New On Blu: A Virgin Among The Living Dead

New this week from Redemption is A Virgin Among The Living Dead: Remastered Edition, directed by Jess Franco and starring Christina von Blanc, Britt Nickols and Rosa Palomar.

"Redemption celebrates the life and career of Jess Franco (1930- 2013) with a deluxe edition of his mystifying erotic thriller: A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (Une vierge chez les morts vivant ). Christina von Blanc stars as a woman who journeys to her ancestral home and finds herself surrounded by the restless spirits of her eccentric family, who may or may not be alive.

This disc includes two complete versions of the film: Franco's original cut (CHRISTINA, PRINCESS OF EROTICISM) and the re-release version (A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD), which was expanded to incorporate zombie scenes directed by French horror auteur Jean Rollin (The Living Dead Girl). Also included is the softcore footage shot to create a third version of the film."

Special features

• Jess Franco's original cut: Christina, Princess of Eroticism (79 min.), mastered in HD from the original 35mm negative

• Audio commentary by Tim Lucas, critic and co-editor of Video Watchdog

• The complete alternate cut: A Virgin Among the Living Dead (90 min.), featuring zombie footage directed by Jean Rollin

• English dubbed

• Alternate erotic footage (5 min.) featuring Alice Arno

• "Mysterious Dreams", a 16-minute interview with Jess Franco, directed by David Gregory, produced by Elijah Drenner

• "The Three Faces of Christina", a 12-minute documentary by Daniel Gouyette on the various versions of the film

• "Jess! What Are You Doing Now?" an 8-minute homage to Jess Franco by Daniel Gouyette, featuring interviews with Franco's friends and collaborators

• Photo gallery

• Theatrical trailers

A Virgin Among The Living Dead: Remastered Edition is available now on Blu-ray and DVD.

New On Blu: Oasis of the Zombies (Remastered)

New this week from Redemption in a remastered edition is Oasis of the Zombies (aka The Treasure of the Living Dead aka La tumba de los muertos vivientes), written and directed by Jess Franco, and starring Manuel Gelin, France Lomay and Jeff Montgomery.

"Once established as a master of the Euro-erotic horror film, Jess Franco continued to explore more traditional modes of filmmaking, setting familiar genres on their ears with his singular brand of reckless creativity. Made during the living dead craze of the early 1980s, Oasis Of the Zombies is one of only a handful of motion pictures to explore a most peculiar subgenre of the movement: the Nazi zombie film.

In telling the story of a cache of German gold - lost in the desert, sought by a group of teenagers, protected by the walking dead - Franco demonstrated his characteristic lack of restraint, shamelessly inserting stock footage from a bigger-budget war picture, allowing his camera to dwell on the worm-eaten orifices of the shriveled undead and, of course, lacing the action with his trademark style of lyrical eroticism. The resulting film is a decadent exercise in grindhouse filmmaking that is more audacious than frightening, illuminating one of the more peculiar facets of Jess Franco's uniquely warped cinema."

Oasis of the Zombies: Remastered Edition is available on Blu-ray and DVD.

New On Blu: Zombie Lake (Remastered)

New this week from Redemption in a remastered edition is Zombie Lake (aka Le lac des morts vivants), directed by Jean Rollin, written by Jess Franco, and starring Howard Vernon, Pierre-Marie Escourrou and Anouchka.

"One of the most bizarre films in the living dead craze of the early 1980s, Zombie Lake feasts without restraint upon the carcasses of a variety of cinematic genres: the WWII picture, the sexploitation film, gore horror, and even the romantic melodrama. Conceived by one master of erotic horror (Jess Franco) and pseudonymously directed by another (Jean Rollin), Zombie Lake weaves the tale of a contemporary French village haunted by water-logged Nazis slain by the Resistance. With little regard for narrative subtlety, the film veers from a shamelessly exploitive (as when a women's volleyball team skinny-dips in zombie-infested waters) to the tearfully sentimental (depicting a young orphan girl's psychic connection to one of the walking dead). Beneath its garish surface, however, Zombie Lake embraces several themes that run throughout Rollin's body of work, showing that this eclectic artist could not help, investing even a playful film such as this with his personal sensibilities."

Zombie Lake: Remastered Edition is available on Blu-ray and DVD.