Two exciting young lovers out for a walk decide to add more stimulation to their flamboyant lives by taking a stroll through the local cemetery of their French village where they are hoping to find a lonely area for some passionate alone time.
While exploring the eerily scintillating side of life underground near a tomb, they lose track of time and as they wander around the cemetery they realize that they cannot find their way out. They end up being locked inside the graveyard; and as the night creeps over them, their senses become infected by the morbid atmosphere. Their fears become manipulated by the cemetery and soon their love turns into suspicion, and then into a game of survival.
The Iron Rose (La Rose de fer) is not outright a horror movie. It is gothic artwork expressed through film. A horror movie purist is likely to discard this movie after the first forty-five minutes or so because, while the tension is keenly expressed and detailed, the fact that the movie is made mostly of two cast members will leave body count enthusiasts disappointed.
The artwork, however, is captured excellently on camera through director Jean Rollin’s eyes. Rollin is known more for the sleazier horror offerings such as The Nude Vampire, The Living Dead Girl, and fifty other films with The Iron Rose being regarded as one of his most serious efforts. The train scene in the beginning is a beautiful, engaging piece of cinematography that would equal the finest paintings of the modern era and he uses all separate quarters of the cemetery to their fullest with a dancing routine around staked crucifixes and a countless row of plain tombstones signifying a hopeless situation.
Francoise Pascal and Pierre Dupont (aka Hugues Quester) play the paranoid couple. Their acting isn’t much to root about. They even provide some unprovoked laughter at times as they struggle with set pieces as well as each other. Francoise Pascal’s beauty is in full effect throughout the movie, particularly during her stylishly nude monologue on the beach. Her beauty is truly mesmerizing.
The Iron Rose is not a typical horror film. If you and your significant other are both movie buffs, this might actually make for a good date film if you can handle subtitles as the entire movie is in French. It is not a film meant to scare but rather meant to be explored. The limited cast does cause the movie to slow down sometimes too much, but for art lovers the enchanting scenery is worth absorbing.
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