Franco!

SUCCUBUS-1968-A demon or Satan(?) sends Lorna (Janine Reynaud), a stripper who does a staged S&M snuff film nightclub act, to kill. She meets an older guy (Howard Vernon) and stabs him in the eye. At a party people take drugs, dance and hallucinate. One guy who doesn't take drugs reads from a book. Lorna does a dance on the floor and the dwarf butler makes weird noises. Just when it looks like an orgy will break out her boyfriend/club mgr. Bill (Jack Taylor) breaks it up. After they have sex, he recites a story about a Queen with amnesia. There's a lot of walking around and talking until Lorna and another woman go her place to fool around. Some mannequins seem to come to life and Lorna stabs the woman to death. She then kisses one of the bald dummies. 

This thing moves at a snail's pace and may have been hot stuff in the late '60's but now it's boring out of date Euro-trash. To make sure you know Jesus Franco (in his first film outing outside his native Spain) directed this, there's a sex scene shot through a fish bowl. 

Filmed in West Germany, the German backers dropped out and Adrian Hoven (who later produced and starred in the infamous MARK OF THE DEVIL) stepped in to bring in new backers, take a role and have a real life affair with lead actress Reynaud (who was in Franco's KISS ME MONSTER in '69).

Thanks for reading!

Spanish Vampires

THE VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY-1974-A busload of workers traveling to a castle make an unplanned stop in a strange village after their driver dies. The village is devoid of people but the weary travelers decide to stay in the cozy empty inn anyway. One person does show up though, a guy named Luis (the ubiquitous Jack Taylor) who says he got lost while driving around. When Ernest, one of the group goes out for a smoke he's attacked and killed en mass by some weird looking vampires. The next morning the remaining members are greeted by the town folk. A sort of town leader name Boris, who everyone calls Major (Jose' Guardiola) explains that the reason no one was around the previous night was that they were all attending a funeral. When the guests want some meat with their breakfast a big bearded cook chops off a villagers leg and it's serves it to them. One of the travelers goes on and on about how “different” tasting the meat is, much to the amusement of Boris. ”In no other place will you find a roast like this"...

Around this time a pasty faced Ernest shows up and later their bus won't start. Stranded with no money the visitors must accept the hospitality of The Countess (Helga Line', from several Paul Naschy movies), an aristocratic beauty who promptly seduces the young school teacher in the group, bites him on the neck and throws him to her hungry minions. Later the hairy cook hacks off a villager's arm (while a child watches) to serve as dinner. Luis suspects trouble (“There are too many strange and dangerous things going on”) and tries to save the remaining passengers including Alma (Dyanik Zurakowska from FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR) who finds a severed finger on her dinner plate! For some reason the one child, a girl passenger goes off with a mysterious boy and gets trapped in the cemetery. After her mother is killed the boy tries to save her the girl but winds up killing her instead. Luis and Alma flee in his car with the bloodthirsty villagers in hot pursuit. They escape but like in HG Lewis' 2000 MANIACS (and BRIGADOON) the evil village disappears once the pair bring back the authorities.

Director Leon Klimovsky made several films with Paul Naschy. He usually provides a lot of atmosphere and action but this Spanish production is pretty standard and way too dark. The vampires are strange enough but some things are left unexplained. Star Jack Taylor (from Oregon in the USA) made (and is still making) many Euro-films including some with Naschy and some for Jess Franco.

  Thanks for reading!

The Ninth Gate

THE NINTH GATE-1999- Johnny Depp stars as Jack Curso an unscrupulous book dealer who agrees to authenticate a book, The Ninth Gate, which is said to have been co-written by the Devil, for a famous book collector (Frank Langella). Legend says the book can open up a gate to hell. He has sex with Lena Olin and then visits two other book collectors who also have a copy of the book. It was cool to see Jack Taylor, an American expatriate who played in many Euro-productions like HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES and NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS, as one of the collectors. The other is played by Shakespearean stage actress Barbara Jefford (who’s also in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE). They die and their collections are burned and Curso realizes he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Emmanuelle Seigner (also in FRANTIC with Harrison Ford) is “ The Girl” and James Russo is a book dealer who meets a grisly death. Allen Garfield has a cameo role.

Director Roman Polanski (married to Seigner in real life) made this a year before his much more critically acclaimed THE PIANIST. Seigner also starred in her husband’s BITTER MOON in 1992.

Thanks for reading!