LA MORTE VIVANTE (1982; w/d Jean Rollin)

1st shot of factory thru barbed-wire tangle (civilization become knotted + inhibitive), toxic waste from which revives title Living Dead Girl Catherine, avenger of nature (from crypt/earth – whose quake [as tho angered over violation] sets action in motion; also, subconscious, revolting against consciousness on sleep-descent: begins in daylight, ends at night), workmen dumping drums in vault (end result of progress death [w/d JR in his sixties]) also graverobbers (further earth-rape [desirous look on seeing Cath-corpse]).

2 women’s coffins opened, only 1 revives: later girlfriend Hélène (who made childhood blood-pact [in rafters: Olympic mind, flashback In-the-Beginning godlike origin + center of wmn’s "tale," or personal mythology] to follow Cath to grave [indivisibility of body + soul] while pubescent: how adulthood sunders personality, film meditation on innocence lost to world [C’s bloodied hand caressing kids’ portrait, their blood spilling in alabaster bowl 1st menstruation]) spirit of other corpse unable to admit death/corruption – civilization (Hel’s modish apartment vs C’s antique mansion) continuing past usefulness, C’s body seemingly powered by grief.

Hélène just back from trip (own death + period of dreamless rest before self reconstituted as metaphorical not-self in mythic/archaic dream-arena), her return to Cath-house prompted by mute C’s music-box message (pre-verbal tie back to presexual girlhood) over phone (link to unconscious); at 1st covers up vampiric manslaughter (denying maturity, C vestigial savage in civilized man), later outdoes her in cruelty (toxicity of progress).

Cath pokes 1st guy’s eyes out (for objectifying her/desiring death), 2nd dies not by her hand but by own spill (she also deadly "waste" – repressed asset come back violently – as earth/wmn), most others’ throats gouged, wordless (+ protracted) screams horrified expressions she incapable of (Hélène berates her for indifference, à la Carnival of Souls’ Mary Henry, she similarly caught in Vampyric [echo also of Eyes w/o a Face + Larraz’s Vampyres] ½-world); finally speaks (repressed [fem] conscience of the world + Hel’s own pact-reneging guilt verbalizing selves) after H procures motorist victim, 1st word "Hélène" (own i.d. wrapped up in/associated w/ C’s self-expression).

In field outside (Eden, again), 35-ish American "Professor" Greg Simon (ego/intellect, aloof [at bay in dreams] + sarcastic but ultimately supportive; aka Rollin’s Yank producer Sam $elsky [sic]) + French wife Barbara (on his insistence learning photography [she aka Rollin]: documenting psychic disruption [originally actress: subjectively acting out drama instead of objectively commenting on it]) see Catherine on way to house (in img-echo of The Innocents, C ironically in Miss Jessel role), prompting search for her i.d. among rustic villagers (primitive unconscious): dead 2 yrs, she Barb’s prematurely lost/buried artistic/self-expressive aspect (as of sublimated motherhood, C her unborn child) revived same time she takes up camera; finds her in rafters à la earlier Cath/Hel bonding scene (C in fact calling her "Hélène," Barb showing her picture C’s self-discovery: alive), complaining of blood all around her (recognizing corruption, griefstricken "Je suis une morte/I’m a dead girl!" in turn vivacious Barb’s self-revelation: dead).

Wants to take Cath to town (consciousness [at day; unconscious at night] to prove she’s alive (to reveal something about town to self: French collaborationist past, she Hélène’s [survivor] guilt), escapes in fight w/ H over camera (wants to keep C-cret; in denial despite her frequent "Je mal/I'm evil"s) + C returns to vault where she "belongs" (à la Bride of Frankenstein, extremely gory film also meditation on how horror films have gone from Innocents to corruption, freq conjunction of blood + nudity both sexualization + defilement of Eden), berating H for bringing her back to life, former’s denial/repression "calling" C back to correct it.

While town parties (consciousness at fiesta, w/ dancing + much libidinity [overseen by pro $elsky?]), Barb’s new photos (emerging i.d.) won’t develop, Greg telling her "You can’t bring back the dead" (further paralleling/cfg Hélène, who did; film itself raising dead/buried issues for filmmaker/town/country); at same time, H’s sleek minivan curves around corner like daimon ex machina (+ Eyes w/o Face's Mercedes: civilization come to rustic town [corruption invading pure soul]) tracking next victim, Greg agreeing to accompany Barb back to mansion (parallel drives twd discovery/rehabilitation + occultism/enabling).

Barb hears screams while Greg checks out van (intuition of innocence/femininity in danger while man distracted by progress/machine) + goes to her death (Hélène now more "mal" than Cath was), jumping off bridge in flames (unsuccessful crossover, in Rollin’s most carefully constructed + nicely shot feature) while Hel axes Greg + Cath frees hostage girl ("Tell the village what you’ve seen": bring unconscious material to conscious mind in order to analyze) then flees to boat but drowns self instead (indifference to crossover, desire to rather immerse self in creative/unconscious stream).

Rescued against will by Hélène w/ memories of "2 girls + their music box" (dbl entendre for implicit lesbian couple, implication itself suggestion lesbianism metaphorical, of lost original unity/psychic cohesion), replaced by 2 wmn + their screams (progress from childhood to adult) when Cath attacks + kills her, film going from silent shot of man's toxic daylight construction to wmn’s loud irrational grief, last words "Hélène, je suis ta mort/I am your death" before ripping her to shreds how fallout from civilization will be its own reckoning.