Macumba Sexual (1983) User Reviews

Boring Exploitation

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 10 June 2012]

The Spanish real estate agent Alice Brooks (Candy Coaster, a.k.a. Lina Romay) and her French lover (Robert Foster) that is a writer travel on vacation to the Canary Islands. Alice has erotic and very realistic SM dreams with the mysterious black woman and her two slaves.

Out of the blue, her boss calls her and tells that Princess Obongo (Ajita Wilson) from Gran Canaria wants to buy a real state in Atlantic City and he asks Alice to sell the property. Alice realizes that Princess Obongo is the woman of her dreams and she is seduced by the lustful woman. But she realizes soon that it was actually a dream, and she questions to her lover whether she had had a premonition.

"Macumba Sexual" is another boring exploitation by Jess Franco. The plot is dull, as usual in Franco's films, and the camera exaggerates with the closes of Lina Romay's pubic hair. The transsexual Ajita Wilson performs a weird dominatrix and this movie is only recommended for fans of Jess Franco. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Macumba Sexual"

Franco, the expressionist.

[liodavix · 5/10 · 27 October 2019]

An erotic film very typical of Jesús Franco.

Undoubtedly, Jesús Franco was a clearly expressionist director, a director who liked to speak more with images than with words, something that is very clear, for example, in this film Macumba Sexual, in which a strange African princess begins to torment a beautiful girl that will go in his search merging both in a spiral of pleasure.

The argument, if there is one, is a mere excuse of Franco to show us a succession of scenes of high sexual voltage where the characteristic dreamlikeness of Franco seasoned in the powerful beauties of Lina Romay and Ajita Wilson, which impresses with her slender physical , remember Grace Jones quite a bit.

This African actress aroused controversy in her day due to suspicions that it could be a transsexual, a rumor never confirmed, which is why for example Andrés pajares refused to kiss her during a scene in a movie in Spain, because at that time It was believed that all gays and transsexuals were infected with AIDS. Ajita died due to a car accident with 37 years.

The film is a pure and hard sexplotaition, with a certain exotic air, with a couple of interesting scenes, quite well photographed but that really lacks history and plot, has that strange and at the same time interesting touch of Franco, who always gave all his movies with their crazy flat camera movements and zooms, here however their direction is rather sober and restrained.

For Franco and gender fans.

Voodoo takes Lina

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 26 February 2022]

Princesa Obongo (Ajita Wilson) is the Goddess of Unspeakable Lust, rising from the dunes of sand and remaking and remixing and redoing Vampyros Lesbos by way of Lorna the Exorcist - even ending with Lina screaming - but in a way that makes this its own film worth watching.

Is Obongo even a real person? Or is she just the ultimate fantasy of Lina and her husband (Antonio Mayans), a black goddess here to dominate them both, to raise idols worthy of worship and by worship, I mean in the biblical sense in the way that Jess Franco means biblical sense.

There's also the issues of identity that we have to contend with, as Lina isn't even Lina and we must pretend that she's Candy Coster and of course, we love her little smile and agree to her game. And the powers of Wilson, well, Franco would say that "Ajita had that naivete, like she belonged to a world less perverted than our own." And while In life, Ajita was a goddess to men and a European sex film star, the truth is that she wasn't born a woman and even in 2022 we're having trouble wrapping our head around that and unable to admit that maybe everyone and everything can be beautiful and worthy of lust. There's been some mystery about this fact, but Lina would say, "She was definitely transsexual."

There's also this fish lizard creature with a large penis that keeps showing up. It's a Jenny Haniver, a carcass of a ray or a skate that has been modified by hand before being turned into a mummified specimen.

Franco remained obsessed by women whose encounters with the occult would unlock their latent sexual powers, which alternatively thrilled and terrified those caught in this pull. By those, I pretty much mean Lina, who endures this journey and the relentless zooming lens of the man who transformed his fascination with her into an eternal love affair.

For an incredible read on this subject, I recommend the article I used for reference, Created By Cinema: The Enigma of Ajita Wilson, which is on Grindhouse Effect.

A pretty decent (i.e. watchable) 80's Franco film

[lazarillo · 30 January 2008]

This movie was made about the time Jess Franco dove headfirst into hardcore porn after they legalized it in his native Spain (although he'd certainly been involved in it before in more liberal countries). It would take a bigger masochist than me to watch too many of Franco's hardcore efforts, but I think it's pretty safe to say the ONLY thing they had going for them was his leading actress/wife, Lina Romay. Romay is not only by far the best actress to ever grace a porn movie, but she was also incredibly uninhibited even by hardcore porn standards. (In one movie I saw she uses her tongue to clean up a mess a guy had left on another actress' backside, and then later she performs oral sex on a tied-up guy with a voraciousness somewhere between Linda Lovelace and the shark from "Jaws"--you could tell the actor was both really turned-on and completely terrified).

This movie is not really hardcore porn, nor is it even one of Franco's extremely graphic softcore ficks (which I like to call "Lina Romay and friends go to the gynecologist"). What it actually seems to be is an unsimulated, but non-graphic porno movie--which may strike some as a waste of time, but it certainly is different at least. The cinematography is excellent--it was filmed on Reunion, I think, or one of the Canary Islands. At times Franco seems to be strangely aping fellow Euro-hacks like Jean Rollin (with his shots of crumbling architecture)or Walerian Borozyx (with his lingering close-ups of native fetish objects), but there is nary an out-of-focus zoom shot to be seen. The plot involves a woman (Romay)and her husband who are going to meet a local tribal chieftain, "Princess Obongo" (Ajita Wilson), regarding some kind of real estate deal. The plot quickly becomes inconsequential, however, as the protagonist becomes enmeshed in a series of foreboding, erotic fever dreams about this strange woman that she is unable to awake from. This recurring dream plot is a horrid cliché of course, but whereas other filmmakers only tack it on the end when they have run out of ideas (or want to explain away what has happened earlier, a la a bad TV soap opera), Franco uses it very effectively to transform the whole movie into a genuinely disturbing mixture of dream and reality with characters caught in an erotic, surreal undertow.

Still the whole thing wouldn't work without the compelling presence of Lina Romay. She really carries the whole movie. (I don't want to overstate her performance, but if they gave an award for "best performance by an actress who spends 90 percent of the movie butt-naked and the rest in an ill-fitting bikini or impossibly tight short-shorts". . .) African-American, (alleged)transexual Ajita Wilson may or not add to the eroticism too much depending on your taste, but she is sure is scary, and she stalks around with two very creepy, naked "dog people" she keeps on a leash. This may not be anybody's favorite Franco film, but it certainly is watchable at least, which is much more than can be said of most of his 80's films.

Macumba Unsexual Is B.A.F. 1-2-Miss.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 3/10 · 17 April 2022]

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Macumba Sexual. Before we get into it, here are my ratings:

Story - 0.75 Direction - 0.75 Pace - 0.25 Acting - 0.75 Enjoyment - 0.75

TOTAL - 3.25 out of 10

Oh, dear! If I were Jesus Franco, I'd try and get my name taken off this travesty. I became an on-off fan of Franco's when I watched his version of Dracula. Though it wasn't brilliant, there was something about it. That cannot be said about Macumba Sexual. At this point, I would say, if you're looking for a sexual horror film, then go and check out Black Candles - it's far superior to this.

The story is passable, though basic. It's time for the Goddess Of Unspeakable Lust to pass on her mantle to another. Who shall it be? Okay, so the first thing that's misleading here is the Unspeakable Lust part. There is nothing unspeakable about anything in this film. The story doesn't dare to push any boundaries, whereas, the aforementioned Black Candles does. There is so much scope in this story's premise it's ridiculous. But what is more foolish is that the writers don't even try to make the story interesting. It's as if they had the sex scenes in the bag and decided to add a little tale to stick them together. So the narrative the audience gets is poorly written and confusing at times, but at its utmost, it's boring - and not a good "Boring".

This brings us to the sex scenes and the direction. Because the story is nearly nonexistent, I think Franco decided he'd put as much effort in as the writers. The pace is so slow that it could put an insomniac to sleep. And the sex scenes are just as tedious. Macumba is the apotheosis of softcore sex films. Nothing ever happens, and the camera is perfectly angled, so you can never see that nothing happen. Being an English man, this is the style of blue movie we had to endure - thank god for the internet. I would have hoped that Franco could have brought something interesting to the screen.

But worse is yet to come. The main thing when making a sex film is to get some sexy actresses and hunky actors. It looks like the casting director had low esteem too. The Goddess is hardly that. She's a poor man's Grace Jones, without the good looks. Her two slaves are worse. The woman is unremarkable, but the bloke is downright ugly, though he does a scary pervy face. Maybe she should be known as The Goddess Of The F-Uglies, which would also account for the woman she chooses to usurp her. Hey, at least the male role has an actual porn-stash. And that is the best thing I can say about them and their nonexistent performances.

Do yourself a favour and miss this mess of a film and watch Black Candles instead, there's even a storyline and acting included.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror list to see where I ranked Macumba Sexual.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Macumba Sexual

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 24 November 2007]

The mysterious Princess Obongo(Ajita Wilson)of the Canary Islands, who may or may not be dead, and her erotic(..and perhaps evil)effects on a vacationing couple. Alice(Lina Romay)is a real estate agent and her lover(Antonio Mayans),a writer, are overcome by the passionate dreams featuring Obongo and the film follows their submission to her lustful will. What are Obongo's motives? More importantly, who is she and what does she symbolize/represent? What is her purpose and/or objective for Alice and her lover?

While the film is essentially another VERY stylized and evocative porno, Franco uses imagery of voodoo, African statues & tribal objects, along with the stunning locations of the South of the Canary Islands and dream-like sequences between Obongo(mostly relishing her acts towards her quarry)and her prey, to create an otherworldly experience. I don't think one ever truly feels the film is grounded in reality, and I do feel that's what Franco was going for. The film is really about Franco's love affair with the Canary islands and Romay's naked flesh..the director's camera embraces both. I do think the setting, and voodoo imagery layered within, are crucial for the atmosphere produced in this film. I didn't particularly find any of the characters attractive, so the other strengths worked more for me that the multiple sex sequences. Ajita Wilson is quite a presence on screen, if the others in the film do little to assist her. Romay looks rather ridiculous in that wig, but she is basically in the film to move and twist her naked body in a bed, or being seduced by Wilson and her hideous, dog collared entourage.

Pretty decent dreamlike Franco.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 11 January 2011]

Jesus Franco's wife and muse Lina Romay plays the wife of Antonio Mayans who is plagued by a series of sado-sexual nightmares about transsexual dominatrix named Princess Obongo.Romay's life becomes more and more sexually depraved.Extremely sleazy and very dreamlike horror movie with tons of graphic nudity and sex.Jesus Franco's cameo as a mentally challenged suitor is particularly memorable.The film was shot on volcanic Gran Canaria.The desert setting is unusually striking and beautiful.I am not a great fan of Jesus Franco's sleazy excess,but "Macumba Sexual" is certainly watchable.If you liked "Vampyros Lesbos" or "Sadomania" you can't go wrong with this stylish piece of utter smut.7 out of 10.

Lina Romay in her hottest of hot pants

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 9 December 2006]

There is some confusion as to the correct title, running time and date of this film. On the DVD Jess himself mentions that the film should be 'Macumba' and yet IMDb has a separate listing for this title. Anyway we have what we have and thankfully it's a goodie. If not quite as delirious as was intended it certainly has a life its own and whilst there is barely any plot or even dialogue it takes us with it, back and forth. The fantastic, open-legged performance from Lina Romay in her hottest of hot pants, helps enormously. So too does the majestic/devilish turn from Ajita Wilson. The Canary Isles settings are wonderful and with the film being so well shot it looks fantastic all the time with some real stand out scenes such as Ajita's appearance on the beach, striding along with what looks like a couple of hounds and turns out to be a couple of naked slaves on leashes! There are a lot of sex scenes but thanks to an obvious chemistry between the two leading ladies these are lively and often most erotic. Jess seems aware here that the same sex set- up again and again for a prolonged period does not equal erotic and he allows himself to play with his zoom lens at some surprising moments. There is one particular bed scene where shafts of sunlight fall across the nakedness and he picks this out momentarily causing the flesh to go out of focus. It is little bits and bobs like this throughout the film that give it if not a surreal quality then certainly a unsettling edge, despite all the sun and sex. Excellent.

Very good 80s Franco movie

[Cetra · 7/10 · 15 June 2006]

Ufff... "Macumba sexual" is the 17th movie of Jess Franco I've seen in a week, and, after all, one of the best. I like his cinema, but I'm not a Franco great fan. I still don't know if he is a genius or only a director who made some good and occasionally very good stuff but also some terrible movies. I only know, and I'm sure of it, that Franco proposes a very personal vision of cinema, almost authorial, bizarre and often very interesting. The best titles of his incredible filmography are probably those shot in the 60s (Miss Muerte, Paroxismus, Necronomicon); more time and more money, I think, and the will of a young director to make himself known. Then the number of movies increases at a dizzy speed; the quality is not always good: a lot of zoom, bad camera movement, bad editing, bad acting; some works are even boring (the worst defect for an exploitation movie). In the 80s Franco makes perhaps his worst work. He return in Spain and he shoots with no budget and with few actors. But, if some titles like "Oasis of the zombies" or "The man hunter" are terrible, there is also something good, as, for example, Macumba sexual. The story is very simple, like and more than other Franco movie. There are some sex scene but this is not really a sexy film. One merit: the atmosphere, made by the beautiful images and by the hypnotic music; directing is OK, almost recherché; the use of the locations is great; and great is Lina Romay too. Well, a very good film, made with taste. Sure a masterpiece for all Franco fan. A good movie for the others.

Mirror of evil

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 2 August 2008]

A young couple meets princess Tara on an island (filmed on Gran Canaria) after she previously appeared in their dreams already, accompanied by a bird-like demonic creature. The princess says she ruled in the name of the god Macumba for 300 years already. This is obviously a quasi-remake of "El Signo del Vampiro" where the heiress of Dracula provided a similar personification of obsession beyond death. "Macumba", 11 years later, even goes a step further in stylistic obsession and must be counted among Jess Franco's best movies, even though Ajita Wilson is no match for Soledad Miranda. Franco quotes Kubrick's "The Shining" here when the name of the princess is typed again and again on the machine, and seems to refer to Herzog's "Nosferatu" when the timeless ship sails without wind (and we never see the faces of a crew, either). Besides making an unbelievable lot of movies, Franco certainly watches even more which explains how he can reinvent his own style over the decades, never running out of ideas.

"She is the mirror of evil and of death", the hotel manager says once about the princess, and the word "mirror" is the key here. No matter how normal the young couple appears to be, they have a dark side in them which is mirrored (and set free) by Tara. Tara never enters the city - everyone who want to meet her must travel through the desert on the back of a camel! The voyage is a ritual of cleansing, purifying, though in the opposite sense of purgatory, because it opens the traveler's mind up for evil. Certainly a movie about sin, not virtue.

Decent Franco

[Michael_Elliott · 29 February 2008]

Macumba Sexual (1981)

** (out of 4)

Golden Era flick from Jess Franco about a voodoo princess (Ajita Wilson) who returns from the dead to haunt a woman (Lina Romay) with sexual hallucinations. This is more erotic than horror but it's something we'd only get from Franco. The film starts off well in its dreamlike nature but by the thirty minute mark things get dried up. I'm not much of a fan of Wilson, who also appeared in a couple other Franco films but Romay is up to her usual goods. Franco himself provides a few laughs in his brief cameo. As expected, there's tons of nudity, sex and lesbian scenes but these all come off rather boring. Some beautiful locations and a terrific music score keep this from becoming really bad.

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 7/10 · 23 June 2017]

The quote on the cover of this DVD is taken from the mighty Immoral Tales tome, and describes this film as 'one of the last glorious death throes of European sexploitation.' An apt way of describing possibly Jess Franco's most perverse project – at least, from those I have seen.

The plot, as ever, is straightforward – the supernatural Princes Obongo (Ajita Wilson), the Goddess of Unspeakable Lust no less, ensnares Lina Romay in her Candy Coaster wig, playing Alice Brooks together with regular Antonio Mayans, billed as Robert Foster, playing Novio de Alice. To be honest, Novio doesn't get much of a look-in – the story seems really to centre on the smouldering, deadly relationship that occurs between Alice and Obongo.

Transsexual actress Wilson, who died five years after this was completed at the age of 37, is described by Franco as a kind of female Christopher Lee – not so much an actress, more a presence. And this is true. She cuts a truly memorable, and at times terrifying, figure – tall and prone to wearing flowing white robes, striding across deserts with her two unnerving 'dog-slaves', or laughing maniacally as she seduces a naked Alice via her dreams.

Franco's camera-work, at times restrained and others frantic (the blurring zooms during the many sex scenes against the glare of sunlight is purposefully disorientating) glories in the delights of the Canary Isles, and also wife Romay's (at times shockingly) uninhibited performance, both in and out of a straining pair of hot-pants. Franco turns up briefly as another of the lunatic cyphers he loved playing so much.

The results are an acquired taste – what else would you expect? I enjoyed it, as I've enjoyed most of Franco's films. His filmic perversions took on a new and personal level once his native Spain had relaxed their laws on hard-core pornography and I can only admire his unique pursuance of this during this time. Such a singular approach drew him ever further into cult territory, which he seemed to fully embrace for the next 23 years.