The Blood Rose (1970) Movie Review
Written by: ML
Edited by: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Claude Mulot
Producers: Edgar Oppenheimer
Writers: Claude Mulot, Jean Larriaga, Edgar Oppenheimer
Date Released: September 25, 1970
Cast:
Philippe Lemaire as Frederick Lansac
Anny Duperey as Anne
Olivia Robin as Barbara
Elizabeth Teissier as Moira
Michèle Perello as Agnes
Valérie Boisgel as Catherine
Gérard-Antoine Huart as Wilfried
Roberto as Igor
Johnny Cacao as Olaf
Howard Vernon as Professor Romer
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
The story is about Frederick Lansac, an artist and botanist, who had a beautiful wife named Anne. They lived a perfect life until a jealous woman showed up at their party and accidentally pushed Anne to the bonfire. Because of the embarrassment, they pretended the wife was dead. But Anne became mentally unstable, always angry with normal women, and wanted to get back her beauty. After discovering that his colleague is a sought-after plastic surgeon who works with criminals, they planned to transform Anne’s face back to normal. They just needed a live woman whose face they must tear off and transfer to Anne. With all the failed attempts, it is up to Frederick to decide if they should still push through with the plan.
Gore Factor
There were several deaths in this movie but none of them showed a lot of blood. The closest thing to gore was the close-up of the wife’s burned and disfigured face. It looked monstrous with blood and pus all over the melted skin. The horror of it all was the urge to steal other people’s faces to replace hers.
The Grave Review
Contrary to the tagline of this movie, there were no clear depiction of sex-horror in this movie. There were a lot of naked women, and the horror part was the scary idea of having to transfer someone else’s face to another.
The mix of characters was good. There was a romantic painter, beautiful but mentally unstable wife, a criminal surgeon, and the two cavemen dwarf servants. Not to mention the always naked women who flaunt their sexiness all throughout the film.
The movie did great on including the wife’s first-person point of view in the camera work. It added to the depth of the story on why she became that way.
The only problem in this movie was the addition of too many long scenes that made the film dragging. This includes the burial scene when Agnes died, the scene where Frederick followed Romer, Anne’s dream and nightmare sequence, botanical garden chase sequence, the scene where the servants were attacking the woman, and the car chase in the forest.
The idea of a final girl surviving the ordeal was unpredictable at first because of the presence of a surgeon who can perform the face transplant. But the twist and turning point of the story where the professor suddenly committed suicide to escape the chaos secured the woman’s role as the final girl.
This turning point was also the cause of how the rest of the characters went downhill towards the end. It was a crazy ending.
Overall, this movie is recommended for those who are into classic sexy horror.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives The Blood Rose (1970) two graves out of five graves.
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