The Reincarnation of Isabel (1973) User Reviews

Nonsense isn't always a bad thing

[The_Void · 6/10 · 27 February 2006]

Most people that see this film use the word 'nonsense' to describe it and it's not hard to see why. The Reincarnation of Isabel utilises the age-old horror plot line of a witch being brought back to life; but unlike other films of it's ilk, this one jumps straight in at the reincarnation stage; thus forsaking any explanation as to why the witch was exterminated, and why there are people that want to bring her back. These things are explained somewhat a bit later on; and it's these scenes of 'explanation' that really highlight this film's problem. It's practically impossible to differentiate the flashback sequences from the main action, and if it wasn't for the fact that the woman about to be burnt at the stake was called Isabel, the audience would be none the wiser as to what is actually going on. The film features many scenes that appear to be completely random - some of them may be flashbacks explaining the story, I don't know! However, one thing that I do know is that this isn't a story based film - and when it comes to pure Eurotrash, this film excels!

The film features a very gritty European style, and every scene looks great. The lighting is superb, with several sequences seemingly existing only so the director can show off his impressive lighting techniques. The score is suitably creepy, and this is flanked by some excellent set design. The scenes involving the black magic rites themselves are particularly great because they seem to exist in dreamscape. These scenes look fabulous, and even though they're not making much sense, they still allow the film some credibility. No Eurotrash flick would be complete without gore and nudity, and this film features plenty of both. Beautiful girls wearing little or nothing are plentiful, and the gore tends to be of the 'realistic' kind, meaning that it's not gratuitous; but it looks real, and is all the more shocking for that. The film runs at almost 100 minutes, which is a bit on the long side considering it doesn't really have a plot to speak of. I recommend this film to anyone who likes films to look nice. If you're someone that sees a coherent plot as an essential element for a successful horror movie, then there's a good chance that The Reincarnation of Isabel is not your thing.

Stylish, Elegant And Wonderfully Sleazy Nonsense

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 6/10 · 15 March 2010]

Renato Polselli's "Riti, Magie Nere e Segrete Orge Nel Trecento..." aka. Rites, Black Magic and Secret Orgies in the Fourteenth Century aka. "The Reincarnation of Isabel" (1973) is a clear case of style over substance that might well appeal to my fellow fans of bizarre Italian Horror / Exploitation productions whereas others are probably better advised to skip it. Polselli is probably best known for his 1972 Giallo "Delirio Caldo", whereas this film remains relatively obscure. This is understandable, since the weirdness, confusion and lack of logic presented in "The Reincarnation of Isabel" simply cannot appeal to everybody. Nonetheless, this film is recommendable to my fellow Italo-Horror buffs as a particularly bizarre and unusual production.

The plot centers around a witch burning in the 14th century, when Isabel (played by the stunning Rita Calderoni) is accused of witchcraft and burned; centuries later, people who seem to be (reincarnations of?) the accusers and the accused gather at a party in an old castle, and mysterious events begin to occur... or something.

The films wonderful visual style and elegant presentation of sleaze almost make it forgivable that the plot is utterly confusing and lacking any structure whatsoever. Visually, Polselli's film ranks only slightly below the works of masters such as Mario Bava and Antonio Margheriti - and this is a comparison I do not make frivolously. The cinematography is gorgeous, as are the ravishing actresses (Rita Calderoni above all). The film is as wonderfully sleazy as it may be expected from an Italian Occult Horror / Exploitation flick from the early 70s, and neither does it scant with the gore. However, there is simply no coherent storyline, but simply a collection of elegant, sleazy sequences attached to one another by a thin yet confusing plot. Apart from Rita Calderoni and a bunch of other beauties in the female cast, the film stars bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. Once the husband of Jayne Mansfield, Hargitay spent most of his acting career in Italian Cult productions, including director Polselli's own "Delirio Caldo", "La Figlia Di Frankenstein" ("Lady Frankenstein", 1971) and the unintentionally hilarious "Il Boia Scarlatto" ("The Crimson Executionner", 1964).

"The Reincarnation of Isabel" is, simply put, weird, weird, WEIRD, and while some people (myself included) will have a great time watching it, others will roll their eyes. Personally, I enjoyed the film; however, the film's plotlessness manifested in my drink consumption while watching it - when the film began, I opened a beer which I thought was the only one I'd drink that night, but once the film was over I was drinking my fifth.

Achieves a commendably high level of sleaze.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 31 December 2018]

Centuries ago, a gorgeous witch named Isabella (Rita Calderoni) was staked and burned alive; her lover vowed revenge. In modern times, a man named Jack Nelson (Mickey Hargitay) buys a mountaintop castle and moves there with his niece Laureen (also played by Calderoni) to celebrate her engagement. However, there are occultists on the premises who regularly sacrifice the hearts and eyes of comely female virgins to their exalted "great mistress", Isabella; they hope to restore her to life.

Writer & director Renato Polselli doesn't ever concern himself too much with telling a particularly coherent story, stuffing a lot of exposition into the final few minutes. Rather, he stresses other aspects of the presentation, to the delight of any Eurotrash-horror fan watching. It's very sexy (there's abundant nudity), very gory, and has a nonstop general feeling of weirdness and gloom. Polselli *does* have a way with atmosphere, aided in no small part by his cinematographer Ugo Brunelli. Brunellis' lighting schemes are wonderfully colourful, and are worthy of Mario Bava and Dario Argento at their most stylish. This *is* a gorgeous picture to look at, in more ways than one, with fine use of locations, and a psychedelic touch. There's even some actual intentional comedy, accompanied by a decidedly goofy variation in the otherwise subtle music.

The acting is basically tolerable, although Hargitay (former bodybuilder and husband of starlet Jayne Mansfield) is rather stiff. Also, Stefania Fassio is fatally annoying as motor mouthed airhead Steffy. This character wears out her welcome fairly quickly. William Darni is requisite hero Richard Brenton, and Italian Donald Pleasence lookalike Marcello Bonini Olas is amusing as a scar faced occultist named "Gerg".

Any viewer who adores the sleazier side of world cinema from this era is sure to take a liking to "Black Magic Rites", no matter how muddled the story is.

Six out of 10.

One of the weirdest and most entertaining Eurohorror movies I've ever seen! I didn't know what the hell was going on most of the time, but I still loved every minute of it!

[Infofreak · 19 June 2004]

This movie is best known as 'The Reincarnation Of Isabel', though I watched it as 'Black Magic Rites'. It's also sometimes titled 'The Ghastly Orgies Of Count Dracula'. Anyway, whatever you call it this is one freaky movie! This kind of quasi-psychedelic Eurohorror is I admit an acquired taste, but as I'm already a big fan of this kind of thing I find it hard to be objective about it. Despite (or maybe because of!) an impossible to follow plot, plenty of lousy acting and any excuse whatsoever to get the babes topless this is one of the weirdest and most entertaining movies of this type I've ever seen! Rita Calderoni from 'Nude For Satan' co-stars with Mickey Hargitay, the former bodybuilder and husband of Jayne Mansfield, who appeared in 'The Bloody Pit Of Horror' (by the way, if you're curious you can see Arnie play Hargitay in 'The Jayne Mansfield Story'). If you've seen 'Nude For Satan', imagine it was re-edited by someone tripping on acid and you'll have some idea of what '...Isabel' is like! If I resort to cliches and say you have to see it to believe it, it's because it's true... The plot... well, who knows what the plot is about! Some guys dressed up like Satanic superheros are sacrificing virgins in an attempt to resurrect their long dead leader, the witch (or was that vampire?) Isabella, who was burned at the stake by angry villagers hundreds of years before. I think. Oh, and Dracula's in there somewhere but I can't quite recall why. There are lots of flash backs and just about everybody plays two roles, so it's quite difficult to work out what the hell is going on most of the time! But you know what? It doesn't matter. I loved every minute of it.

Apparently, this film was considered lost for decades; damn the person who found it!

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 30 September 2020]

IMDB's synopsis for The Reincarnation of Isabel makes the film sound like fairly standard '70s Italian gothic horror: a group of satanists/vampires in a creepy castle attempt to restore life to a witch burnt at the stake several centuries before. In the hands of director Renato Polselli, however, the film is far from routine. In fact, it's downright bizarre (some might say totally inept), the erratic editing, 'unusual' directorial decisions, and eccentric performances meaning that, despite my best efforts, I soon lost track of what was happening, to whom, and why.

There's evidence to suggest that Polselli was a film-maker for whom nudity and sleaze was more important than a cohesive narrative (anyone who has seen his bonkers giallo Delirium and his incomprehensible pornographic 1980 film Quando l'amore è oscenità will know what I mean), and The Reincarnation of Isabel only reinforces that notion, the film making not a lick of sense but featuring a lot of hot women in the altogether. The high totty quotient just about makes the film bearable, although for some strange reason, most of the women have really bad hair-styles.

Terrible hair-dos (or should that be hair-don'ts?) aren't the only weird thing about this film: loopy lass Steffy (Stefania Fassio) wears inexplicably large fake eyelashes and falls over a lot; her friend has strange eye make-up (even for the '70s); kaleidoscopic coloured lighting illuminates random characters; the witch's body is stored in the castle's basement, remarkably well preserved given the passing of time and the fact that she was burnt at the stake; Donald Pleasence's Italian scar-faced counterpart aimlessly wanders the castle corridors; and there's a man with facial tics. The choppy, seemingly random editing (with a series of quick cuts replacing zooms) and shots taken at extreme angles (90 degrees and upside-down) only serve to make everything that much more impenetrable.

If Polselli has made a film that actually makes sense, I'll be more than happy to watch it; until I hear of one, I think I'll give his work a wide berth.

2/10 for the gratuitous nudity, and for a smidge of gore, and that's being generous.

Ridiculous and awesome

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 14 April 2022]

I mean, if you made a movie just for me, this would be it.

This had to be sent to the Italian censorship board twice, as they said that the film "consists of a rambling series of sadistic sequences, meant to urge, through extreme cruelty mixed with degenerate eroticism, the lowest sexual instincts."

Also called Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel Trecento...(Rites, Black Magic and Secret Orgies in the Fourteenth Century...) and The Reincarnation of Isabel, this was written and directed by Renato Polselli, who also made Delirio Caldo, The Vampire and the Ballerina and Revelations of a Psychiatrist on the World of Sexual Perversion.

Hundreds of years ago, Isabella (Rita Calderoni, Nude for Satan) was tortured and burned for being a witch as her lover swore revenge. Then we meet Jack Nelson (Mickey Hargitay, making some wild movies as always) and his stepdaughter Laureen (also Calderoni) who are celebrating her engagement in a castle without knowing that the cellar is host to the black magic rites of the title. And if they get seven sets of eyes and the blood of virgins, they can bring back Isabella.

Any time this movie feels like it's getting boring or starting to make sense, it cuts to either sex scenes or murder or Satanic rituals and you know, more movies could learn from what it was all about. I can only imagine the kind of parties that Polselli used to host.

There are also vampires, because this movie is also known as The Ghastly Orgies of Count Dracula.

You know, I never dated many girls who wore makeup before my wife. But there was one that was taking her time putting on makeup and she was putting on false eyelashes and I was trying to say that she didn't need all that makeup and lashes and she said, "I'm doing it for me. And you. So let me get hot for you." I wish I had seen this movie before I dated her, because man, the fake eyelashes in this are doing something to me.

All Over the Place

[derek-duerden · 4/10 · 15 November 2023]

In terms of the plot, acting, and especially the directing, it's quite difficult to know what to make of this film.

At one level, it's a familiar set of nonsense featuring a spooky castle, long-undead characters, gratuitous nudity, very cheap "special" effects and *very* variable levels of acting. However, what makes it stand out for me is the increasing apparent randomness of the scenes - just as if the director had decided to shoot "a bunch of stuff" and then assemble them in some sort of sequence while editing. (e.g. "this spooky guy in the cloak looks good on the battlements against the setting sun - let's drop that in a few times" and "we've got these girls tied up on crosses - let's keep flashing back to that to keep the audience awake", etc...)

Utterly bonkers and quite entertaining if you like this sort of thing, but not a good film!

Alternates between intriguing and cheap with seemingly no distinction

[udar55 · 7/10 · 15 January 2013]

Jack Nelson (Mickey Hargitay) arrives a gloomy looking castle with his fiancé Laureen (Rita Calderoni) and strange things start to happen immediately. Why? The hell if I know but it is somehow related to Laureen being the reincarnation of Isabella, a witch who was staked and burned alive 500 years ago. Oh, and there are some vampires wandering around too. This is my second Renato Polselli flick (after the previous year's DELIRIUM, also with Hargitay) and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It is great in spots (moody lighting and an interesting editing technique) and completely lousy in others (totally fake rubber bats and easily exposed black backdrops outside of set windows). The biggest problem is it runs way too long (1 hour and 49 minutes) and doesn't make a lick of sense. Worth seeing once just for the 70s feel and the abundance of nudity.

Euro-horror offers more sex than horror

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 8 December 2015]

Normally I'm the first to jump at the chance of watching a wacky, psychedelic slice of steaming Euro-horror, but sadly Renato Polselli's 1973 travesty left me totally cold. Written without a plot in mind, to watch BLACK MAGIC RITES… is to experience a jumble of incoherent, absurd sequences with little logic or reality behind them. With better editing, scripting and direction, this might have been half-watchable, but it's frankly a bore.

Former bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay (THE LOVES OF HERCULES) quit making movies after this one and it's easy to see why; he starts the film as a dashing heroic type but, by the end, when he appears in blackface wearing a tight red leotard, you know he'd had enough of the whole industry and who can blame him? Poselli is more interested in getting his leading actresses to strip off over and over again, making this more of a sexploitation film than horror. Endless scenes of coupling, groping, stripping and chained women are what BLACK MAGIC RITES… offers, and if you're happy to watch all of that without a shred of plot, then you might just like this one.

Despite the film's nonsensical approach to plotting, there are some classic Euro-horror elements to be enjoyed, albeit briefly. There's a crippled, scarred servant straight out of a Universal horror flick, except a little more pervy; plus some wonderful Italian locations, mountains and all, used as backdrops; the scenery is even easier on the eye than the girls. Scenes of a witch-cum-vampire being spiked and burnt are also pretty effective, reminiscent of Mairo Bava's superior Black Sunday. Polselli doesn't skimp on the bloodshed, even if none of it is remotely horrifying; close ups of hands clutching freshly-torn hearts are the order of the day here. BLACK MAGIC RITES… is clearly a product of the late '60s, with lots of psychedelic and hallucinogenic inserts, flashing lights, jump cutting and other camera tricks going on. While this kind of stuff is nice enough to watch (despite badly dating the movie) it's a shame Polselli didn't try harder at directing the damn film.

Another thing that ruins the film is the score… oh boy, talk about inappropriate! The cheesiest scene in the film involves a threesome (the guy with a blinking problem) in which the music is straight out of a comedy film – yet the scene isn't supposed to be funny! The climax of the film involves yet more chained women and a ton of nudity, but there's only so much nudity a viewer can watch before it becomes boring. Give this one a miss because it just doesn't press any of the right buttons.

Entertaining Euro-trash...

[soggycow · 7/10 · 17 April 2000]

"Reincarnation of Isabel" is a great example of good Euro-trash. It triumphs over its obviously low budget through a combination of gore, unintentional humor, a great score, flashy camera work, and large amounts of gratuitous nudity. It is surprising that this movie has not received a cult status yet, being that it is better than many cult movies. Thanks must be given to Redemption (the company that put this out) for finding a print of this movie, which was long considered lost, and giving it its first domestic release ever.

The "plot" is as follows: A woman named Isabel is burned at the stake when the Inquisition comes to her small village. Apparently they are not too far off, either, because she actually was a witch. Her husband and another local take her body and put it in the dungeon of a castle. Flip to present day: The husband and some of the locals who were on his side have been reincarnated (no explanation is given), and through some twist of fate know it. The husband then attempts to reincarnate Isabel with the hearts of young virgins in some satanic ritual. There is actually much more to the plot (something to do with vampires, and many unnecessary characters), but it all becomes a confused mess. This lack of plot can be forgiven, though, because the plot is not what the movie is trying for.

"Reincarnation of Isabel" is one of the most enjoyable Euro-trash movies, containing everything one has come to expect from this genre. Well, not quite everything. This movie unfortunately lacks in violence and gore. After the violent opening, the movie contains no more realistic effects (it does, however, contain some unrealistic effects. For example, a few "witches" are scratched with sticks, which is fine and dandy (they were topless, after all), but the effect was so cheap it was unintentionally humorous. It was achieved through the use of rubbing a blunt club with wet paint on the end against the skin of the two "witches."). The fake violence was not the only source of unintentional humor; the subtitles were actually much funnier. On the plus side, the acting was surprisingly good and solid, the music was decent, and the direction was pretty solid. It should also be noted that "Reincarnation..." gets better with every viewing. It should be viewed at least twice to get the wanted effect.

Recommended for all fans of Eurohorror. My rating: 7 out of 10.

Fun, sleazy nonsense

[Logan-22 · 4/10 · 27 October 2002]

This movie makes no sense (like most Italian horror films I've seen), but has enough sleazy nudity, blood and weirdness going on that it doesn't really matter. What made the film work for me was the haunting, erotic soundtrack! I liked this about as much as the similarly ridiculous NUDE FOR SATAN (also from Redemption/Image). Worth a rental if you enjoy this type of nonsense, but I can't see anyone buying the disk and watching it more than once.

There's no doubt about it - they don't make 'em like this any more!

[Red-Barracuda · 8/10 · 16 February 2012]

Well you sure can't fault director Renato Polselli for not trying to entertain us that's for sure. The Reincarnation of Isabel like his deranged giallo Delirium before it is a non-stop barrage of sleazy thrills and gore. Polselli was certainly not a director who could be accused of being understated. His films are deranged and borderline incomprehensible, and full to the brim with naked women. He was clearly an unashamed exploitation film-maker who just got down to it and served up the goods with no consideration whatsoever to good taste and decency. But you know what? His movies do have a definite style – albeit a pretty haphazard one. The Reincarnation of Isabel is a perfect example. It's about a group of vampires who keep the body of a witch in the basement of a castle, awaiting a chance to resurrect her with the blood of several virgins. Cue the arrival of a party of knuckle-heads with the requisite gaggle of – deeply unconvincing – virgins.

I suppose it's a rip off of Mario Bava's Black Sunday in a way. Not that you'll probably notice as other than the witch idea it's a pure sleaze-fest with some gory violence chucked in for good measure. Every woman who appears in it gets naked and is terrorised at some point. Its sexist stuff of the first order naturally, although not quite as misogynistic as Delirium. The story sort of makes sense some of the time but you'll be forgiven for wondering what's going on a lot of the rest of the time. Polselli's haphazard style is the reason for this, as scenes are edited together bizarrely and characters act in ways that can only be described as insane. The film stars the always entertaining Mickey Hargitay and Rita Calderoni, both of who appear in Delirium along with most of the other cast members from that film. I was also astonished at the appalling haircuts sported by most of the girls – in virtually every other Italian production from the time the women all look like they have been groomed by super-chic stylists; the chicks here look more like they have been dragged through a hedge. But what the hell, they all get naked right? Anyway, the soundtrack is pretty good - quite moody and at times psychedelic, while the camera work is sometimes inventive and the dungeon set is admittedly pretty funky.

Overall, it's a very commendable example of Euro-Trash. Senseless? Yes. Gratuitous? Of course. Laughable? At times. Entertaining? Oh yeah.

Beauty...sleaze...and a lot of confusion!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 14 June 2004]

This long-lost exploitation treasure surely lists among the weirdest films I ever saw. To be quite sure, I'm still don't know how to give a rating to it… the plot is full of nonsense and illogicalness and impossible to summarize. In fact, I would have turned off this movie much earlier if it wasn't for all the beauty it features. The Reincarnation of Isabel has an amazing force on attraction! It constantly introduces barely-dressed beauty queens and photographs them in the most stylish and sensual ways you've ever seen! Although no structure whatsoever (the plot jumps back and forth in time, seeing it handles about some sort of immortal vampire cult who sacrifices virgins every twenty-fifth moon… or something), you just can't press the `stop'-button on the remote of your DVD-player. Fans of macabre cinema will regard this film as an absolute highlight…even they won't get it, neither. It purely has to be seen for its weirdness and incomprehensible style. Sleaze, violence and atmosphere like you've never seen it before. For the eccentric cinema-freaks among us!

if you can summarize it in one line... just make me know, please

[michaelwotruba · 3/10 · 17 August 2005]

Past and present (and also night and day, sadly) get really confused when a witch is reborn by a sect of black magic fanatic (really ridiculously dressed and made up). Young girls get naked, (maybe) killed, used to give new life to Isabel. Perhaps they die too, but it's not too clear... What is clear is the absurd and incoherent storyline Polselli did create to show us some tits and (not that much) gore. Anyway: the actors are really bad and the sets couldn't look much poor. Luckily, there is an imaginative photography by Ugo Brunelli (who later would be working on another great title of the grade-Z Italian cinema: The Beast in Heat, 1977 by Leopoldo Savona). If you're fans of the trash you'll enjoy this one... otherwise be warned

One-of-a-kind erotic horror flick

[lazarillo · 24 March 2005]

A group of people are having a party in a castle one of them (Mickey Hargitay) has just bought. The castle is haunted by the malignant presence of a witch who was burned 500 years earlier and who, not surprisingly, looks just like one of the guests (Rita Calderoni). Yet another rip-off of Mario Bava's "Black Sunday"?--of course, but this movie is much, much more than that. All the male guests are either reincarnations of the earlier historical figures or vampires who have been living for centuries waiting for the opportunity to reincarnate the witch, Isabel. The women meanwhile are all virgins because, not only are virgins necessary for the ceremony, but as one character eloquently puts it, "Vampires need blood uncontaminated by human semen." (This leads one dumb girl in a particularly hilarious scene to give up her virginity to her nymphomaniac friend and a fat, ugly guy with a severe facial twitch).

Obviously, the main appeal of this movie is sex and nudity, but anyone watching it SOLELY for that purpose might be a little frustrated as this a Renato Polselli film, a man whose directorial style can best be described as completely deranged. While there are acres of flesh on display here, Polselli often seems more interested in the bizarro camera angles, the staccato editing sequences, and the pulse-pounding score than he is in lingering on the action like some of his hack contemporaries (or more modern-day "erotic" filmmakers) would have done. All the actors and actresses from Polselli's more famous film "Delerio Caldo" show up again here, and while the latter are even more naked than they were in "Delerio Caldo", some of them turn out to be pretty untalented as thespians(and Polselli doesn't have the good sense to kill them off quickly like he did in the other film). Meanwhile, the stronger actors like Hargitay, Calderoni, and Krysta Barrymore are pretty much wasted in the incomprehensible chaos the film quickly descends into.

Regardless of whether you like this film or not, however, I GUARANTEE you'll never see anything else like it.

Reincarnation of Isabelle

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 14 November 2008]

A witch, Isabella, was turned into a vampire by Count Dracula, removed from her bed with the bloodsucker, bound to a wooden cross, and a stake plunged into her chest. Her spirit is dormant and the village folk in the castle, gathered together to celebrate Lauren's forthcoming marriage, resemble the people who attended Isabella's crucifixion. The reincarnated spirits begin to thrive once again in certain members of the males within the castle and they are dedicated to bringing Isabella back, their Satanic costumes and ritualistic tools/devices within a surreal worship chamber, her dead body, hole opened where the stake was stabbed, awaiting resurrection. Lauren is to be the door through her reentering our world. Will her fiancé, a non-believer, find a way to help Lauren, or will she be a chosen vessel for evil to be reborn? Will any viewer even care?

Zany Satanic thriller from director Renato Polselli shifts through different eras, when Isabella was crucified as hecklers and those that care for her look on, in modern time as new people inhabit the castle still housing dark powers, and the worship chamber with followers enacting torturous, barbaric routines for their Isabella. Certain characters stand out in the modern plot. Christa Barrymore is Christa, a believer who is chosen as a way of luring her virgin sisters to their supposed doom, as possible sacrificial victims for Isabella. Mickey Hargitay and Rita Calderoni return from Polsetti's Delirium, to star as Jack Nelson & Lauren, stepfather and stepdaughter. Hargitay, I think, also portrays Dracula in the past, watching in horror as the village men stake his beloved Isabella on a wooden cross in the chest. Calderoni portrays the witch Isabella, and lookalike target Lauren who is chosen to be her gateway from the dead. I attempted, without ceasing, to make sense of the film as the director toys with time and narrative structure, with all types of wacky theatrics(Stefania Fassio's bonkers Stephy is a bonafide buffoon played to the hilt, aggravating all those around her, always seeking attention)and visual flourishes(..like how he shoots faces from all angles and shrouded in psychedelic colors). As you might know, there are ample opportunities for the director to expose breasts, especially the delicious Calderoni who was quite a gorgeous woman to ogle over. The film highlights the "virgins" targeted as potential victims for Isabella, ravaged by Satan's disciples at the end as they are taken to the worship chamber. One, Christa, is almost buried alive in a harrowing sequence as those who attended her funeral had left, her chance of escape left to the mercy of a demented facially scarred servant who is often singled out by the director hiding in corners with a gleeful look on his face willing to cause harm to anyone if allowed. My favorite scene would have to be when Christa is being fondled forcefully from behind by an unknown assailant as he grabs her breasts, his free hand feeling down her body, as she slowly succumbs to an awakening sexual desire(..the camera shoots down her chest as the hand grabs and caresses). While not as violent as it could've been, this sure is a lurid shocker. A rather alarming sex scene between Stephy, her female girlfriend, and a grotesque "twitching" loon is sure to leave a lasting impression..either as a way to repulse or excite depending on your taste. There is an explanation at the very end as to what is going on, but I'm sure many will even grow more frustrated and confused. Raul Lovecchio, as a grim-faced *occultist*, owns a portion of the newly ocupied castle, warning others of the evil that presently resides within the place, and has all the answers as to what is truly going on.

"Vampires need blood that's not contaminated by human semen." Worthless.

[poolandrews · 2/10 · 4 February 2006]

Riti, Magie Nere e Segrete Orge nel Trecento (which translates into English as Rites, Black Magic and Secret Orgies in the Fourteenth Century apparently), or Black Magic Rites as it's more commonly known as along with other suggestive titles such as The Horrible Orgies of Count Dracula & The Reincarnation of Isabel, starts in the crypt of a large castle with a sacrificial offering to a Vampire/witch named Isabella (Rita Calderoni) 'the great mistress' who was burned alive in the fourteenth century. An unfortunate woman is tied to a stone slab & her heart is cut out by Isabella's husband who happens to be Count Dracula (Raoul Rossi) himself! But without any fangs. In a ritual of the twenty-fifth moon Isabella will be reincarnated, anyway another woman named Raquel is killed & her heart removed. Laureen (Rita Calderoni again) & Richard are engaged to be married & Laureens uncle Jack (Mickey Hargitay) has brought the castle for her, they are holding a big party & various guests fall victim to Isabella's reincarnation rites as she needs the heart & eyes of a virgin or something like that & that's as well as I can explain the 'story', if I've got something wrong don't bother letting me know as I don't care.

This Italian production was written & directed by Renato Polselli (he directed under the pseudonym Ralph Brown) & quite frankly is one of the most incoherent, bizarre, strange, baffling & worthless films I've seen in a long time. The script probably made some sort of sense as the written word on a piece of paper but in the hands of Polselli, sorry Brown it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I'm not exaggerating when I say I seriously doubt anyone will be able to follow this thing & make any sort of sense out of it. People do things for no apparent reason, their motivations are baffling, the story is an absolute mess that's all over the place, the character's are virtually indefinable & it's hard to keep track of who's who, the dialogue is minimal & the subtitles lead me to believe it's very basic & Polselli tries his hand at a bit of comedy with a idiot bloke who has a threesome with two women complete with comedy soundtrack & a bit where he tries to remove a hair from his mouth, I'm not sure if the hair came form the women or his terrible moustache! There is also some weirdo hunchback guy named Greg(!) (Marcello Bonini Olas) & references to Count Dracula & Vampires as if things weren't strange enough already. I don't even think Riti, Magie Nere e Sergrete Orge nel Trecento should be called a 'film' & I'm sure most would agree that you need to be taking something to enjoy this, the filmmakers obviously did!

Director Polselli certainly gives the film a unique look, it has very rich colours & a cool visual style throughout but bathing people & things in bright neon lights for no reason whatsoever just adds another layer of bizarreness to the proceedings. Anyway it's pretty nice to look at. The editing is atrocious as it cuts to random scenes, things & people that seem to have nothing to do with the current situation. Even simple scenes of two people talking become highly irritating as Polselli cuts, zooms & pans all over the place. The continuity is unbelievably bad, just check the scene out when the two women are chased through the village it switches between bright daytime & the dead of night seemingly at random! There's a bit when someone is buried & from the outside the coffin is a normal size but when the film cuts inside it's massive! There is plenty of naked flesh on show & a couple of ripped out hearts but nothing too explicit.

Technically the film alternates between very good & extremely stylish to the most poorly made atrocity I've seen, there's a bit at the end with a 'snake pit' which has all of two rubber snakes in it! You can see the wire/string pulling them along! The awful rubber bats aren't any better either. The acting is, well not great but then look at what they had to work with. Basically nothing.

Riti, Magie Nere e Segrete Orge nel Trecento is an absolute mess of a film, it's confusing, muddled, incoherent & worst of all it provides virtually zero entertainment value. It's certainly unique & I doubt there are too many film out there like this but that in itself is not recommendation. It has a few nice visually stylistic moments in it, a few babes & a couple of ripped out hearts, apart from that it's worthless.

This director makes Ed Wood Jr look like Orson Welles....

[BigBabe0 · 1/10 · 31 July 2009]

Okay, I admit I may've nodded off a few times while watching this video; maybe that's when the "fun stuff" (i.e. nasty stuff) occurred. What I remember is lots of shots of people talking (faces often changing color at random) and a few shots of women standing around looking unhappy (presumably due to being stuck in this piece of dreck). Apparently it's about witches or Satan or something. The notorious "Manos: Hands of Fate" had more dramatic drive and continuity (and that using a camera that could only film 32 seconds at a time). Only two sequences made much of an impression on me: one with a bunch of angry villagers menacing a couple of suspected witches with sticks; these folks looked like "regular people," but as Fellini pointed out, "All Italians are actors," and these were great. The other sequence had a woman sitting down wearing some kind of headband watching four or five other women, each of whom was tied or chained to a post of some kind. Nothing in particular happened as I recall, just showed the sitting woman glancing from one standing woman to the next, but it was amusing imagining it being worked into some kind of warped game-show context. "Which of these contestants can remain standing the longest?? Will it be number one, number two..." The end of the movie had a woman falling to the ground in what I gathered was meant to be a humorous manner, based on the background music. Final verdict: "Well, there's 93 minutes of my life I'll never get back..." By the way, Jayne Mansfield's husband and Mariska Hargitay's father was also in it, but I also don't remember him doing much but standing around getting dubbed....

Reincarnation of Isabelle..

[stuart-james · 6/10 · 20 April 2022]

Bizarre softcore porn vampyric fantasy!

I completely blame myself for not finding this film more entertaining and not following the plot. Obviously I needed to drop LSD beforehand.

Nice random boobs and completely unnecessary erotic scenes.

Still it had it's charms.... Unique.

Some films are so bizarre that people couldn't replicate even if they tried.

No redeeming features whatsoever

[Mrswing · 1/10 · 12 May 2004]

Totally incomprehensible mess of a film, which mixes Satanists, reincarnated witches and vampires to no good effect - apparently the shoestring budget didn't allow for plastic vampire teeth, plus these so-called bloodsuckers (there's never any actual evidence of neckbiting) do not follow any of the usual vampire rules. The editing is extremely confusing, the score ridiculous, the acting... what acting? Hardly any gore, and what is present is very obviously fake. Lots of strictly R-rated nudity, so even on the sleaze level this is a very mild entry. Apparently this film had been lost for many years - and with good reason, too. Avoid unless you're in a masochistic mood.

So bad u gotta see it (to figure out how not good it was)

[tensaip · 5/10 · 30 October 2010]

I won't bother regurgitating the plot, because the movie didn't seriously try to have one. It had an idea for a plot, but... well, read the other reviews in the comment section.

This is going to be an analogy of how not good REINCARNATION OF ISABEL played.

It was as if... the producers had arranged a train wreck killing the entire cast and crew (including Renato Polselli) on their way home from location to collect on a life insurance scam. The wreck also destroyed all copies of the finished script but spared 90% of the exposed negatives. Not satisfied with just the insurance money, the producers then hired an undergrad film student to edit the footage into a releasable film by the end of spring break. With neither a script nor a budget, the student calls his girlfriend at the college radio station to borrow a few albums nobody at the station will notice missing and then join him at the editing studio. The two then spend the next week cutting the film and dubbing in the music and dialogue by themselves. Finishing just in time, they suddenly realize that one missing can of film rolled behind the refrigerator and was ruined before they could make use of it.

Thus, we are left with a finished product that is haphazardly structured, inappropriately scored, and buffoonishly scripted. We have a scene in which a doctor character is molesting his patient in one room while simultaneously applying a vampire bite to a different woman in a completely different room. SIMULTANEOUSLY, dude! We have a virgin-raping 3-way scored to ragtime harpsichord. We get a Donald Pleasance impersonator thrown into a snake-pit with only TWO snakes in it and one is already DEAD. Even at the denouement when Laureen runs down the stairs, she's barefoot, but once outside she's wearing bedroom slippers. WTF, was she keeping them by the front door?

Nuts

[Bezenby · 8/10 · 3 March 2019]

"Don't try and understand it," says one character here, standing in what may be another dimension while green and red light plays over his face. I think I'll take his advice.

Although this doesn't quite top Renato Polselli's Mania in terms of delirious insanity, it gives it a good try! Set...somewhere...it involves a young girl being taken to a castle by her stepfather (Micky Hargity) 'round about the time where a young girl is sacrificed by four cloaked cultists who remove her heart and promise that a girl called Isabel will be born again. Isabel by the way is chained up to a wall where the cultists live (it might not actually be a place at all), and she has a huge burned hole in her chest, like someone has stubbed out the world's biggest cigar there. This being a Gothic horror film, the young girl (Laureen) is either Isabel reincarnated or her doppelganger. I'm none the wise even though I just watched the thing. Oh, and someone gets attacked by bats and their heart ripped out by an unknown person in the real world. Jesus. One paragraph in and I'm already struggling.

Before the plot completely unravelled I managed to understand that Hargity had bought a bit of a castle but there was a strange cultist guy living in another bit of the castle. There are also seven virgins there to celebrate Laureen's engagement to Richard.There was also a creepy caretaker type and a guy with a twitch who fancied an over the top ditzy girl who both supplied comedy at all the wrong times. We also get a very lengthy flashback where Isabel is impaled and burned at the stake which goes on forever but also seems to highlight that everyone in this film is a reincarnation of someone from 500 years ago. I've got a headache now.

I'm still making this sound straightforward! With all the time travelling, flashbacks, dimension hopping, screaming, comedy and people possibly being vampires but possibly not being vampires, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this film is bad, but it's not! I doesn't make any sense, but the whole film from start to finish seems to be intended as some sort of visual LSD tripe. Polselli's can barely film a scene in a normal fashion, with rapid editing from multiple angles (including upside down for extra insanity), bathing people in gel lighting that constantly changes, or intercutting scenes so rapidly you'd swear you were going to have a seizure.

Between this and the film Mania I'm not sure what Polselli was aiming for, but I have no regrets going along for the ride. Both of these films are amongst the most insane, entertaining films Italian cinema has to offer. I've no doubt left out about 90% of what happens in this film.

THE REINCARNATION OF ISABEL (Renato Polselli, 1973) *1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 2/10 · 20 August 2008]

What I wrote about this one at the end of my review for the same director's DELIRIUM (1972) turned out to be the height of understatement: this is one insanely incomprehensible and intensely incompetent film – which I brought myself to award a higher rating than BOMB only because of its undeniable entertainment value!

To begin with, the picture can't seem to make up its mind whether the titular figure is a witch or a vampire (so that we're treated to various occult rites and would-be feral attacks – if anything, both involve the consumption of fresh blood). Isabel's reincarnation seemed possible via the sacrifice of seven virgins (though when they're finally captured for this purpose, we don't get so many – maybe the production ran out of extras, or else they simply thought the audience wouldn't notice!); however, given that one of the girls is a dead ringer for the witch herself (both, in fact, are played by Rita Calderoni), why were the others even needed?! It goes without saying, then, that the various returning actors from DELIRIUM were far better served by their roles in that earlier outing (I seriously doubt how much of the script they understood this time around).

Incidentally, considering that very little characterization is even attempted, I couldn't help whiling away the time in associating a number of the faces with celebrity music figures – so that Mickey Hargitay (who, unsurprisingly, would retire soon after!) resembles Mick Jagger, Raoul (the inspector from DELIRIUM is here the hostile landlord/head vampire who goes by the name of…drum roll, please…Dracula) looks like George Harrison, the hero Richard reminded me of John Entwistle, while the unhinged butler seemed like Mick Fleetwood (albeit with 'undead' make-up approximating that of Herk Harvey in CARNIVAL OF SOULS [1962])!! Having mentioned this singular musical association, there's a scene in which the hero is shown trying to break the latch of the gateway to the dungeon where Calderoni has been trapped, a scene that is unaccountably introduced by an outburst of rock music (Giovanni Reverberi's score does manage elsewhere a lovely theme befitting the generally Gothic mood) – not having had the time to realize just where Richard was and what he was doing, and coupled with the character's visible wincing and the jutting of a piece of metal at the corner of the frame, both my brother and I were deceived into thinking he was strumming on some electric guitar (by this point, we honestly were ready to expect just about anything from the film)! Ironically, Polselli was reported as saying that what he intended all along was to depict the heightened perception of events by people in the throes of hysteria – except that, in our case, this alternative visualization was more the result of sheer bewilderment!

With this in mind, many scenes in the film have two or three different layers of reality to them – giving the whole an appropriately surreal vibe…but the treatment is so hopelessly clumsy (ranging from delirious editing to blatant day-for-night shooting) that it all goes for naught! At first, too, it seemed interesting that all the characters (which Polselli doesn't bother to clearly define) were 'present' at the time of the witch-burning but, while it's established that Raoul had himself been re-incarnated, there's no explanation whatsoever about the physical likeness of all the others – again, it must be that extras were hard to come by! Even more baffling is the emphasis on a ditzy girl (the actress playing her had been the first victim in DELIRIUM) – providing deliberately(?) terrible acting, unfunny comedy relief (denoting her nymphomaniac personality, Polselli even chooses to end the film with a double entendre involving her!) and, worst of all, is involved in an extended and wholly gratuitous ménage-a'-trois with another (good-looking) girl and a fattish simpleton distinguished only by his facial tick (a scene that would have been deemed tasteless in even the most vulgar of low-brow Italian comedies then also in vogue!). Yet another head-scratching moment is the fact that, in one scene, the medieval(?) citizens are seen baying for the blood of two (of the proposed seven) sacrificial victims in particular – for no discernible reason other than to provide an excuse for a chase in which the girls (wearing just capes and one of whom is well endowed to boot) are finally cornered as if they were wild animals!

When all is said and done, I can only suggest the film for the unenviable position of the absolute nadir of the "Euro-Cult" style during its creative heyday – deposing, in fact, previous titleholder TRAGIC CEREMONY (1971)! This reminds me that I've got another obscure Gothic outing, Luigi Batzella's THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT (1973), to watch as part of my ongoing marathon; for the record, the same director would later make NUDE FOR Satan (1974) – also with Calderoni – and which, coincidentally, is regarded as ideal pairing (that is to say, is equally loony) for THE REINCARNATION OF ISABEL itself…

horrible (no pun intended)

[drifterrus · 30 October 2003]

This is one of the worst films I've seen, unlike much of the Italian sleaze/giallo genre. The actors do not know how to act, editor was on permanent leave, beautiful landscapes only make its hollowness more apparent. Avoid it, there's nothing to enjoy. Even the blood looks more artificial than cranberry sauce.