Spanish 1970's Horror Rules
Yes, it's certainly so. This is a fact. There's something
uniquely spanish to them, repressed catholicism and the opression
of the Generalissimo Franco dictatorship probably gave them this special
touch ... maybe. Almost every spanish genre
film i've seen from the 1970's have had this unique magic to them, spanish
gialli and horror. Or, maybe it's just a Latin
thing as italian directors and a south-american like Narciso Ibáñez
Serrador also had this special gifts. Or, maybe it just
were the times, the Golden 1970's, as even Hollywood made many a cool
film during this decade .... well, whatever.
When this film was made Franco was dead and the spanish film industry
opened the floodgates of sex for a couple of
years, before people got tired of that (and the pornography shot on
video industry took over and killed the fun).
This film rocked and it really looks excellent in the
German Ostalgica Blu-ray edition, according to the sleeve Limited to
1000 copies - Crystal Clear. It's an occult horror, almost a horror-drama,
bizarre and often unlogical but fascinating and
sometimes dreamlike and with copious amounts of nudity from the 2 gorgeous
actresses and also quite some from the men.
That's the spirit. Just Sleaze then? NO. The Black Magic scenes with
the couples felt quite intense and the acting was
surprisingly good from all 4 of them. Credits to Argentinian actress
Mariana Karr (R.I.P. 1949-2016) a television series
actress that suddenly made this european film and appeared full frontal
in a horror, and thanks to the lovely spanish actress
Sandra Alberti (born 1955) in the role as Berta, just gorgeous. The
most "famous" actor in this film, eeh, best-known then,
were probably Angel Aranda as Bruno .... or maybe Luis Barboo as the
gatekeeper, seen mostly in spaghetti westerns
Second Blu-ray sleeve and the German title of this
film
After some minutes into the film i had a deja vu feeling
.... i've seen something like this before, hmmm .... and, yes i had,
the
Mondo Macabro DVD edition some 10 years ago or so (horror page 3).
The film starts with an intro where a bearded guy talks in spanish (choose
english audio from the remote for narration here)
about the fact that Satan do exist, and with his/hers/it's followers
black masses and dark rituals and then the film starts with a
sleazy black mass scene where a "priest" fondles a nude woman
on an altar. What? Is this a C grade softporn movie?
Luckily NO, this early scene was a random black mass scene and the "real"
film then starts with fairly young Madrid couple,
Andres (José María Guillén) and Ana (Mariana Karr)
and their german shepherd Blackie. She's supposedly 4 months
pregnant, but we don't see or hear much about that later (argentine-mexican
blu-eyed Karr is luckily seen a lot in the nude in
the film and she for sure don't look pregnant, and she also happily
boozes and smoke cigars).
4 months pregnant, satanism and an elder sinister looking neighbour
couple in their apartment house, hmmm, i was expecting
a Rosemary's Baby rip-off here but NO, this film goes off into another
(if confused and delirious) direction.
Above: The old US Mondo Macabro DVD edition
Out for a weekend car trip the trio (Andres, Ana and
Blackie in the backseat) they stop at a Madrid traffic-light and a couple
in a car waves to them. They're Bruno (Angel Aranda) and Berta (Sandra
Alberti) and Bruno claims to be an old college
acquaintance of Andres even though he doesn't remember Bruno at all.
Still, Andres and Ana accepts an invitation to their
mansion and follows the nice couple far out into the spanish countryside.
A sinister looking gatekeeper (Luis Barboo) let them
in, and then .... we don't see much more of that guy (with a face like
that well suited to play an underling gunman in a spaghetti
western). Berta kicks poor Blackie out, and then we don't see much more
of that guy .... oh, dog. We only hear the poor dog
bark outside now and then, but his owners couldn't care less involved
in sex orgies and black magic rites as they're.
Andres and Ana may be the worst dog-owners ever.
The mansion is filled with strange esoteric things and
they soon understand that their hosts are deep into parapsychology,
with
Berta ESP gifted, and into .... Black Magic and Satanism, and now the
"fun" starts. Even though they see Berta eating raw flesh
from a bowl, contact a demon (or even Satan himself) during a Ouija-board
session and hearing desperate barking from poor
Blackie (soon to be ominously silent), Ana and Andres ignores all warning
signs and stays on.
Instead, drawn into a strange hypnotic trance-like state they take part
in Bruno and Berta's sex orgies and rites of black magic,
and to be perfectly honest, with a luscious woman like Berta i can understand
them. Lots of sex and full frontal nudity ensues,
and Ana/Andres just don't manage to leave the mansion. Sex, horror and
psycho-drama and GREAT delirious fun it is.
1.66:1 widescreen, spanish audio DTS-HD MA mono with
english subs (for intro use english audio narration) or an english dub
(and if you're german and for some strange unfathomable reason refuses
to learn english - a german audio dub), Extras: a picture
gallery, trailer reel and a Booklet in german with texts from Christian
Ade and Carsten Henkelmann. Limited edition 1000 copies.
This film is produced and supposedly co-directed by Juan Piquer Simon,
famous or infamous for the slasher Pieces.