Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas

Alucarda (Tina Romero) is an impressionable young lady who develops a fondness for displays of blasphemy and Satanic worship. Susana Kamini is Justine, a sweet-faced teenager who joins Alucarda as she goes off the rails. Ever-reliable Claudio Brook, essaying the good Doctor Oszek, is unconvinced of the merits of possession until he tangles with our devil-loving teeners.

Director Juan Lopez Moctezuma delivers a texturally rich, erotic tableau of horror. Setting his film in a convent, he exploits every religious symbol he can get his hands on in order to fully realize his nightmarish vision of Satanic anarchy amongst those of the cloth.

Similar in tone to Ken Russell's THE DEVILS, this is a more Gothic work with a strong religious flavour. Its erotic aspects are quite potent (there is much nudity), as are its numerous detours into bloodshed and self-inflicted violence.

A slack third act had a detrimental effect on my overall enjoyment of the piece. I became slightly bored and prayed for a quick, fiery finale.

Undeniably a work of passion and skill, its fire-baked imagery and scream-filled soundtrack color it highly valid in horror annals.

The movie is a little hard to follow, but that doesn't take away from the eerie creepiness of the whole film. The best and most memorable part of this movie was the costumes. The nuns were wearing what looks like white, layered cheesecloth or that material you wrap around your sprained wrist. They have it wrapped around their heads, necks and chest, while it flows out into a dress in three layers down below. Seems very course, tight and uncomfortable. Every nun has her own tinges of dirt and blood on her dress. Mostly blood has lightly gotten all over the dresses to give the convent a feel of filth, stench and poverty. Mystery, too, as you wonder why the dresses are so bloody in the first place. Is it their own blood? In the front/middle of the skirt, there is always a very high concentration of blood, as if the nuns wiped their hands on this apron or even menstruated on it! It's quite disturbing and odd. Do Mexican Catholic nuns wear uniforms like this?

The other very memorable part of this movie is the character Alucarda. This actress is amazingly good. She plays the devilish child role extremely well. Her eyes sparkle with dark evil glances and she moves and dances in a possessed and spooky way! Like a little girl who is totally absorbed in herself. This actress was really impressive and her long, dark, fluffy hair really added to her charm.

This movie is worth watching for these two reasons. You will never see such a good demon-child or such discomforting costumes in any movie. Recommended!

...Moctezuma was heavily influenced by the Silent films of the teens and 20's and it shows in this film..for its strong points are clearly the beautiful eerie images throughout..THe abstract Convent set in dark creative lighting..the Nuns in their Mummy like shrouds (they are more disturbing than the blood and gore..of which there is plenty)...The Erotic scenes between Alucarda and Justine..beautiful Images of Alucarda in her funeral black Victorian dress.My favorite Image from this film..possibly.. is the initial introduction of Alucarda as she turns around from the shadows to greet her new friend Justine whos newly arrived to the Orphanage..Its a quick creative dreamlike tidbit..the likes I've never seen in film before..Alucarda and Justine's early scenes have a poignancy and loneliness not unlike Soledad Miranda and her playmates in Vampiros Lesbos....It can be touching..Tina Romero(Alucarda)..I'm happy to say is still quite attractive and can be frequently seen in the current Telenovelas(Spanish Soaps)...I say grab a copy of Alucarda from Mondo Macabro..for a little taste o 70's Mexico..its a good little collectors piece...Christopher,2006

You can have so much fun with this!

In this crazy exploitation movie, young nuns Alucarda (anagram for Dracula) and Justine strike a blood pact, summon demonic forces of some sort and wreak havoc in a small religious community in Mexico. That's it in a nutshell.

It isn't simply a bad film, though it is in conventional terms. It's so utterly nonsensical, so bizarre and hysteric it becomes much more than it is. And isn't the whole point with movies that we construct what they mean to us?

It falls somewhere between Jess Franco's lesbian vampire films, and unconsciously Arrabal's Panic Theater and the Pythons. The beauty of it is that you can read it any way you feel like, there is no logic which is something I seek in films. Or rather, the logic is so inane compared to the anarchic joy, it breaks. My preferred reading is that the whole cacophonous mess is something between Justine's fears of motherhood strangling her sexuality (viewed through a Catholic prism), a confessional of scandalous teenage thoughts, and mischief caused by two young nuns in the back benches during Sunday school, perhaps imaginary, perhaps blown up into 'possession' by the shrill teacher.

It is all entirely theatric, but unselfconscious which is why its chaos works. Everyone is acting crazy, nuns drop down out of the blue. A book (ostensibly on demonology) simply reads 'Satan'. It's all of it disconnected, we visit one place then another. There is a satanic ritual and orgy for no good reason.

There is so much screaming, there is screaming inside the screaming.

It's awesome.

For the first ten minutes or so I thought 'Alucarda' was going to be a waste of time. It looked very cheap and mediocre. But boy, was I wrong! The movie very quickly kicked into gear and after that it was one fantastic scene after another! I suppose technically this movie could be classified as nunsploitation, as it is most definitely an exploitation movie and it DOES have nuns in it, and, like virtually all the movies in that fascinating subgenre I've seen, it draws a lot of inspiration from Ken Russell's 'The Devils', but I'd be a bit wary of giving it that slightly misleading description. The focus of the movie isn't on the nuns, but the girls they look after, "good" Justine (Susana Kamini) and "evil" Alucarda (Tina Romero), and their strange relationship, and that to me puts it closer to the witch tradition, or even to 70s erotic vampire movies like Hammer's 'The Vampire Lovers' and 'Twins Of Evil', or similar movies by Jess Franco and Jean Rollin. Anyway, this is my first experience with Moctezuma's movies, and if this is anything to go by, I hope it isn't my last! He was a friend of Jodorowsky and produced the cult classic 'El Topo'. 'Alucarda' isn't "just" a horror movie, like Jodorowsky and Ken Russell, Moctezuma creates some unforgettable surreal imagery and that combined with his strong anti-catholicism makes this a very striking movie that will appeal to Bunuel buffs as much as 'Carrie' fans. 'Alucarda' is a very underrated movie and not to be missed!