, this is a fine disc of a flawed but eminently enjoyable entry in the “turn off your brain and enjoy the splatter” category.