Dienerinnen des Satans

A Jean Rollin without vampires, but not without mediocre performances, naked skin, sometimes unbearable sexual violence, leisurely minimal plot progression and a gothic atmosphere. As always in the 70s creative phase, this looks largely well filmed, but clearly sets itself apart from the mainstream with its choice of themes, tastelessness and outlandish ideas. In 'Les Démoniaques', a ghost story and a rape and revenge plot mix to create a surreal horror tale. It is clear at all times that the work originates from a time of creative freedom and that one or two substances were probably involved. Rollin is and remains a genre of his own, a thoroughly talented artist who suffers from his strange world of thought and limited staging resources. A confused poet with a fragile pen who constantly blurs the boundaries between magic and rubbish.

Dear oh dear. It might be easy to take cheap swipes at M. Rollin, but this looks likes such an amateurish effort. Terrible acting, contrived and sloppy action, meandering plot, cheap props. I hate to twist the knife, but it certainly breathes new life into the expression "Z-grade".

The video blurb looked so promising - two girls raped by wreckers, take refuge in an abandoned abbey where they make a pact with the Devil to seek revenge. But Jean Rollin seems determined to disappoint. Way too much time is spent on watching people walking long distances, or labouring blindingly obvious plot developments (the psychic brothel madam excels at this!)

There is not nearly enough skin to compensate for having to sit through this, though some spiritied sex scenes do capture the attention. The biggest draw of the film for me was the female member of the wrecker gang (character Tina). I wish I knew who the actress was. Gorgeous, spirited, and great without clothes! Shame she can't act, but I may excuse her. I have a soft spot for beautiful girls who get sexually aroused by wicked deeds.

Bizarre points include the Devil's two attendants - a female clown, and a Rasputin look-a-like. And never did so much plaster statuary give its life for a movie!

In summary, only rent this video for the gorgeous female wrecker, fast forward through the rest.

If you are here for the rape, you have wasted your time. The scenes are a joke. Even worse, the supposed killing of the two girls (Lieva Lone, Patricia Hermenier). The acting was atrocious.

Now, if you want to see Joëlle Coeur (Fly Me the French Way, Seven Women for Satan) fully naked, and engaging in sex with John Rico, that's a whole other story.

The Captain (Rico) hardly has time to enjoy the aftereffects when he is visited by apparitions of the two girls. Maybe it was just the booze.

The girls do eventually reappear only to escape and find an old castle guarded by, believe it or not, a clown. Not a court jester, but a clown. Strange.

They go through the transformation to become demoniacs, and, I am glad to say, sex is part of the transformation. Yes, there is the usual mumble jumble ritual, but there is also orgasm.

Don't expect a lot of gore in this film. It really doesn't make sense in a lot of scenes. You'll see what I mean. I think Rollin may have been trying to make an art film instead of a horror film.

It is a shame that Lieva Lone and Patricia Hermenier did not stick around to do more films, but another chance to watch Joëlle Coeur is always worth the time.

Demoniacs, The (1974)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Four crooks (three men, one woman) work as "wreckers" as they lure ships to the shore only to make them crash on the rocks so that they can loot them. The latest ship had two beautiful women (Lieva Lone, Patricia Hermenier) wash up on shore so they're raped and eventually killed. The two women then sell their souls to the devil so that they can come back and kill those responsible for their fate. This French-made horror tale isn't the best that director Jean Rollin has to offer but there are enough interesting moments to make it worth viewing to fans of his. Those unfamiliar with the director will probably want to start elsewhere because while this has some good stuff in it, at the same time you can't help but be disappointed that it's not better. The biggest problem with the film is that the 95-minute running time seems a lot longer and there are way too many scenes where nothing happens except people just walking around doing nothing. There's no point of them walking around as it adds nothing to the story so it would have been best had the director just edited these out. I'm not sure if he was under pressure to release a film at a certain length but his slow style certainly doesn't help here. Another problem with the film is that it never really seems to know what it wants to be. Is it a ghost story? Is it more concerned about the sex and nudity? When the Devil does show up and make his deal nothing really plays out as you'd expect. There's even a bizarre clown thrown in for some reason. Perhaps Rollin just thought clowns were scary? The best thing going in the film are some of the performances by the beautiful ladies. I thought both Lone and Hermenier were very good playing the roles of the dead girls. The film certainly doesn't ask too much out of them except, for a time, to be scared and at other times being "death" like and they do this just fine. The real scene-stealer is Joelle Coeur as the beautiful but deadly female wrecker. She's certainly very fun in the role and her beautiful body really doesn't hurt either. Fans of Jess Franco will want to be on the lookout for Monica Swinn but I was unable to spot her. Being a Rollin film one can expect all sorts of nudity and we also get some mild gore but nothing strong enough to keep horror fans interested. The low-budget seems a lot smaller than most of Rollin's work and one can't help but wish a little more was done with the story.

The first scene on the beach with the young girls rape and attack is very good and the next one in the bar with them appearing as ghosts too... Unfortunately the movie doesn't go on like that all the time. There are good and bad moments but the scenes of nudity with Joelle Coeur are erotically very good. The story of the demon in the ruins doesn't appear very clear, nor does the clown's and the ruin's keeper destinies... But all in all there is a good atmosphere even if some scenes are a bit too long and some of them are great, like the one where the religious statues fall one after each other on the ground. Jean Rollin knows how to mix sex and horror, as well as many other authors of that 70's era. A good moment but that movie could have been better again...