I am going to make a few assumptions here with this review. I would guess that most of us, like myself, come to the reviews section on this site to see if people with similar tastes liked the movie or not. Maybe we're trying to get some sense of whether we will like the movie. I am going to make an assumption that you, as a reader/ viewer already have some interest or affinity for the genre or the style. You MUST have a tolerance for low budget, 70s, art-house horror. To say that this is low budget is an understatement. I have seen student films that looked better. I am, also, going to make the assumption that you have some familiarity with Mexican cinema and, especially, Mexican horror. If this is your first Mexican film, then you could do worse, but you could also do better as for an introductory point. As with the cinema of any country, there are usually some underlying similarities (I hate to paint with too broad a brush). There is a style to Italian horror, Korean horror, Japanese horror, etc, and there is most certainly a style to Mexican horror. The 5 cent introduction is that you have to understand the pervading influence of Catholic culture and it helps to have an appreciation or understanding of the artistic concepts of surrealism and magic realism.
This is, most definitely, a bizarre film, but one that is carried by some intriguing imagery and ideas. It plays, rather well, with the borders between fantasy and reality and between good and evil. One is never sure if the events are really happening and which events are being skewed heavily by the viewpoint of an "unreliable narrator". Just when you are sure that certain events are "true" and others are dream images, or fantasies, those dream images have an effect on the "true events" and vice versa. Eventually, one must accept that all the events are "true" in the sense of the film itself and just sort of accept it all as true. The fact that the same person plays both the faun-like gypsy who initiates the young girls into evil, as well as the doctor who represents the "sane voice" of science and logic is not a mistake, but furthers the ideas that everything and nothing is as it seems.
As stated earlier, the lines between good and evil are blurred as well. The young girls are portrayed as innocents, seduced into a world of satanism. They are our heroines, yet Alucarda, especially, is pure evil, a fact that comes to a head in the fiery finale. On the other hand, the clergy and nuns come from a place that is supposed to be good, yet are clearly presented as the backwards, superstitious villains in most cases, all except for a few pure nuns who have the girls best interests at heart, yet even the "best of them" kills a gypsy with a telekinetic prayer assault of some sort.
The movie is held back by some real limitations. Mostly, it is far too short and under-developed. The relationship between Alucarda and Justine is not given enough room to breath and develop before we are to believe that they are willing to sell their souls to the devil together. In turn, the nuns needed more development to let us, as the viewer, get a better feel for who was who and what their roles are meant to be. The version I saw was dubbed (not my preference, but the only one I could find available), so I am not going to judge the acting. On the plus side, there are some great images in this movie, reminiscent of THE DEVILS, with nuns who are so intent on self-punishment that it becomes almost perverse, plenty of unexpected bloodshed, fiery deaths, a Baphomet-like devil creature, bloody reanimated corpses and plenty of mood-inspiring crucifixes.
This is, most definitely, a bizarre film, but one that is carried by some intriguing imagery and ideas. It plays, rather well, with the borders between fantasy and reality and between good and evil. One is never sure if the events are really happening and which events are being skewed heavily by the viewpoint of an "unreliable narrator". Just when you are sure that certain events are "true" and others are dream images, or fantasies, those dream images have an effect on the "true events" and vice versa. Eventually, one must accept that all the events are "true" in the sense of the film itself and just sort of accept it all as true. The fact that the same person plays both the faun-like gypsy who initiates the young girls into evil, as well as the doctor who represents the "sane voice" of science and logic is not a mistake, but furthers the ideas that everything and nothing is as it seems.
As stated earlier, the lines between good and evil are blurred as well. The young girls are portrayed as innocents, seduced into a world of satanism. They are our heroines, yet Alucarda, especially, is pure evil, a fact that comes to a head in the fiery finale. On the other hand, the clergy and nuns come from a place that is supposed to be good, yet are clearly presented as the backwards, superstitious villains in most cases, all except for a few pure nuns who have the girls best interests at heart, yet even the "best of them" kills a gypsy with a telekinetic prayer assault of some sort.
The movie is held back by some real limitations. Mostly, it is far too short and under-developed. The relationship between Alucarda and Justine is not given enough room to breath and develop before we are to believe that they are willing to sell their souls to the devil together. In turn, the nuns needed more development to let us, as the viewer, get a better feel for who was who and what their roles are meant to be. The version I saw was dubbed (not my preference, but the only one I could find available), so I am not going to judge the acting. On the plus side, there are some great images in this movie, reminiscent of THE DEVILS, with nuns who are so intent on self-punishment that it becomes almost perverse, plenty of unexpected bloodshed, fiery deaths, a Baphomet-like devil creature, bloody reanimated corpses and plenty of mood-inspiring crucifixes.