REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS (1987) Standard Edition Blu-ray
Director: Pierre B. Reinhard
Severin Films

Zombies invade rural France in the eighties gore flick REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS, on Blu-ray from Severin Films.

When O.K.F. milk company truck delivery driver stops to pick up and have his way with hitchhiking prostitute Sonia (Laura Clair, MARILYN MY LOVE), a motorcyclist (Daniel Breton) contaminates the milk with a chemical that subsequently kills bride-to-be Catherine and comely O.K.F. employees Jocelyn and Jacqueline (Véronique Catanzaro, BRIGADE OF DEATH). The local police chief suspects it has something to do with the company's toxic waste byproducts, but O.K.F.'s local manager Jacques Alphan (Patrick Guillemin, DRESSAGE) is doing damage control with the company's German owners who send Ingrid (Cornélia Wilms, GWENDOLINE) to conduct an investigation. Alphan does not suspect that his secretary Brigitte (Anthea Wyler) is not only behind the contamination but also a blackmail attempt involving himself and Sonia who demands more money for her silence. While Brigitte must also deal with the motorcyclist, an ecologist who believes she duped him by claiming that the drug would only make the drinkers sick, Alphan also must fork out more money to get his shady waste disposal flunky to dump farther away from the town. Unfortunately, he chooses the cemetery, and the chemicals awaken the three recently dead girls who emerge as prune-faced zombies bent on revenge. After Alphan's wife is murdered, her chemist lover Christian starts showing symptoms of infection that may endanger his wife and their unborn child (if she lives that long).

Gory and silly yet intermittently striking, REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS owes less to George Romero or Dan O'Bannon than Jean Rollin whose LIVING DEAD GIRL, GRAPES OF DEATH, NIGHT OF THE HUNTED not only predated France's New French Extremity movement (HIGH TENSION, MARTYRS, FRONTIERES) but also dealt with similar ecological concerns or at least exploited them along with the concurrent running theme of post-war sentiment of multinational (and, specifically German) industry operating in rural France (still an issue as explored in the more realistic, volatile, and tragic EN GUERRE). For every oddly arresting image of the Halloween-masked zombies wandering foggy graveyards and peering in windows, there are stiletto heel eye gouges, chomped-off male members, and even a zombie lesbian foursome ending with a different kind of penetration. The domestic version of the film had a "logical" ending that was snipped theatrically, and the film actually does drop hints throughout pointing to it; yet, there are other story threads that are rendered entirely nonsensical by that ending. The effects work of Benoît Lestang – who got his start on Rollin's LIVING DEAD GIRL (and would later do DRACULA'S FIANCÉE), OGROFF: THE MAD MUTILATOR, and BABY BLOOD – is generally quite crude compared to his mainstream work in the nineties but fits the overall tone of the production. Screenwriter Jean-Claude Roy (ÉDUCATION ANGLAISE) and director Pierre B. Reinhard (FRENCH LOLITA) were veterans of the French adult film genre and, however imperfect, REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS has its place in French fantastique by virtue of how little else the genre had to offer in the late eighties.

Although dubbed for export in a so-called "horror version" (77 minutes) that trimmed the erotic footage and left off the original ending, REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS was unreleased in the United States and hard to see in English apart from a Dutch VHS and a BBFC-cut Redemption Video UK tape of the erotic version until France's Neo Publishing put out an English-friendly DVD in 2005 of the longer erotic version – with the original ending as an extra – followed by Retromedia's PAL-converted US DVD. The film made its Blu-ray debut in Germany from Wicked-Vision Media (with English audio and subtitles) which included both erotic (82 minutes) and horror versions (the former fully uncut since the original ending was part of the negative), a German-language commentary, the score via still menu option, and the curtailed theatrical ending as an extra. France's Le Chat qui Fume followed up that package with a combo featuring an English-friendly transfer of the erotic version, interviews, and a CD soundtrack. Severin's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray – a standard edition of last year's Black Friday Blu-ray/CD soundtrack combo – features only the uncut erotic version, and the transfer looks quite good overall since this is a low-budget production made by professional filmmakers. French and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono options are offered, with the English track reverting to French with optional English subtitles during erotic scenes since those were never dubbed into English. Full English subtitles for the French track and SDH subtitles for the English track as well. The opening credits are in English while the closing epigraph is in French and translated with English subtitles.

Although the standard edition lacks the CD soundtrack, the disc does port three interviews. In "Revisiting the Revenge" (13:29) – shot for the Neo Publishing DVD – special effects artist Lestang recalls that he was introduced to Roy through Jean Rollin and recalls that more of the budget went to the effects than the actors. Screenwriter Roy recalls Lestang's mania for backup appliances that he thought unnecessary despite the discomfort of the actresses who would have to keep their masks on or cost the production another three hours to reapply them. Although most of his career was in softcore and hardcore pornography, Roy acknowledges that he is a horror buff and tackled the project because there were so few examples at the time (Rollin having been semi-retired after LIVING DEAD GIRL). The interview ends with an in memoriam note for both (Roy having died in 2018 and Lestang having committed suicide in 2008). In "The Revenge of Pierre B. Reinhard" (21:54), the director discusses his Beaux Arts training, getting involved in film and networking, working crowd control and other smaller set jobs before training as an editor under fellow adult filmmaker Gerard Kikoine (THE EDGE OF SANITY) before moving into directing. He notes that the low-budget workarounds of three to four day erotic film shoots trained him for the rigors of working with little money and a large crew on REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS. "Inside Studio Lestang" (15:25) is an interview with Lestang in his workshop shot sometime before his death in 2008 in which he recalls getting his start with Rollin, working on French gore films like BABY BLOOD and OGROFF, working uncredited under Sergio Stivaletti on THE CHURCH (he would do make-up effects on THE WAX MASK while Stivaletti focused on directing and digital visual effects), and noting that his mainstream work has been less gore than prosthetic appliances that are meant to be unnoticed from nose pieces to aging make-up. He shows some of his props from various films, pages from his workbooks, and notes that his DIY, trial-and-failure approach is not much different from that of cosmeticians developing new make-up formulas. The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (2:44). (Eric Cotenas)

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