A Study in Terror

Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from "The Book of the Dead." As they play the recording an evil power is unleashed taking over Linda's body.

Therese, a beautiful but naive young girl, who finds herself being passed around from depraved pervert to depraved pervert, enduring just about every kind of sexual degradation there is while still believing that some kind stranger will eventually help her.

Despite being drastically cut, this exceptionally rare tape still commands sky-high prices in excess of £500, typically from die-hard collectors, keen to acquire everything from the Go catalogue. That said though, this guide price estimate could be very much out of synch as it has been so long since one publicly changed hands, the reality could double in an open auction.

This kinky, but faithful screen adaptation of the infamous de Sade novel was directed by the late Claude Pierson, a French filmmaker who started making a number of film shorts before shooting the 1964 Black & White television series “Bayard” with French star René Roussel.

Pierson’s film was a lot more polished than most of its kind, as adapted jointly for the screen by Huguette Boisvert and Pierson himself. The filmmaker went on to direct no less than 40 features, all of which were of an adult theme. The Violation of Justine (original title “Justine de Sade“) was the only such film to feature French actress Alice Arno, who was later inexplicably given star billing in Jess Franco’s unfinished “Justine de Sade” which was hijacked and completed by Italian filmmaker Joe D’Amato. This obscure 1975 reworking of the de Sade novel, drastically re-edited by D’Amato, transformed Franco’s unfinished work by inserting hardcore footage throughout is 104 running time. Alice Arno was nowhere to be seen, yet cheekily D’Amato added her name to the credits, leading to confusion between D’Amato’s sexploitation edit and Claude Pierson’s earlier film, both of which are completely unrelated.

When Go Video released this film, they used a heavily cut cinema print, which was missing around 25m of footage! The Violation of Justine was also promoted in an early 1982 issue of Continental Film & Video Review, as offered by London based wholesaler, Garpalm Video - who offered a mail order "Full Unabridged Version" for the now bargain price of £39.95. Very little is known about this particular release however. More recently, DVD releasing company Orinoco Entertainment issued an uncut edition, which clocks in at 104m 11s.

Pre-Cert Video Label: Go Video