Phil Hardy, the somewhat stuffy author of The Encyclopedia of Horror
has this to say about the film:
"Graphic violence and plentiful soft-core sex cannot
relieve the tedium as guide Andreau escape the routine slaughter"
Ha, ha, says who? Sounds great entertainment to me.
This funny and very enjoyable trash-sleaze-horror from the man who gave
the world
The Blind Templars saga, a Spanish classic within the horror film genre,
obviously were made in fun. Wonderfully campy it is.
Bumbasa, Africa in 1910 and some natives tortures and
kills a yummy looking white redhaired woman (Bárbara
Rey), se cover, after which
a group of (probably) British imperialist soldiers attacks the jungle
village and kill all of the village people. Then the decapitated head
of
the white woman (maybe a missionary, we never get to know?) awakens
with newly grown vampire fangs and shrieks. What an intro to the
film, and later in the movie this gorgeous jungle vampire woman appears
again dressed in a really cool leopard skin bikini.
Above: Bárbara
Rey
Today: A group of 5 white people, Professor Jonathan
Grant (Jack Taylor), Rod Carter (Simon Andreau), Tunika (Kali Hansa),
Carol (Loreta
Tovar) and Liz (Maria Kosti) are on an expedition in Zambenia, The Kingdom
of the Leopard Demon, supposedly in Africa but obviously
the filmteam stayed on the Iberian Peninsula somewhere and with some
stock footage of a Cheetah strolling around thrown in.
Why a Cheetah when we're into Leopard Demon territory, no idea, maybe
this was the only stock footage the filmteam could afford?
Unwisely they camp out close to the old massacred village where wizards
from 11 tribes were killed by the colonialists, and soon the tribal
drums can be heard and the magic rituals turning women into scantily
clad leopard vampire women re-starts.
Above: Pic from the 2017 US Shout! Factory Blu-ray edition
Carol soon is bitten by the luscious Bárbara
Rey vampiress and even though she's both whipped and beheaded she shortly
thereafter can
be seen running happily in slow motion through the jungle with her vampiress
friend, both in fashionable leopard skin bikinis.
The scenes with the voodoo zombie brujos rising from their graves in
slow mo resemble the blind templars somewhat and are nicely done.
The 2007 DVD was presented in the films original 4:3 fullscreen ratio
with spanish mono audio and english subs (or with english audio).
A textsheet (se pic above) was included and as extras Alternate clothed
scenes for the audiences in the fascist Generalissimo Franco Spain,
a stills gallery, a Spanish opening sequence and a trailer.
In 2007 when this DVD was released by BCI Eclipse Deimos i considered
these Spanish 70's horrors to be the finest releases of the year