Black magic rites (1973)

When a movie starts with a group of men in red bodysuits sacrificing a naked woman to Satan in order to resurrect their mistress you know you are in for a good time and Renato Polsellis Black magic rites strikes all the right notes for me. Not that it is a particularily coherent and meaningful experience, it's just so full of violence, nudity and plain weirdness that you cannot do anything other than like it.

A group of people gather at a castle for a lavish party and before you know it we are in flashback heaven. In fact, there are so many flashbacks that it is at times hard to know if it is supposed to be a flashback when it happens several times in the same scene. Hundreds of years earlier a witch was burned at the stake and now her reincarnated husband wants to sacrifice seven virgins to ensure her return and this means we get to see lots of nudity. Lots of nudity. The scene with the burning of the witch is an absurd example of what this movie is all about when they tie her up, tear off her clothes to display a pair of magnificient breasts and then proceed to shove a wooden stake into her heart. Now, this goes on for about five minutes with the woman moaning and crying with a wooden stake shoved straight through her heart! Clearly her body is ripe with satanic powers that enables her to survive so long!

And this continues on without anything really resembling a coherent plot. One by one these women succumb to hidden lesbian lusts and weird flashbacks before being bitten by what appears to be vampires but have no sharp teeth and leave no marks. How do I know that there are vampires? Well, halfway through the movie there is talk of someone being Count Dracula. Uh. I will admit that my attention to the intricacies of the plot was at times very limited, my mind was more focused on the nudity and the plain weirdness of it all. The good thing about all of this is that is is so full of weird lighting and outlandish cinematography that you just sit there amazed by the whole thing. Not a good film by any means, but sure as hell more entertaining than most. And now it is out on bluray, dear lord. Do I want to watch this on bluray? Yes I do.

Yes, this isnt for everyone, afficionados of italian sleaze will lap this up but the rest of the world probably not. You know which camp you belong to.