Elves

 

Elves

1989

Director-  Jeffrey Mandel

Cast- Julie Austin, Dan Haggerty, Deanna Lund, Borah Silver, Laura Lichstein, Stacey Dye

            The film begins with Kirsten (Julie Austin) and her girlfriends out in the woods on a cold winter night. They fancy themselves as a kind of witch’s circle and Kirsten is trying to enact an occult ritual using one of her grandfather’s old occult tomes. The ritual doesn’t work but unbeknownst to the girls they have inadvertently summoned a bloodthirsty elf.

            Kirsten’s home life is pretty miserable. Her grandfather is a mix of abusive and absent minded. Her little brother is a perv and her mother (played by Deanna Lund from Land of the Giants) is a real bitch.

            Meanwhile, Mike (played by Dan Haggerty who most people over 45 will remember as Grizzly Adams) is a former cop now down on his luck thanks to his alcoholism. He’s managed to string together a few months of sobriety and gets a job (and is living) in a local department store.

            The elf stalks Kirsten and (unknown to her) attacks anyone who does her wrong, including stabbing a mall Santa in the dick after he gets fresh with Kirsten. But this elf is no guardian angel. He has his own plans for Kirsten.

            As it turns out, Kirsten’s grandfather is a Nazi who, during WW2, worked on a project involving the murderous elf. The elf was either created or summoned (the movie is not quite clear) to be the vessel for some perfect Aryan genes. The plan was for the elf to mate with a perfect Aryan woman during an occult ritual on Christmas Eve, thus ushering in the Fourth Reich. Kirsten’s grandfather, it seems, has engaged in some perverted eugenics creating his granddaughter to be the receptacle of the elf’s seed.

            Grizzly Adams discovers the plot and does his best to protect Kirsten not only from the elf but from a group of modern day Nazis that are after her.

            One’s reach exceeding one’s grasp is characteristic of low budget and independent cinema. That’s part of what makes it enjoyable; filmmakers who don’t know that they can’t or shouldn’t try to do certain things. Elves is far too ambitious for its meager budget. The elf actually is pretty well sculpted but has limited movement. I’d say, in terms of quality,  it’s  somewhere between the imp  of Sorority Babes in the SlimeballBowl-O-Rama and Ghoulies. I’m usually not a fan of remakes, but Elves could use one. The idea is very original and I’d love to see someone with access to resources help the story realize its potential.

            If you’re interested, Elf shouldn’t be hard to track down. The bad news is, as far as I know, it hasn’t made its way to DVD or Blu-Ray. The good news is that you can probably find it on Youtube (albeit a grainy straight from VHS transfer). Maybe someone like Vinegar Syndrome will take an interest and pick it up (and maybe put out an easier to watch version).

            Don’t watch if you’re wanting polished or even scary. On the other hand, if you life WTF stories, this will be entertaining.

Haxan- A 100 Year Retrospective

 

Haxan (Witchcraft Through the Ages)

1922

From Sweden /Denmark

Director- Benjamin Christensen

Cast- Benjamin Christensen, Clara Pontoppidan, Oscar Stribolt, Astrid Holm, Maren Pedersen

            Haxan is a sort-of documentary. It takes a scholarly look at the view of witchcraft in the middle ages but mixes in haunting and unsettling imagery that is comparable to the best horror movies.

            Those silent films that have stood the test of time have done so not because of the writing or acting but because of the imagery. This movie is a hundred years old but the effects hold up because, unlike CGI that doesn’t age very well, they rely on make-up and photography. The devil (played by the director himself) is especially scary with his perpetually flicking tongue and gleeful expression,

            The first fifteen minutes or so is rather boring, being filled mainly with images of medieval engravings but stick with it because the movie takes off after that.

            The movie was censored or banned in several countries, including the United States.  It takes a dim view of humanity. Those that fear the devil seem to do so out of backwardness and stupidity but those that serve the devil do so out of lust and greed.  The church is naturally lumped in with this.  Clergy are presented as just as stupid and lustful as their flock, perhaps even more so.

            But again, it is the images not the plot, that leave a lasting impression; Satan tempting a young woman as she lies next to her husband, a witches Sabbath where they sacrifice and eat a baby, a skeletal horse, witches flying through the air, grotesque demons prancing about in an orgy, women lining up to literally kiss the devil’s ass, a young monk orgasmicly enjoying a flagellation and Satan tempting a nun to defile a Eucharist wafer.

            The end of the film slows down as it tries to explain the demonic possessions of the middle ages as modern day mental illness, but it’s difficult to reconcile that with the utter realism with which the film depicts its diabolical subjects.

            The film was re-presented in 1968 with a narration by William Burroughs. The narration adds to the film but the jazz musical score, though adding to the mood in places tends to distract at other times. This version is shorter than the original but I think that’s a product of the narration being quicker than reading as it retains all the imagery of the original.

100 Years Later

            Haxan premiered  in September 1922. Now a century out, the question is, is it still relevant? I would say that it’s at least as relevant as it was a hundred years ago, perhaps more so.

            A hundred years ago the world was about 2 years removed from a global pandemic that killed tens of millions of people. Russia was engaged in a civil war brought on by the Bolshevik Revolution. The world was about 7 years away from the Great Depression. In response to this chaos, fascism spread through the world as people begged for someone to take charge of their lives. Any of this sounding familiar?

            Beyond the current events, we seem to be entering into a kind of New Dark Age. The rejection of science and critical thinking, in favor of emotion and wishful thinking, is a trend that started growing in the United States about 20 years ago and is now spreading to the rest of the world.  Believing what can be supported has been rejected for believing what makes us feel good. This same devaluing of knowledge is what led to the Dark Ages that took Europe a thousand years to climb out of.

            One thing that has changed in the last hundred years is the general perception of witchcraft. When most people see witchcraft now it’s in tandem with Wiccans worshiping nature or someone peddling their grandmother’s home remedy for sore throats. Most people aren’t living in fear of Satanic conspiracies spreading through their neighborhood, though if you remember the 1980s, that was an irrational belief that was perpetuated without a shard of evidence.

On the other hand, maybe society has outgrown witches. Maybe black cats and pointed hats have become quaint. Conspiracy theories have replaced church doctrine and members of the opposing political party have become the unseen threat seeping into our daily lives.

            Of course, that’s all pretty heavy, maybe too heavy for the first time viewing of a silent film. Does Haxan entertain? Haxan won’t scare a modern audience. But it will definitely show you images that you will never forget and give the viewer an appreciation for the art of fine film making before the modern era of special effects. Students of films or aspiring filmmakers will certainly appreciate the careful crafting of effective, realistic, creepy imagery.

Want more? Read about the role of The Devil in film.

Still want more? Check out the review of Faust, a German film made around the same time as Haxan.

Black Candles

 

Black Candles (Los ritos sexuales del diablo)

1982

Director- José Ramón Larraz

Cast- Helga Liné, Vanessa Hidalgo, Jeffery Healey, Alfred Luchetti, Manuel Gómez-Álvarez, Carmen Carrión, Paola Matos

From Spain

            The movie has a striking poster with the demonic man carrying a naked woman with more beauties in the background and an angry goat off to the side. Well, there is nothing in this movie that is as scary as that poster, but it definitely doesn’t over sell the sex!

            The movie begins with a schmuck cheating on his wife, Fiona, played by German born Spanish Scream Queen, Helga Liné. Seriously, who would cheat on her!?! Well he gets what’s coming when he is murdered with a bit of witchcraft.

            Later, the schmuck’s sister Carol (Vanessa Hildago) shows up to both pay respects and wrap up family business. Tagging along is her husband who seems consistently pleased with himself.

Carol’s spidey sense begins to tingle when she notices several pieces of satanic artwork on display in Fiona’s living room.  Fiona plays it off and when asked about her husband’s death, she blames it on his drinking. Carol decides to get nosey and finds herself on the wrong side of a witch cult that doesn’t take kindly to strangers.

            The plot of the film is not really that original, incorporating tropes from both the satanic and folk horror genres. However, it packages those tropes quite well and delivers on the eroticism with occult elements that feel authentic and occasionally shocking. Two such scenes include the lithe Paola Matos ,who turns in an unforgettable performance first with a lesbian sex scene and then a scene where she has sex with a black goat as part of a magical ritual! Another scene that stands out is where a man is punished for betraying the coven. He is held down and raped with a sword (don’t betray witches!).

            The real significance of the movie, at least to me, is that it served as the swan song for Helga Liné’s horror career (though she would continue to act for another 25 years in non-horror roles).

Helga’s horror career spanned parts of three decades and involved significant contributions in different horror subgenres alongside some of the biggest names of her era. She had a  supporting role behind the queen of Gothic horror, Barbara Steele, in Nightmare Castle (1965). She starred in several Italian giallo film’s most notably So Sweet…So Perverse (1969) which also starred fellow Scream Queen Erika Blanc. She shared the screen with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas in Horror Express (1972).

            Her most important contributions came, though, as part of the Spanish horror exploitation movement in the early 70s. Its important to bear in mind that Helga was in her 40s by this point and stealing the show from women half her age! She worked twice with the king of Spanish horror, Paul Naschy in the Mummy’s Revenge and had the costarring lead with Naschy in the excellent Horror Rises from the Tomb. She had the starring role in The Loreley’s Grasp directed by the man who gave us Tomb of the Blind Dead, Amando de Ossorio. She also starred in The Vampire’s Night Orgy, directed by León Klimovsky who had worked with Naschy on many occasions.

            Mixed in with these horror staples she also starred in the strange Italian action/ suspense film Kriminal and she even shared the screen with Mexican cult figure Santo in Santo vs. Dr. Death!

            All of that brings us to Black Candles. Helga often took on sexy roles and never shied away from showing skin. Helga was 50 when she did Black Candles but her smoldering beauty had not cooled a degree. If anything, her age made her much more believable as the dominant force in the cult. 

            But Helga always carried herself with the grace and control of royalty (case in point, see her as the witch returned from the dead in Horror Rises from the Tomb). Black Candles is a very erotic role, and as I said before, shocking in places. It makes the perfect exclamation point to a horror career that included the biggest names in Gothic, Spanish, British and Italian horror.

Fun fact- Director  José Ramón Larraz was no stranger to eroticism. He is best known for the bloody, sexy film Vampyres, one of the best films in the lesbian vampire sub-genre.

Inquisition

 Inquisition

1976

Director- Paul Naschy

Cast- Paul Naschy, Daniela Giordano, Mónica Randall, Ricardo Merino, Tony Isbert, Julia Saly, Antonio Iranzo, Juan Luis Galiardo,

From Spain

            Paul Naschy plays Bernard de Fossey, an inquisition judge traveling through a plague ravaged land to find and execute witches. Like most movies of this type, the inquisitor is far worse than whatever supernatural terrors they are trying to root out. The first half of this movie follows the same formula as most of these other films; the inquisition arrives in town, beautiful girls are erroneously accused of being witches, they are tortured and finally executed. Compared to Mark of the Devil, the torture scenes in this film are quite tame. However, what it lacks in gore it makes up for with gratuitous nudity.

            The second half of the film, though, takes a different direction and helps it to stand out against some of the earlier films that it imitates. Bernard (Naschy) becomes infatuated with Catherine (Daniela Giordano), the beautiful daughter of a dying village nobleman. He convinces the nobleman to give him guardianship of Catherine and her sister, Elvire (Julia Saly). Naschy fans will recognize Julia as the Bathoryeaque vampire from Night of the Werewolf and also costarring with Naschy in The Beast and the Magic Sword. You might also recognize her from the excellent Night of the Seagulls.

           One impediment to Bernard’s romantic progress (besides his inconvenient holy vows) is the fact that Catherine has a boyfriend. Her boyfriend gets himself murdered and Catherine is convinced that Bernard is behind it.

It is at this point that the film starts to venture into new territory. Most inquisition films have witch hunters but no actual witches. However, Catherine, who is definitely not a witch at the start of the film, seeks out a witch and the Devil as her only recourse. She visits a local witch and the portrayal of the “witchcraft” is actually probably pretty accurate. The spells consist of potions and ointments that send Catherine into a trance where she attends a Black Mass attended by Satan himself (also played by Naschy). Of course, whether any of this actually happens or is just a product of drug induced hallucinations is for the viewer to determine.

            Emboldened by her recently bestowed Satanic power, Catherine sets out to seduce and destroy Bernard and frame him in the eyes of the inquisition as a Satanist himself. This is one of Naschy’s best villains and you can’t wait to see him get his just deserts! Naschy’s portrayal of a fallen clergyman is convincing and subtle (for this type of film). He goes from imperious to love stricken to finally pathetic and broken.

            This is a fun film for fans of Paul Naschy or inquisition movies. Though formulaic at times, it veers off the path enough to keep it interesting and entertaining. The idea of the inquisition actually driving people to witchcraft is pretty clever. The film is not as sophisticated as Ken Russell’s The Devils and lacks the charm that Vincent Price brought to Witchfinder General. But it is literate enough to rise above the typical exploitation movie. One of Nachy’s better non-werewolf films.