The Iron Rose (1973) User Reviews

Surreal, disquieting and bloodless. Not what you'd expect from a late night horror film.

[Company_of_Wolves · 7/10 · 5 January 2006]

A surreal tale with an almost fairytale like quality to it. Rose of Iron seems very much like a cautionary tale of old as opposed to a straight forward horror film. The films drips with dark atmospheric, from the morbid poet who charms the female lead, to the foggy and creepy aesthetics of locations such as the train yard and the graveyard.

The plot navigates around a young man falling for a pretty girl, they meet at party where his poetry (need I remind you that not all poetry is rose are red) wins him the attention of an attractive girl. In keeping with the surreal they meet in a eerily quiet train yard and soon find their way to a graveyard. Our male lead lacks what you'd call respect for the dead and they're soon making love in a family crypt. When they're done night has fallen, they're locked in. Fear and madness begin to overtake them. But is there more to the graveyard than meets the eye? Perhaps, perhaps not. Rose of Iron is at the very least, a very enigmatic film.

A purely psychological horror, with few actual elements of the supernatural. It could be that they are simply lost in the graveyard, but at times they seem to be going straight but ending up where they began. It plays on conventions and stereotypes as our male lead becomes angry and violence prone. Since it is he who triggers the inciting incident, it is of course him that the obligatory scene at the climax must focus more one. But ultimately it's the female lead and her surreal serenity that leaves us with a climax you won't find in many gore encrusted horror films.

Bad Date Idea #1: The Cemetery

[Steve_Nyland · 7/10 · 8 December 2008]

I'm a delightfully reformed proto-Goth who used to take great solace on barren nights back in my college days by securing a healthy dose of alcohol, couple of smokes, a bag of Andy Capp cheddar fries and then off to the cemetery with my Tom Waits tape at about 2:30 AM. If you listened carefully you could hear me singing drunkenly about being in the cold, cold ground ... There was something quietly reassuring about being there, knowing that you weren't exactly alone and if you minded your P's and Q's the dead might actually enjoy the company, and a moonlight serenade.

Eventually I grew out of the phase but if there is one thing that I did know during that time it was to NEVER bring a date to the cemetery. I know for a fact that the world is populated by gormless Goth chicks who get into the whole death trip & have a macabre side to them that might make it conducive to try scoring with them amid the tombs (and will probably love this movie). But see, the cemetery was a place for peaceful solitary reflection, and at the time was relatively safe since nobody in their right minds would walk out into a cemetery at 2 in the morning to look for someone to mess with.

So right away in Jean Rollin's NIGHT IN THE CEMETERY (which is a much better title than ROSE OF IRON) the guy blows it when he picks a dalliance in a local overgrown run down French cemetery as the place to bring a young lady he meets at a wedding party. Not exactly the brightest bulb in the lighthouse mind you, but she's a fetching lass and he gets to score with her down in a crypt that just happens to be unlocked. Later, they realize it's gotten dark outside and they find themselves lost within a cemetery that actually looks like several bone yards that have been combined into one using clever cross cutting.

This is actually where the film gets interesting, because there literally is no end to the place. It's also wonderfully overgrown with rusted iron fencing, crumbling monuments and statues. But it's also about here that they start going a bit batty, the girl in particular. She starts to imagine herself as being at one with the dead and preferring their quiet, peaceful non- existence to the hustle & bustle of modern day life. Which is exactly the point of hanging out in the cemetery in the first place, though you'd think they would have brought plenty of extra booze and some Tom Waits.

Eventually she goes completely to pieces and decides that death is more favorable than life itself. The two find themselves back in the tomb which becomes suddenly airless and capped off by an old woman's vase of flowers. The whole movie is like a weird, perverse nightmare complete with a scene where the pair copulate on a pile of bones in an open mass grave. Others are right on the money when they comment that not much happens in the film and I for one actually wish that even less happened. There is a languid, poetic nature to the proceedings that are wonderfully lyrical in their juxtaposition of death & decay next to young fleshy breasts.

How come people can't make movies like this anymore? The one thing I kept thinking of was how you simply couldn't make a movie like this in 2008 no matter how you tried. There would need to be a subplot about gangsters or a love rival, maybe a car chase and a couple of big special effects sequences where the ghosts rise up to dance with the young lady as she frolics amidst the headstones. Jean Rollin is not my favorite of directors and this isn't quite my favorite of his films -- try FRISSONS LES VAMPIRES for some real fireworks -- but it's got something going on that's quite unique even amongst his catalog of work. He knew what he was after here and got it, pure and simple. There's something to be admired in that.

7/10

A Very Pure Movie

[LanceBrave · 7/10 · 7 November 2013]

Opening on the beach that must be familiar even to casual Jean Rollin fans, "The Iron Rose" might be the director's most acclaimed film. It's a very pure movie, with an even more simplistic story then you'd expect, not a single naked vampire in sight. Two lovers meet at a Halloween party. The next day they go for a train ride and end up in an old cemetery. While making love in a crypt, the gates are closed and the two are locked in.

At night, the cemetery becomes an otherworldly place. There is no escape. The boy searches helplessly for an exit while the girl quickly goes mad. She warms up to the idea of death, holding a skull up over her face, laughing. Earlier, the boy falls into an open grave, the camera spinning around him as he looks up as his girlfriend. The two characters represent conflicting ideologies. Early on, they discuss religion, the boy being a strict non-believer while the girl isn't sure. After the madness sets in, she accepts death as a natural thing. He fears it, rebels against it. Given the fixed location and small cast, the movie plays more like an allegory the longer it goes on.

"The Iron Rose" has gorgeous Gothic atmosphere. The cemetery is a fantastic setting, with its huge gravestones, looming crosses, dusty crypts, and cobweb strewn statues. The film is based off a poem, which explains the dreamy tone, but the graveyard had to have been the real inspiration. How could anyone resist making a horror film in this setting? The sparse music is composed of whispering voices. The only moment of unintentional camp comes when the girl opens her mouth to releases an odd, unconvincing scream.

It's a good thing the movie looks so good because the story is a drag. After night falls, the film breaks down into a clear pattern. Guy tries to escape, girl rambles on, guy's attempts are frustrated, repeat. Unusual for Rollin, the film is dialogue-heavy, many semi-poetic monologues about life and death being batted around. Both characters are slightly annoying, the girl coming off as manic and the guy coming off as kind of a jerk. Honestly, the best moments are the ones that have the least to do with the couple. A sad clown drags a handful of roses through the gravestones. An old woman leaves a flower pot on a crypt door. The girl frolics on a beach in the nude, pushing over iron crosses. I suspect this would have made a fine short, given its fantastic setting, images, and nicely poetic ending. As a feature, it quickly becomes repetitive. I maintain that Rollin's goofier, vampire-filled, nudity-and-imagery driven films are his best.

a mood piece

[Mathis_Vogel · 29 January 2006]

The beginning of the film - deserted town and railway station sequences are a delight. When the characters eventually enter the cemetery, 'The Iron Rose' gets somehwat tedious, with the heroes merely wondering amid the tombstones, uttering nonsensical lines from time to time. There's little for them to do there. The film was clearly made purely out of Rollin's love for cemetery ambiance,its decay and desolation: multiple shots of crosses and tombstones, strange characters who don't understand each other. Conversations they have lead nowhere and end abruptly. Rollin populates the cemetery with his favourite heroes: a vampire is seen entering the crypt, and a creepy clown bringing some flowers to one of the graves. The acting is rather questionable, also because the script doesn't provide the leads who actually seem to be quite capable actors, with any material to work with. Therefore their behaviour in the film seems really weird as they switch from nearly catatonic state to mad fury for no reason and then become mild and gentle again within seconds. Rollin never ever tells conventional stories with his films, instead he just films what he wants to see, and then puts it together in editing, as a result his subconscious is on display. There's no such thing as pace in his films, he doesn't try an give his films rhythm and structure via editing, he only uses it to put the scenes together (hence the frequent jarring cuts in most of his works). The director's aim is to put you in a particular mood, not to deliver some concrete message. Atmosphere is his ultimate aim, for Rollin admits his films are moving paintings. I was disappointed when I first watched the film, but I rewatch it often. Although lacking any dramatic tension, 'The Iron Rose' is a very beautiful and atmospheric film.

Graveyard the movie

[SkullScreamerReturns · 6/10 · 8 December 2021]

If you like gothic imagery about graves and old ruins, then you must see this film. Almost the whole movie takes place in an old cemetary. The plot is quite thin. Mostly the main characters just run and try to find a way out of the cemetary. So...this is a very usual thing to say about Jean Rollin films: not such great plot, but a lot of beautiful visual images. In my country there aren't such big and old cemetaries like seen on this film. Italy is such a gift to the world of horror, and I'm grateful for directors like Rollin to shoot movies in this kind of fantastic locations.

I was a little bit disappointed because I've seen more interesting films from the director before. The lack of plot and lack of actual horror/blood/monsters/something troubled me a bit. But since I bought the blu-ray I will definitely keep it in my collection and watch again later. Must have red wine, though. And perhaps a skull-shaped chalice.

A horror film about getting lost

[oraklon · 6/10 · 17 April 2009]

A very odd film from Jean Rollin, a horror film completely without traditional horror elements and threats - it's about getting lost! A young couple gets lost at a country churchyard one night and lots of panic, statues and typical Rollin-doomed romanticism follows. It's a sympathetic, sometimes beautiful films with an interesting idea that still could have been executed a lot better. Lack of pacing was to be expected but the bad actors are the biggest problem. Usually Rollin's use of non-professionals is greatly to his advantage - bored-looking non-actors delivering pretentious dialogue in a very stiff way is part of his aesthetic style, but here the actors actually tries to act and it doesn't really work. Still, a pretty good film with some memorable scenes (the lovemaking in the tomb with spinning cameras was great!). A film for friends of Rollin.

Like a horror film made by Buñuel...and a bit slow.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 13 November 2011]

"Rose of Iron" has an amazingly simple plot. How and why they stretched it out to a full-length film is beyond me but seems to be strongly inspired by Luis Buñuel's film "The Exterminating Angel". In "Angel" a bunch of guests to an upper-class dinner party inexplicably find themselves unable to leave--like a strange cosmic force is keeping them there for days. Here in "Rose of Iron", a young couple enters a cemetery for some sex (an odd place for this, I know) and when they are done they are unable to find their way out despite trying all night.

Here in "Rose of Iron" it just seems to go on a bit too long--like it would have been better left as a short segment in an anthology film or ending it sooner. And, in stretching it out, the characters begin to behave in sensational and silly ways--perhaps to fill the time. For example, the pair get very angry and nearly kill each other and he almost rapes her. Also, why is there a clown in this cemetery? And why do they start having sex like crazed weasels on top of many skeletons?! It has many absurdist elements that will no doubt challenge you--but the film also has some very slow moments. Apparently some really agree and some violently disagree as the reviews for this are very divergent. I am somewhat in the middle. I liked the overall film but sure felt it could have been tightened up AND would have been better without a lot of the absurdist stuff that seemed, well, a bit dopey. Still, the film is creepy and does work if you can look past the film's defects.

By the way, how is it that it is light inside the underground crypt when the man first enters it? Only a moment later does he return with a candle--yet it's exactly the same brightness level? Also, be forewarned, there is a lot of explicit nudity in the film.

Visually Overwhelming but Insufferably Boring Rollin-Nonsense

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 3/10 · 3 May 2010]

I cannot claim to be a connoisseur of the man's work so far, but personally I do not even nearly understand the enthusiasm that many of my fellow Eurohorror/cult fans seem to have about the films of Jean Rollin. Since this film is not one of his countless lesbian vampire flicks, but supposedly a Gothic chiller that many of Rollin's fans seem to regard as his masterpiece, I was looking forward to the film. Sadly, "La Rose De Fer" aka. "Rose of Iron" (1973) turned out one of the most nonsensical and insufferably boring European Horror productions (if one can even call it Horror). At least Rollin's lesbian vampire films were entertaining and made up for a lack of substance with gratuitous female nudity. "La Rose De Fer" is almost event-less. In one aspect, however, the film is phenomenal: The film is fantastically shot in a an old cemetery, which is arguably one of the most beautiful, eeriest and most fascinating Horror settings of all time. The film is visually overwhelming, thanks to this fantastic setting and a beautiful photography. Yet, a mesmerizing setting is no excuse for making a film in which NOTHING happens! The film begins when a creepy-looking guy and a pretty girl fall in love and make arrangements to go bike-riding the next day. They stop at an old cemetery, fail to find their way out and get locked in. As night falls, both of them begin to act strangely (or should I say: annoyingly)...

As said above, the film's setting is fantastic, eerie, and unspeakably beautiful, and I would certainly like to visit the depicted cemetery some day. This is arguably why so many people seem to love this film - it is visually flawless, the trees and the beautiful tombstones and grave statues create a wonderful, fairy-tale-like atmosphere. The stunning visual style may overwhelm, but I cannot imagine whose attention it is going to uphold for the length of a film. "La Rose De Fer" is only 77 minutes long, and yet it seems endless, since there are no real events, just a compilation of weird, but nonetheless boring nonsensical sequences. Everything the protagonists say is nonsense, everything they do is nonsense, and the fact that the nonsense takes place in a great setting only makes up for a tiny part of the boredom. There is no suspense, no blood and very little nudity to make up for the lack of a plot. The film is apparently based on a poem by Tristan Cobìere, which may be the reason that people call it 'poetic'. "La Rose De Fer" may be watched for the stunning visual style, but its lack of events makes it one of the most boring affairs I ever sat through. In fact, it took me three takes to watch the complete film since I fell asleep twice. I'm giving it a rating of 3 out of 10 ONLY for the fantastic visual style, otherwise the film is a disaster.

Beautiful,Sexy, Poetic Gothic Horror !

[NateManD · 8/10 · 5 May 2005]

First off, I was shocked at the low rating this film got. Probably because not many people have seen it. Jean Rollin is mostly known for his violent and sexual vampire movies. That's why I've never seen any of his films till now. Maybe I'll have to see more of his movies. La Rose De Fer (the Iron Rose) is one of the most sensual and beautiful horror films I've ever seen. The plot is simple yet effective. A beautiful french women meets a guy at a wedding. He asks her out. They decide to take a romantic walk in the cemetery. The couples bright yellow and red outfits add a contrast to the dark setting. They decide to make love in a tomb, and when they get out they discover they are trapped in the cemetery. They keep walking, but end up in the same spot. The cemetery almost becomes never ending and it seems there is no way out. This leads the couple to slowly loose their sanity. The girl almost enjoys the cemetery too much. Although the movie doesn't have much nudity, it has a very surreal and sexy feel to it. There really isn't any violence in the film either, but that doesn't stop it from being creepy. The dialog flows like poetry, and the Gothic atmosphere almost paints a picture. It's definitely a film thats visually rich with compositions as breathtaking as anything done by Antonioni or Greenaway. Fans of bizarre art-house films will definitely find it worth watching. Although the film moves slow at times, it's still flawless in it's vision. A perfect horror film to watch on a date.

A night in the cemetery

[Stevieboy666 · 6/10 · 3 September 2017]

A young horny couple go to what must be one of the largest cemeteries in France for a bit of hanky panky during the day but end up getting locked in after dark & struggle to find their way back out. Unusual for a Rollin film of this time there are no vampires to be found, instead this film centres around fear, sex obviously & a poem. It didn't make a whole lot of sense but then this is a Jean Rollin movie. It's well filmed, making great use of it's location & a dreamlike sequence featuring a nude Francoise Pascal is one of the highlights. Visually a good movie but unlikely to appeal to those unfamiliar with 1970's French cinema

Pfui.

[rmax304823 · 3/10 · 14 April 2012]

Two happy young lovers explore first an empty train then an empty cemetery in a cold and misty atmosphere. They find an underground crypt entered by ladder through two iron flaps. They strip and make love standing up. Already it's a horror movie. Who can make love standing up in an icy crypt? Only in a horror movie.

There's no point in going on about the plot because there is no discernible plot. It's as if the cast and crew were given a night to film in a shabby thanatopolis and made up stuff as they went along.

I gather -- okay, I'll take a stab at it -- I gather that the pretty young girl goes mad. For some reason, after a night full of meandering and arguing, they come across that same crypt. The boy, for some reason, goes down into it again and invites the girl to join him, where they'll be "safe." Instead, she clangs the trap doors close and locks him in. He shouts that he's suffocating, but she ignores him.

She wanders off with an enigmatic smile. She props one foot against a tombstone and uses it as a barre, then dancing off among the graves and administrative buildings, humming to herself while doing grotesque gavottes. This wordless, pointless scene lasts a full ten minutes.

When dawn peeps through the drab sky into the withered weeds and frozen marble of the grave yard, she returns to the crypt, opens it, climbs down to join her deceased lover, and slams the iron doors closed.

The general atmosphere is enough to make anyone climb into the crypt and suffocate, and the dialog -- if that's what it is -- amounts to writer-assisted suicide. "My darling, your fingers are burning. The rose is of iron. Why do we fear the living? They only decay." I tried to read some social or moral message into this rarefied baloney but failed completely. Since the movie is as amorphous as a Rorschach ink blot, anybody can read anything they want into it, I suppose. Maybe it's really very relevant and meaningful. Maybe it's all my fault. Honestly. Because every time I see one of those ink blots, no matter which one, it always looks like the face of Bette Midler.

This is a real find!

[mglory67 · 8/10 · 21 March 2001]

Rose of Iron, as it is known in English has been difficult to find and largely neglected up until this point. Not only has it been subtitled into English, but the video I own includes a brief introduction by the director, Jean Rollin. He claims the film was inspired by a real life incident.

Rollin refers to Rose of Iron as an art film. Why it has garnered the label of horror can only be because Rollin is largely a director of horror movies. This one isn't. Not really.

The plot concerns a young couple who decide to take a stroll through a quiet, seemingly unending cemetery. When night falls, the lovers realize that they cannot find the way out. As time progresses, fear gives way to madness.

There is much to recommend this film. It is beautifully shot, the cinematography almost having a surreal, dreamlike quality. The performances are quite good also for relative unknowns. If you have the patience, give this one a try. That is, if you can find it...

A haunting "rose"

[Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki · 7/10 · 9 August 2013]

Film begins at same seaside locations as Rollin's own The Rape of the Vampire, giving a familiar, yet alien, look to the landscape, as a guy and girl meet, followed by eerie images of the girl in bright yellow walking in fog-enshrouded fields, and next to a huge freight train, enveloped in a thick cloud of fog.

The film takes its time setting up the premise, as the bored guy and girl walk aimlessly through beaches and train yards, and ultimately, a cemetery. A beautiful Gothic cemetery, peopled by a surreal clown, and caretakers cloaked in what appear to be burlap sacks.

Unlike Rollin's earlier black-and-white The Rape of The Vampire, which used its black-and-white photography to build atmosphere, this could not have worked in black-and-white: good colour composition of the girl in bright yellow and the guy in bright red turtleneck, to set them apart from the grey surroundings of the cemetery, and surreal images of clown walking around and laying flowers on graveside needed colour photography for the characters to stand out from surroundings.

After nightfall, when they are finished banging, they try to leave the cemetery. No easy task, with this guy. They stumble onto open graves, coffins littered with human bones, as they try to find their way out. But are they really lost? Or is the guy just f 'ing with her? And does he, too, become as scared as she is, which only makes her even more scared? Or is she, herself, behind everything?

Bear with it through its slow start, it doesn't really get going until about 25 minutes into it, and even then, there really isn't anywhere for it to go. It's a good movie, in a bewildering, Jean Rollin type of way, but I think it would have benefited from a shorter run time.

A boring waste of time. Nothing happens.

[changedname · 2/10 · 13 May 2009]

I'd normally consider myself a fan of Jean Rollin, The Shiver Of The Vampire ranks up there as one of my all-time favourite horror movies, and I have very fond memories of other Rollin movies as well. I was shocked by the low-quality of this. It sounds like something that might have been a good idea, but it ended up rubbish.

The girl playing the lead role is quite sexy and seems as though she could be a good actress if she wasn't given such a ridiculous part. The male on the other hand can't act at all. Those are basically the only two people in the entire film. Some of the imagery is fairly good, along with the music. If they had those good bits and hacked together the rest of the film sanely, THEN I might have given it a 3/4. But as it stands, some of the film is excruciating and again... NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS! It's not that I don't appreciate it, it's boring! Okay I'll admit that sometimes sitting down to watch a Jess Franco or Italian horror, I'm a bit concerned I'll be completely bored by it. With just over an hour and a quarter and directed by Jean Rollin I never dreamt it would be this bad. I doubt he ever made a worse film, for me this is right up there with Zombie Lake.

The film involves the couple walking through a cemetery while lost, getting scared, increasingly fighting and the girl increasing losing her head. I honestly don't know how anyone can give this movie even a decent rating or how any other Jean Rollin movie could be worse than this. Yeah there's a case for difference of opinion but what's so great about a girl dancing ridiculously through a graveyard for what seems like an eternity? Look at Requiem For A Vampire, that had longer and far more beautiful takes and it never got boring.

The good pieces in this movie were few and far between, it was a truly dreadful hour and a quarter. The music could be good at times... the scenery was quite good at times... and those are the only decent things I can say about this movie. Stay well away!

Iron Rose

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Iron Rose, The (1973)

*** (out of 4)

A man (Hugues Quester) and woman (Francoise Pascal) meet at a wedding reception and sneak off to talk where they agree to meet the next day for a bike ride. The two ride past a cemetery and decide to enter so that they can have sex in an underground tomb but when they come up it is now dark and they soon find themselves lost and unable to get out. This is considered by many to be the best film Rollin ever made and I might not disagree. The film has received a big cult following over the years and the strange thing is that it has been sold as a horror film but there's no horror anywhere in the film. This is certainly an art house film and a departure for Rollin as there are no vampires, zombies, lesbians, gore and even the sex is tame and there's only one sequence of nudity. The film runs 75-minutes and not too much happens in that time. The two just walk around trying to find their way out while their minds start to be filled with paranoia. The film is very slow paced like every other Rollin film but this works in the films favor. The cinematography is terrific and they used a real cemetery to shoot in, which adds great atmosphere. I think the final eight minutes could have been edited down but this is certainly a surreal little gem.

Strange and Morbid Romance

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 8 March 2023]

In a wedding party, a young couple meet each other and the man (Pierre Dupont) invites Karine (Françoise Pascal) to a date in the old train station to ride bicycle. When they decide to stop, they are near to a large cemetery and the man invites her to walk in the peaceful place with him. Then he invites her to go to an underground crypt to have sex, and they spend too much time inside. When they leave the crypt, it is night and the place is in the darkness. They try to find the exit of the cemetery and get lost inside. Along the night, their fear become madness with tragic consequences.

"La rose de fer", a.k.a. "The Crystal Rose", is an unknown low-budget movie by Jean Rollin with a strange and morbid romance. The love story is short, but it is atmospheric with wonderful cinematography. The young man does not have a name, but the woman is called Karine in the end of the film. This DVD was released last year in Brazil and is worthwhile watching. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Cruz de Ferro" ("The Iron Cross")

Odd, and you want to see it again.

[rogerjdkemp · 7/10 · 21 March 2013]

Girl meet boy. He asks her out. His choice of places is somewhat unusual. First they visit what appears to be a graveyard for old steam trains (a joy for the train spotters I should think), then off to the local cemetery, because it is quiet.

The girl is somewhat scared when he wants to enter a tomb, and he seems to enjoy this. Then she agrees to join him in the tomb, and they make love.

And we are treated to a fully-dressed clown wandering around the cemetery, like they do not. What on earth is that supposed to be about? I think it was Chekov who said that when you have something in a short story, then it must have to be there. So if you have a gun, it has to go off. And when you have a clown, the clown has to do something, be a pivot for something. This appeared to be pointlessly weird.

Essentially this is an over-long short story. There is something in it, but the central point is not wholly clear. If I were to have a stab at it, I would say the boy was trying to frighten the girl , then she becomes more fascinated by the whole experience than he is, then he becomes terrified. Has he driven her mad? Was she mad already? To that extend it was similar to Hamlet, but only to that extent.

Not a lot happens for much of the film. Early on , I guessed where it was going, save for the very last part. Quite what it was about is that clear, but strangely that is a good reason to watch it again. It is not rubbish, and certainly very odd.

Slightly disappointing but wholly worthwhile effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 30 January 2014]

After getting stranded in a strange cemetery, a woman and her boyfriend find themselves in a nightmarish world of illusions and deranged fantasies and must try to survive in order to escape.

This is a somewhat disappointing effort, mostly due to the fact that there's just something missing from this one that really hurts it overall. The main thing here is Gothic atmosphere, and it's the old-school kind where it takes place in a cemetery so there's a lot to do with the gravestones and monuments all over the place, as well as the huge amounts of fog rolling in all over the place make for some incredibly chilling ideas and images. There's also a lot of pretty fun sequences running through the whole landscape, but the main problem here is the very over-done and incredibly irritating manner of yakking on about everything with a very philosophical manner, almost like it's an art film instead of a sleazy horror film which continues throughout the whole film and gets old very fast, and combines with the slow, dragged-out pace to lower it but otherwise this isn't that bad of a film.

Rated Unrated/R: Adult Language, Full Nudity and Mild Violence.

Jean Rollin is a weirdo!

[Coventry · 2/10 · 27 October 2005]

There you have it…another disillusion on my account! I had really high hopes that "The Rose of Iron" would be Jean Rollin's absolute BEST film and finally something different than those stupid lesbian-vampire films he always makes. For some inexplicable reason, his movies like "Lips of Blood" or "Requiem for a Vampire" are hugely popular among avid cult-fans, but – believe me – there're absolutely no quality elements to find in them. "The Rose of Iron" seemed different… The plot outline is very promising and the fact that it's so rarely known simply makes it more appealing. But only a couple of minutes into the film and you're already confronted to another load of nonsense and a giant amount of "what-the-hell"-moments. The universe in which Rollin's movies are set is just totally messed up! Dig this: a beautiful girl falls head over heels in love with a bizarre guy after he reads a morbid poem to her during some party where none of the guests seem to know each other. The next day, the young couple agrees to bike riding near an abandoned and ominous looking train-station… Okay, maybe a bit eccentric, but still acceptable. Then, they think it's a good idea to go to the local cemetery and make love inside a family-tomb!?! Perhaps I don't know anything about romance or poetry but this is just downright wrong! Anyway, night falls, they get locked in the cemetery and, shortly after, they both start to behave very strangely…especially the girl. One thing I can't deny is that the setting looks staggering. The graveyard where 90% of the movie takes place is probably the most macabre filming location in horror-history ever. The neglected ancient graves and overgrown nature look very eerie and disturbing and it's all very atmospherically photographed. Unfortunately, it's NOTHING but an empty package. The script is incredibly tedious with awful dialogues and absolutely no tension. The nudity and sleaze in Rollin's previous movies was exploitative and extremely pointless, but at least there was something to distract you! "The Rose of Iron" is tame, very un-sexy and utterly disappointing. As hilarious as it may seem, to me Rollin's most endurable movie is the laughable "Zombie Lake".

Among the Dead

[matheusmarchetti · 10/10 · 24 November 2010]

More than a few European horror directors in the 70's went on to do hardcore pornography, and Jean Rollin in no exception. What differs him from the likes of Joe D'Amato, however, is that Rollin was a real, though neglected craftsman, and possibly one of France's finest auteurs. He injects each and every one of his horror films (save for "Zombie Lake", which is as much a Jess Franco film as Tobe Hooper's "Poltergeist" is a Steven Spielberg film) with such relentless atmosphere of death prowling every inch of the frame, and "The Rose of Iron" is where he excels. One of the finest poets of all things morbid and decadent - think the cinematic equivalent of Edgar Allan Poe, Rollin creates a minimalist, lyrical, unusual and disorienting beautiful ode to Death, that save for very few exceptions, has never been bettered elsewhere in the genre. The fairly simplistic, but multi-layered plot follows a young couple getting trapped in a cemetery after-hours, unable to find the way out as the girl slowly succumbs to madness. "The Rose of Iron" is a difficult film and thus not for everyone, as even Rollin fans might find themselves disappointed, as there is none of his trademark vampire girl-on-girl action nor is there the slightest bit of gore and camp. Nudity is minimal, and so is the cast, composed of only two actors for nearly it's entirety, with only one setting. Nevertheless, what one can simply describe as boring and uninteresting, I find be a cerebral, hypnotic tour-de-force, that keeps you glued to the screen from beginning to end, if you're willing to be bewitched by it's atypical quality. Although most Euro-horrors of it's time were criticized for poor acting, "Rose..." proves otherwise by having brilliant performances from Françoise Pascal and Hugues Quester as the young couple. They are one of the few Rollin performers who actually manage to enjoy a more successful career in French cinema, and rightfully so. They manage to carry the film brilliantly, even with the limited and often surrealistic dialogue. Quester evokes a genuine sense of paranoia as the film progresses, and Pascal's spiral descent into insanity is equally raw and visceral, in spite of the film's otherworldly nature. Pascal's acceptance and consequent embracing of the world of the dead very much represents Jean Rollin's own utopia - a twilight world that transcends time and space, where both the living and the deceased live among one another, to the point they become one. Rollin's passion for crumbling, ancient grounds also mirrors this ideal dreamland, and he makes the best out of this often-used setting, bringing it to life through some delirious camera-work that would make Argento envious, and an equally foreboding, experimental musical score by Pierre Raph. Overall, if you dare give yourself up to the unique, morbidly beautiful dream-world of France's most underrated filmmaker, "The Rose of Iron" is the film for you.

Far too knowingly naval gazing

[stevelomas-69401 · 5/10 · 23 December 2018]

A thick slice of 1970's French surrealism surved up by cheap acting, ponderous ill fitting sound design and pointless stock in trade 'surreal' tropes.

A poetic horror flick from Jean Rollin.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 9/10 · 1 July 2007]

"The Rose of Iron" is easily one of the most hauntingly beautiful horror flicks made by French maestro Jean Rollin.The film tells the story of a young couple,who venture into a very old and very large cemetery,eventually getting lost within it's walls.Throughout this time,a mind game between the two arises and begins to battle.Eventually Francoise Pascal's character adopts to her surroundings."The Rose of Iron" is a wonderfully Gothic mood piece,which is primarily set in a cemetery.The film is loaded with hauntingly dark atmosphere of utter hopelessness and there are some surreal situations for example lonely clown walking through the cemetery corridors.Give this lovingly poetic horror flick a look.9 out of 10.

Overall Failure In Every Way

[kantazius · 2/10 · 8 June 2005]

Sorry to all those who think this is a successful, well directed art film. Really. Lets get to the real facts, its badly acted, badly directed, badly edited... I could go on. True, it is a hard to find film, an art film, but those are just excuses for its incredible lack of anything good at all. The script is appalling, the camera wobbles a lot. Its not like this film is difficult to avoid, so just avoid it. Its disgustingly, pathetically, offensively bad. In all honesty. The director is highly regarded, but this film was a mistake to make in absolutely every way. Its so bad it is funny. In fact, try to watch this film, but only if you want a serious laugh, because that is all this film is good for. It could only possibly be good if you were obsessed with art films, and understood French, and could find a deeper, more soulful meaning with which to explain the camera wobbling and really bad editing that probably occurred because every crew member had the hots for the leading lady. I know I did. Enough said.

A slow moving film still worth seeing

[Mikel3 · 15 November 2011]

Just watched an unusual French film with English sub titles. It's called 'Rose of Iron' (aka 'The Iron Rose', 'The Crystal Rose' and 'The Night of the Cemetery') from 1973. I had recorded it late at night from TCM.

It's categorized as a "horror" film by the IMDb. The story involves a young couple who meet at a wedding noticing each other across the room. The woman is intrigued by a few lines from a morbid poem that the man recites aloud to the group and seemingly to her. A strange poem to read at a happy event, still they seemed to enjoy it..Evidently the poem is a work in progress. The couple meet and talk after the wedding and decide to go on a date bike riding. Later, on the date the man suggests they go into the large ancient looking cemetery to picnic and explore. We see a solemn clown walking to pay his respects at a grave in full costume. Evidently this has some meaning that so far eludes me. Soon they find two steel doors facing down into the ground going into a sort of crypt. The doors remind me of those outside homes leading into some old cellars. The man induces the women to go down with him and look around. She reluctantly agrees. Soon they decide this damp dark underground crypt is a good place to light a candle and make love. They like the privacy it offers. This is perhaps the strangest place I've ever heard of for romance, except for a scene that comes later. It's almost the opposite of the mile high club. Here they are on their first date and they're making love underground in a cemetery. When they finally come up for air so to speak. They find it's getting late, almost dark. They try to find the path out, but they're utterly lost. It seems they're surrounded by endless old graves, tombs and statues. No matter how far they walk in any direction they seem to end up where they started. When they realize they can't find a way out we learn that the woman is either insane or has very quickly gone insane from their situation. It all becomes very surreal. She starts to create her own ending for the work in progress poem her new lover had recited earlier at the wedding. She says the words aloud taking up where he had left off. I won't say any more about the film so as not to ruin anything for those planning to see it.

This might have been a better film if it was about 30 minutes shorter. The concept itself of a couple who just met getting lost in a cemetery has potential. They know little about one another. The cemetery is a strange place to learn about a person. There's a chilling end to the film. It almost makes up for the endlessly dragged out scenes that come before. It's obvious that the director is obsessed with his lead actress.Françoise Pascal. We see long scenes of her ballet dancing among the graves or slowly approaching as she walks towards us from the misty distance. Scenes that could have been one fifth the length they were. One scene that took place in her mind has her dancing about nude on the beach. Obviously the director felt the need to find a way to fit a long sequence of her naked into his film. BTW, I did not know TCM showed total nudity. I guess their films really are uncut.

One person at the IMDb commented that we Americans complain about films like this because we have low attention spans and need nonstop action. We don't appreciate slower paced stories like Europeans do. He may have a point to some extent. But I'm a man who loves foreign films and is familiar with them. I say this one really is too long for its own good. Still, see it if you are able to fast forward frequently. The end really is chilling.

Bloomin' awful.

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 3 June 2021]

La rose de fer opens on that same beach I've seen in several other Jean Rollin films. A woman picks up an iron rose from the surf, caresses it, and then throws it back in the sea. What the scene represents is anyone's guess: this film is Rollin at his most twaddlesome.

At a wedding reception, a man (Hugues Quester) chats up a woman (Françoise Pascal) who is, to put it mildly, way out of his league; unbelievably, she agrees to go cycling with him the next day. Undeterred by the fact that he is dressed like one of The Wiggles, the woman falls for the guy (at a foggy rail yard of all places), and isn't even put off when he suggests they go for a picnic in a cemetery. Unable to control their urges, the couple climb into an old crypt for a spot of nookie; when they emerge, it is dark and they are unable to find their way out of the cemetery.

The rest of the film is like a really dull cross between Scorsese's After Hours and Lamberto Bava's Graveyard Disturbance, the couple wandering around the cemetery aimlessly. They argue, the man runs away and falls down a hole full of bones, the woman joins him in the hole for a steamy make-out session, and then she starts to go insane. The pair explore the cemetery some more, the woman spouting nonsense about the dead being her friends; as the characters become more lost and confused, so will you. The film ends with the woman locking the man in the crypt where he suffocates, joining him in death after a dance between the gravestones.

While the film's gloomy setting is undeniably atmospheric, it's a shame that Rollin does nothing but capture its ambience: ironically, for a film about a graveyard, it's completely plotless. If an hour or so of funereal imagery is what you're after, I reckon you would be far better off visiting a local cemetery and seeing the real thing.

2/10. Gorgeous Pascal getting naked prevents me from giving this the lowest possible rating.