Macumba sexual (1983)

... aka: Macumba

Directed by:
Jesus Franco

I tell ya what, the Jess Franco catalogue just never seems to end. I've seen at least thirty of these things by now and still have about 100 left to go. Macumba sexual (sometimes titled simply Macumba) is yet another horror / sex combo from Europe's premiere purveyor of art-sleaze; this time a partial remake of his film VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970). Things open just like many other Franco films open, with a shot of a buck naked Lina Romay writhing in bed moaning. Her character - Alice - has been suffering from a recurring nightmare for quite some time. In it, a tall "dark-skinned woman" named Tara (Ajita Wilson) unleashes two "beasts" (a nude man and a nude woman she walks around on leashes) upon her and then dies. Doesn't really sound so bad to me, but whatever. Alice and her husband Peter ("Robert Foster" / Antonio Mayans) are in the middle of a relaxing beach vacation at the Happy Bay resort when she gets a phone call from her boss urging her to get back to work. She's to go to a nearby island to do some kind of business deal with the obscenely-wealthy Princess Obongo, whose first name happens to be Tara... just like the woman from her nightmare. Tara is planning on purchasing some property in Atlantic City or something, but that's not really important.

Alice goes over to the island by herself and learns from a retarded, voyeuristic reptile stuffer named Meme (played by Franco himself as "Juan G. Cabral") that Tara actually died many years ago. Alice still checks into her room and plans of visiting Obongo's isolated home at the appointed time. While she's lying out on her patio sunning, Tara shows up to play with her breasts and finger fuck her (fo real folks!) in another dream and then she catches Meme spying on her. He tells her "You're simply gorgeous and a slut... like all Western women," then warns her not to go to the Obongo place because she'll lose her "whorish body" and possibly die if she does so. Thinking he's crazy, which he is, Alice decides to ride a camel caravan over. Immediately upon arriving, Tara (who has some strange flashback digging up an ivory dildo idol out of the sand, sucking on it while rolling her eyes back in her head and then going to town with it) and her two "beasts" (named Poppy and Tulip) get to work molesting Alice. Afterward, she finds Tara dead on the beach and flees back to her husband. It isn't long before hubby himself is drawn to Obongo's palace and Alice must head back to plead for his life and find out what the 300-year-old macumba-practicing woman / ghost / succubus / demon 's true intentions are.

Macumba is - simply enough - basically just a sex film. It exists entirely in Franco World, a place that isn't quite like the real world you and I are accustomed to. In Franco World all inhabitants have little to nothing on their minds other than sex. If they're not getting it, they're constantly pining for it. Even when they're sleeping they're thinking about it. Sex is so constant on their minds it usually screws everyone up; driving them to madness and murder. People absolutely hate wearing clothing in Franco World and go around most of the day completely naked for no real reason. It's quite impossible to take some of this seriously and it's pretty comic much of the time. Take Romay's character Alice, for instance. She's a real estate agent who has just lined up an uber rich client and will be making a killing in commission if she can just unload a house. How many female real estate agents do you know who - in order to impress a female client; a princess to boot! - would show up at their place wearing a flimsy mesh top and a pair of shorts so short her ass cheeks hang out the back and her pubic hair (!!) hangs out the front?! See what I mean about the Real World vs. Franco World?

As a piece of erotica, this didn't personally float my boat and I imagine it's not going to float many other boats either. The sex is often hilariously frenzied, there's lots of licking and slobbering and often times the action is awkwardly choreographed. The entire film is shot in the brightest light of day and Franco, always with a gynecologist's eye, makes sure to zoom in so close we get to see razor stubble, dry flaky skin and other things I seriously doubt many of us want to see. From a technical standpoint, this has superior and sometimes very imaginative photography for a sex flick, though. The desert / ocean setting is perfect for the story, there are some great locations used and Franco seems to be paying special attention to phallic-shaped buildings. Several isolated setpieces - including one bit with a spinning silver ball and the camera going out of focus a lot - are just out there enough to work and create some hypnotic moments here and there.

The presence of Ajita Wilson manages to make this strange film even stranger. Wilson was a very unlikely 70s / early 80s sex film star and international box office draw who did both hard and soft porn as well as run-of-the-mill exploitation flicks. Perhaps her greatest exposure in America for the longest time was the women-in-prison film Orinoco, Prison of Sex, which was later combined with newly-shot scenes starring Linda Blair and released theatrically as Savage Island. What made her an unlikely star in her field wasn't the fact she was African-American, but because she was born a man... and quite looks it despite some obvious cosmetic surgery and cheek enhancements to try to soften her face. Wilson has soft sex scenes with both men and women here, with some individual shots briefly crossing over into X territory. During one scene her enigmatic character explains "I'm everything that's forbidden... a black woman with an undefined sexuality; shameless and irresistible." Despite having packed on a few pounds since her 70s prime, Romay is still cute enough. Unfortunately she also wears the same God awful mousy dirty blonde bob wig she wore in MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985) and many of her other 80s films, which actually makes her look much older than she actually is.

The Severin DVD comes with a 22-minute documentary featurette on the film, which has interviews with Franco and Romay.

★★

Suicide Cult (1975)

... aka: Astrologer, The

Directed by:
James Glickenhaus

In India, dangerous sociopathic cult leader Kajerste (Mark Buntzman, who also produced) is keeping busy performing ritualistic mutilations and "public defloration ceremonies." He's such a bad dude that he's wanted for crimes committed in at least three different countries. Authorities from different parts of the world gather together at a conference to discuss this new threat. The top secret group is called Interzod and one of its highest ranking members is professor and scientist Alexei Abernal (Bob Byrd), who's been blending technological advances with astrology. He informs the panel "We are now able to use computers to accurately determine an individual's zodiacal potential for response to environmental situations and stimuli." Say what? Make sure to keep that phrase on the tip of your tongue, because it will spill from your mouth frequently as you're slogging your way through this highly confusing film. From what I gathered, Alexei's research has determined that one's birthday and thus their astrological sign can determine one's "zodiacal potentional;" whether they are destined to live just a normal life, destined for greatness or destined to commit atrocities. Of course, Kajerste has scored extremely high on the evil scale - he's up there with Hitler - and must be stopped.

So it's 10 minutes into the film and we've already been to five different cities in three different countries. Make that four different countries: We're now off to London, England. Alexei arrives at Heathrow Airport, runs across young Congressman Joe Harwell (Al Narcisse) and decides to give him a lift on his private jet. He asks the Congressman if he wants to join his organization. Meanwhile, Alexei's very naive new wife Kate (Monica Tidwell) goes to New York City to see spiritual advisor Mother Bogarde. Sensing she is possessed by evil and that evil is forcing her to be dishonest, the psychic has her remove her clothes and change into a robe to "strip away your pretenses." When Kate returns home to Maryland, she talks this over with her husband. For some strange reason, Kate doesn't seem to know her own birthday or has changed it because Alexei told her to. He also keeps security close at hand to watch over her, seldom introduces her to his friends and lies to her about what he does for a living. Even stranger, Alexei has never had sex with his wife and they've been married for five months. Kate is frustrated and confused. Alexei takes her to Arlington, Virginia to visit an old archeologist who is trying to use ancient documents to uncover the Virgin Mary's birthdate (?).

Interzod member Ellen (Alison McCarthy) concocts a scheme to sneak into Kajerste's camp and assassinate him. She plans on shooting him with a tranquilizer dart and, while he's out, placing electrodes on him to then sending videotape transmissions using a double to trick him into stabbing himself with a poisoned knife (??) Let's hear it again folks: Say what? Congressman Joe decides to go along with her. When Ellen finally encounters Kajerste, he uses his mesmeric / hypnotic abilities to make her stab herself with the knife, then Joe is killed by the cult. Back in America, Kate returns to the psychic for advise, but a man possessed by Kajerste tries to hunt her down until the psychic stabs him to death. The archeologist finally gets together enough information to come up with the Virgin Mary's birthdate and it turns out Kate has the same exact extremely rare zodiacal configuration as Mary. In fact, as a teen Kate had an immaculate conception of her own and ended up giving her baby over to the Catholic church. Kajerste has a extremely rare zodiacal configuration himself...

Originally (and more accurately) titled The Astrologer, this was a downright painful viewing experience. It's not painful in the usual boring / inept / derivative kind of way though, but painful because we have to sit and watch a potentially fascinating idea being botched right before our very eyes. The film boasts a premise that's completely unique, which is something one doesn't stumble across too often in this genre. The problem is that the whole thing is so talky, needlessly complicated and confusing that it's a true test of endurance to make it all the way to the end. The film begins to tie up some of the loose ends after a certain point but ends abruptly on a very ambiguous note and fails to complete the job. For its obviously very low budget, there's definite ambition here. It's simply not executed all that well. Scene transitions are often done using negative images, we get constant reaffirmation of places, dates and times scrolled out on a computer screen and, though there's little violence and no gore, there are some slideshows featuring actual corpses which are pretty grisly. The actors range from average to awful, but they're hardly the biggest problem here.

It was the directorial debut of James Glickenhaus, who'd go to make the violent exploitation hit THE EXTERMINATOR (1980) and a few other films before becoming a producer. His company Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment would produce such films as MANIAC COP (1987), BASKET CASE 2 and 3 (1990, 91) and many others; primarily in the action and horror genres. The company folded in 1995 and Glickenhaus became a Wall Street trader. Leading lady Tidwell (who provides some nudity) was a 1973 Playboy Playmate and went on to a small role in the vampire comedy NOCTURNA before turning her attentions to Off-Broadway plays. The rest of the cast seem to be complete unknowns in more ways that one. There aren't any familiar faces and the end credits are so small and blurry I couldn't even make out any of the names.

The copyright date appears to be 1977 but, again, I couldn't quite make it out. The film is usually listed in reference books and online as being released in 1975, so I'll stick with that for the time being. It played theatrically under the Astrologer title, then was released in 1986 by Continental Video under the misleading Suicide Cult title (also the title of a 1982 theatrical reissue).

★1/2

El retorno del Hombre-Lobo (1981)

... aka: Craving, The
... aka: Night of the Werewolf, The
... aka: Return of the Werewolf, The
... aka: Return of the Wolfman
... aka: Werewolf, The

Directed by:
"Jack Molina" (Paul Naschy)

1981 was a big comeback year for werewolves. An American Werewolf in London, The Howling and Wolfen were all profitable genre films that also received generally positive notices from critics. American Werewolf would even go on to win the very first Oscar ever given out for Best Make-Up. It seemed like the perfect year for a new chapter in the Waldemar Daninsky saga. The Spanish-produced series had a strong seven film run starting with FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR in 1968. The series stalled in 1975 with NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST, but was revived once again for Night of the Werewolf; a semi-remake of the international hit THE WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMAN (one of the highest-grossing entries in the series). Equipped with a healthy budget and fine technical aspects, Night ended up flopping so badly that director, writer and star Paul Naschy was forced to go to Japan to secure funding for future projects, which would be sporadic through the 80s. This isn't a bad movie, but it's easy to see why it failed financially. While the aforementioned 1981 werewolf hits all offered a contemporary setting, fresh takes on lycanthropy and updated special effects, Night of the Werewolf was stuck in the past. There was simply no market for old-fashioned Gothic horror flicks by the early 80s and the old school time lapse transformation effects and traditional werewolf design just didn't cut the mustard.

In the pre-credits sequence, Elisabeth Bathory ("Jully" / Julia Saly) is convicted of witchcraft, vampirism, dealings with the devil and cannibalism and is sentenced to be buried alive, while her faithful followers are sentenced to be tortured, hanged, burned alive and / or beheaded. At the same trial, Polish nobleman Waldemar Daninsky (Naschy) is convicted of murdering "hundreds" of people and, rumored to be a werewolf, is ordered to have a "the mask of dishonor" placed over his head and a silver cross driven into his chest.

Now flashing forward to the present, college student Erika (Silvia Aguilar), who's doing some kind of research paper on Elisabeth Bathory, has been dabbling in witchcraft and managed to get herself entranced by Bathory's spirit in the process. She strangles her professor (Narciso Ibáñez Menta), steals a medallion that once belonged to Bathory from him and then decides to lure two of her oblivious friends; Karin (Azucena Hernández) and Barbara (Pilar Alcón), to Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains and plots to use their blood to revive the countess. Meanwhile, two grave robbers stumble upon Waldemar's tomb, remove the silver cross from his chest, awaken him and are killed. The three ladies arrive in the area soon after, shrug off warnings from the locals, rent a car and then decide to go to the ruined castle where the remains of Bathory, her followers and Waldemar are said to rest. On the way there, three bandits (led by genre vet Luis Barboo) try to rob and rape them but are shot dead with a crossbow by someone lurking in the woods.

After their car breaks down at the foot of the crumbling castle, the ladies scour through cobwebs, rats and skeletons until they find the tombs they were looking for. They also discover a few things they weren't looking for, namely some fresh corpses and a mysterious man armed with a crossbow and dressed in medieval garb. Claiming his name is Janos, it's actually Waldemar Daninsky. He occupies a nearby mansion along with his faithful servant Mircaya (Beatriz Elorrieta), whose face and body are withered from surviving being burned at the stake as a witch many years earlier. Karin is injured after falling into a hole so the ladies take up his offer of bed and board until she heals. Waldemar sneaks off on full moons to kill various people in the vicinity, then learns from the astrology-obsessed Mircaya that Karin is "The Chosen One" who can finally deliver him from his curse. This requires her falling in love with him and then driving something silver back into his heart. Once recovered, Karin finds herself drawn to Waldemar, but she wonders if she can truly love the man once she sees his monstrous side.

Meanwhile, down in the tombs, Erika is busy at work trying to revive the countess. She kills Barbara, hangs her upside down over Elisabeth's tomb and then cuts her throat so the blood runs all over it. The tomb lid levitates off and there lies Elisabeth alive, perfectly preserved and ready to do evil. She drinks from both Erika and Barbara, turning them into her minions, and also resurrects a skull-faced zombie. She wants both Mircaya and Waldemar under her control and instructs Erika to go to the castle and "infect him with your stigma." The vampire pays frequent visits to town in the meantime to feast upon the populace. All ends in a slow-motion showdown between the werewolf and the vampire women with a tragic ending for all involved.

Plot-wise, this offers nothing new in either the Waldemar legacy or in the vampire or werewolf subgenres. It has its fair share of continuity problems, abrupt editing cuts and the pacing goes to hell during the last half hour as things start to drag out toward a predictable conclusion. The writing is also often poor. When Waldemar and Karin enter the vampire's crypt, they kill the zombie but then decide to "wait until tomorrow" to kill the vampires just because Karin is scared. That simply gives the bloodsuckers more time to sneak around and kill and also gives Bathory the chance to bite Karin and entrace her. Why do Waldemar and Karin, who have become lovers, start sleeping in separate bedrooms all of a sudden? Is it because he snores or because it's just an easy excuse to allow the vampires to attack them separately at night? And I don't know about you, but if I knew vampires were after me, I'd be going to bed wearing about five crucifix necklaces, a choker made of garlic bulbs and a WWJD t-shirt instead of flimsy negligee with my neck exposed and my only protection sitting on a table on the other side of the room.

Problems aside, this familiar tale at least looks great. It's nicely photographed and scored and achieves the appropriate Gothic atmosphere through authentic location shooting, very good art direction and lots of fog. There's not a whole lot of blood and what nudity there is is very brief or shot from a distance. It's a bit "classier" than most of the other films in this series and seems like an attempt at a more respectable (or perhaps more commercially viable) horror flick. Most of the cast (the female stars are insanely gorgeous by the way) were also in Human Beasts, which was also directed by Naschy and filmed the same year. Naschy used the alias "Jack Molina" in the credits.

Given just a limited theatrical release in the United States, this first popped up on home video under the title The Craving, which was distributed by Vestron. The DVD from BCI / Eclipse (released in 2007) is a very good quality print which offers English and Spanish audio tracks (with a subtitle option), trailers, alternate Spanish beginning and end credits (most of which were removed from the English-language cut) and a few deleted scenes.

★★1/2