To me, this movie is perfection.

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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.

Like LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (one of the greatest if most often underrated vampire movies ever made), ROSE OF IRON is a quiet, subtle little exercise in terror. While it lacks the heart-stopping jolts that help make LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH so unforgettable, it DOES boast some low-key moments of pure fright that are nigh unforgettable: when the lovely Ms. Pascal begins to feel something strange coming over her, for instance, or when she begins to show signs of possible possession or- my favorite- when she entombs her boyfriend in an airtight underground tomb. The ending alone makes this one a classic. The director's focus on the couple as they wander through and then become lost in the graveyard is commendable, though I would've liked to have seen more close ups when the "changes" started to occur.

"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.

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.