Alucarda (1975)
By: Drexl on January 23, 2003.
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| Mondo Macabro (UK). All Regions, PAL. 4:3 (Non-anamorphic). English Mono. 74 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Juan Lopez Moctezuma Starring: Claudio Brook, Tina Romero, Susana Kamini, David Silva
Screenplay: Juan Lopez Moctezuma and Alexis Arroyo
Music: Tony Guefen
Tagline: They gave their souls to hell .... but the Devil wanted more!
Country: Mexico
AKA: Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas; Innocents from Hell; Sisters of Satan |
This strange and obscure Mexican shocker tells
the tale of Justine, a young orphan girl, who is
befriended by an odd young lady named Alucarda.
The girls live in a run-down convent ruled by an
over the top, raving lunatic of a priest who insists
on terrorizing the unfortunate residents with his
religious ramblings. Needless to say that Alucarda
doesn't play along with this, preferring to dabble
with black magic and things altogether more unholy.
After a meeting with a group of gypsies, led
by a bizarre looking character with more facial
hair than Larry Talbot at full moon, the girls
stumble upon a ruined church in the nearby forest.
Messing with things they should have left well
alone, they release an unseen, evil force which
sends Alucarda into a state of demonic possession.
Hurrah! Acting quickly to get her new pal on her
(dark)side Alucarda and Justine swap spit and
blood in a black magic ritual, helped along the
way by our hairy gypsy friend who appears out
of nowhere to supervise the unclothed proceedings.
After this it's all downhill for the girls as
theirincreasingly un-pc behaviour results
in the two of them being hauled in front of the
priest and the rest of the residents for an exorcism.
Justine comes off the worst of the two after being
tied to a cross, stripped and then 'killed' by
the loony priest and his sidekicks. Alucarda,
on the other hand, is saved by the timely intervention
of the local Doctor who believes there is a more
scientific explanation for events. Life can be
so unfair. The Doctor takes Alucarda back
to his house to rest and then introduces her to
his young daughter - probably not the best idea
he has ever had. The Doctor quickly realizes he
has made a major goof after the discovery of a
burnt corpse and the disappearance of his daughter.
All of this leads to the final, fiery scrap between
the bad gals and the good guys.
I must admit that the first time I watched this
film I thought it was utter drivel and pretty
much left the DVD to gather dust in the corner
of my living room but, after a couple of Sunday
afternoons with nothing better to do and a couple
of repeat viewings, it has grown on me. It certainly
has a few selling points, the biggest of which
is the photography and set design. Some of the
images are quite striking and memorable, especially
the ruined church draped in purple cloth and a
naked and blood-soaked Justine tearing the throat
out of an unfortunate victim. Considering the
film was made in 1975 it is fairly strong stuff,
containing some quite bloody scenes (including
a decapitation) and oodles of full-frontal nudity.
In the not too distant past the British censors
would have quite happily put their scissors to
work on this film but this print has, I'm glad
to say, passed unscathed. The films short running
time is also to it's benefit as it is never boring
and certainly doesn't overstay it's welcome. It
also manages to cram all the required clichés
of this particular sub-genre into it's brief running
time with naked, moonlit black magic rituals/orgies,
demonic wailing and copious bloodshed all present
and correct. Good stuff. To be honest, I can't
really think of anything bad to say about the
film. OK, the plot is wafer thin but it would
hardly be the first horror movie to be guilty
of that shortcoming and, other than that, there
isn't too much to gripe about. I would expect
that anyone who enjoys a slightly off-the-wall
and surreal horror movie would gain some enjoyment
from this entertaining little oddity, but if you
are looking for hockey mask wearing killers orflesh
munching cannibalsthen this film might be
best avoided. |
| Video |
| Considering the age and obscurity of this movie
the video quality is pretty good. White flecks and
grain are evident throughout the film and there
is some print damage, although this is infrequent.
Colour is nice and strong. The disc authoring is
fine and no coding problems were spotted. The accompanying
documentary (see extras) gives a brief glimpse of
a matted, widescreen print of this film but the
open matte print utilized here is fine, framing
wise, in my opinion. |
| Audio |
| Average at best with some distortion and slight
muffling of the soundtrack. I did have to grab the
volume control a few times during viewing to adjust
the sound levels. |
| Extra Features |
| A reasonable selection of bonus goodies. First
up is a 20 minute or so documentary on Mexican horror
movies. A fairly interesting, although not very
in-depth, look at Mexican horror over the years.
Nicely put together and well worth a look. Next
is a stills gallery consisting of grabs from the
main feature and two pieces of promo art. An interview
with the director follows - the bad news is that
it text only, dating from 1977, but still worth
a flick through. Last up is a biography/filmography
for the director. The menus and chapter selection
screens are animated. |
| The Verdict |
| A strange little movie that has improved on repeat
viewings. It certainly doesn't class, in my humble
opinion, as a great film and William Friedkin will
hardly lose any sleep over the competition but it's
a watchable little oddity and, without a doubt,
something a little bit different. Mondo Macabro
are obviously inspired by the success of Something
Weird Video in the USA and it's nice to see obscure
material such as this being given a decent quality
release. I will certainly look forward to their
future releases. North American residents who fancy
checking this movie out will be pleased to hear
that, at the time of writing, a region 1 release
is being prepared which will, according to early
reports, be superior to the British disc reviewed
here. |
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