{"id":28535,"date":"2025-11-30T20:12:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattshorroraddiction.com\/?p=28535"},"modified":"2025-11-30T20:12:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T20:12:26","slug":"dark-places-the-living-dead-girl-phase-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattshorroraddiction.com\/?p=28535","title":{"rendered":"Dark Places, The Living Dead Girl, Phase IV"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dark Places<\/strong> – 1974, UK, 91m. Director: Don Sharp.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Living Dead Girl <\/strong>– 1982, France, 90m. Director: Jean Rollin.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase IV<\/strong> – 1974, US, 84m. Director: Saul Bass. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

DARK PLACES<\/em><\/strong> (1974) <\/em>Dr. Edward Foster (Robert Hardy) inherits dusty old Marr’s Grove (along with a stash of hidden cash) from his deceased patient, unaware of the place’s nefarious history. Foster’s search for the money is bamboozled by a local man (Christopher Lee) and his sister (Joan Collins) who’ve been after the lost loot for years. In between searching for treasure and bedding Collins, Foster is consumed by the place’s dark past and slowly transforms into the mansion’s original owner, Andrew Marr, and sees in visions Marr murdering his children after discovering they had dispatched their lustful nanny. Foster goes on a killing spree before the police burst in and save the day. Good acting from a robust cast, but the film is often too sluggishly paced to be exciting. C<\/strong>+<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

THE LIVING DEAD GIRL<\/em><\/strong> (1982)<\/em> Leaking drums of toxic waste secreted in a crypt reanimate the body of a young woman (Fran\u00e7oise Blanchard). After she dispatches some grave robbers, Blanchard goes back to the family chateau, where she kills a couple having sex by stabbing them in the neck with her Nosferatu-like fingernails and feasting on their blood. Blanchard’s childhood friend (Marina Pierro) finds out about the slaughter but gives the living dead girl shelter and protection\u2014she even feeds Blanchard her blood and aids in the massacre of others. Whether Blanchard is your garden variety vampire, zombie, or something in between is never explained in the flimsy screenplay, which spends a good amount of time finding ways to keep Blanchard either naked, obtusely staring off into space, or both. Blanchard is ultimately overcome by bloodlust and rips Pierro to pieces in the gory climax. Well-made but not entirely interesting French splatter film. C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

PHASE IV<\/em><\/strong> (1974) <\/em>Some sort of event in space causes Earth’s ants to become super-intelligent. Two scientists (Nigel Davenport and Michael Murphy) are sent to Arizona to study a particularly aggressive species that have crossbred and forced a small desert community to flee. The ants mobilize and take out most of the land’s livestock before they figure out how to immunize themselves against the scientists’ chemicals and declare all-out war. Cinematically, this film seems to have been inspired more by the zen calmness of 2001: A<\/em> Space Odyssey<\/em> than the H.G. Wells short story “Empire of the Ants,” which was later officially adapted by Bert I. Gordon. At least Gordon’s version had a sense of enjoyment, unlike the bulk of this “serious” bit of intellectual claptrap, the ending of which will most likely leave viewers scratching their heads. The sole directing credit of Oscar-winning graphic title designer Saul Bass. C<\/strong>–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dark Places – 1974, UK, 91m. Director: Don Sharp. The Living Dead Girl – 1982, France, 90m. Director: Jean Rollin. Phase IV – 1974, US, 84m. Director: Saul Bass. DARK PLACES (1974) Dr. Edward Foster (Robert Hardy) inherits dusty old Marr’s Grove (along with a stash of hidden cash) from his deceased patient, unaware of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Dark Places, The Living Dead Girl, Phase IV”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capsule-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\nDark Places, The Living Dead Girl, Phase IV - Matt's Horror Addiction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mattshorroraddiction.com\/?p=28535\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dark Places, The Living Dead Girl, Phase IV - Matt's Horror Addiction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dark Places – 1974, UK, 91m. 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