Night of the sorcerers (1973)

An expedition travels to Africa to investigate the disappearance of elephants in a particular area. When they arrive the local population warns them not to wander around in the jungle at night, especially not around the old sacrificial grounds nearby. For the sake of plot development you know what will happen. It doesn’t take long before the pretty young ladies of the expedition have been sacrificed to a god and resurrected as leopardvampires (meaning they wear leopard bikinis and jump around in slomo). The hero of the movie could probably have stopped all of this early on but he was much too busy boning his girlfriend every time it was his watch. Now he has to stop the evil leopardvampires before it is too late. Or something.

My first thought was that this felt a lot like one of those awful Jess Franco adventure/cannibalmovies. The plot, the environment (a Spanish national park standing in for Africa) and the large number of naked breasts in plain view(including something every movie should have. Nude flashbacks) makes all of this comfortably sleazy and enjoyable. However, this is not the average sloppy zoom fest of Franco, Amando De Ossorios movie is surprisingly well made on a budget that obviously was very low. The photography is good and although there is a shitload of so so day for night scenes it still works well. Maria Kosty, Kali Hansa and Loretta Tovar prance around in the jungle wearing as little clothes as possible which make Night of the sorcerers so much more fun to watch. Simon Andreau does an decent job as the hero who can’t resist putting his penis in his girlfriend even if it means that he endangers the lives of everyone else and Jack Taylor is his usual dependable mustached self as the leader of the expedition. This is a fun exploitationmovie who can’t really be described as good but is still full of yummy goodness. The ritual that is used to create the vampires is particularly sleazy, whipping the clothes of the ladies and decapitating them. I mean, come on. You can’t hate stuff like that. It might be impossible to take the movie seriously due to the leopardwomen that jump around in the jungle in slomo while they hiss. But you do get all gooey and warm inside while watching it.