La perversa caricia de Satán

The relatively unknown Spanish exploitation film-maker, Jordi Gigó's deserves more credit for unleashing his funkadelic freak-fest 'The Devil's Kiss' (1976) upon an unsuspecting world! This hyperbolic hybrid of schlock horror eccentricity gleefully appropriates myriad B-Horror tropes with the avidity of fellow traveller, Andy Milligan! No rabidly trash-loving terrornaut should miss out on watching this grungy Gothic creature feature. Gigo's mindlessly entertaining, grisly-groovy horror hysteria evokes the similarly freaked-out 70s phantasmagoria of inventive iconoclast, Jess Franco's 'The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein'. Deliriously mad, Jordi Gigó's luridly Luciferian 'The Devil's Kiss' demonstratively disproves the felonious filmmaking adage that 'less-is-more'!

The intensity of slinky-sexy sorceress, Claire Grandier's (Silvia Solar) obsession to avenge the death of her beloved husband manifests itself in a sinisterly Satanic series of sanguineous slayings! Fatefully combining Black Magic and the equally profane pseudo-scientific improprieties of psychic Professor Gruber (Olivier Mathot) they crudely reanimate a criminal's corpse to commit foul murder! This maniacal meddling in eldritch forces engenders an audaciously bonkers climax within the imposing château of their debonair host, Duke De Haussement(Jose Nieto). Once you have experienced the exquisite psychotronic intensity of 'The Devil's Kiss' your B-Movie bedevilled lips will never quite feel the same again!'

Long, long, very long and boring pseudo-horror spanish movie hits the bottom of the barrel. A zombie is created for the vengeance of Silvia Solar against the men who drove her husband to suicide. This zombie takes his time to climb up the stairs to his female naked victim then suddendly rushes onto her and strangles her off-screen. Pathetic. Even of a euro-sleaze product, it's not titillating enough to be fun to watch, not enough horror moment to sustain attention. All you get is...nothing happens on the screen. Huh...not really : watch out for the mannequins in their wild 70's clothes, dancing for a fashion show in the caves of the gothic catsle where it all happens. It lasts 5 looong minutes but it's a blast.

But afterwards...Yes, it is boring as hell and as boring as any most of Eurociné's horror flicks filled with hideous women taking their clothes off all the time coz' there's nothing else to do and coz' the screenplay has been lost somewhere in the rest rooms.

Printed on toilet paper, played by idiots, written by stupid : it is pure 70's nonsense with not enough wild moments to keep it interesting til the very end. Better watch LA TERRIFICANTE NOTTE DEL DEMONIO to get some real and devious fun.

Superwonderscope says : 2

A fashion show with very loud looking 1970's clothing is taking place in a large old chateau, accompanied with a funky musical score. Needless to say we see semi-naked models backstage. Next up is a seance conducted by an attractive female medium called Claire along with her accomplice, crazy Professor Gruber. With the help of a hunchbacked assistant they secretly reanimate a disfigured male corpse using a combination of science and black magic. What's more Gruber can control The Zombie (as the creature is known) by telepathy. A fairly interesting take on the Frankenstein tale, this monster is allergic to the Holy Cross so perhaps a touch of Dracula too for good measure. The chateau makes for a great location. Though far from being a classic this movie has enough horror, nudity and Gothic elements to satisfy most fans of sleazy Euro horror, a fairly enjoyable entry. My British DVD on the Black House label has the title DEVIL KISS (as opposed to Devil's Kiss) on its opening credits. The English language version comes with some pretty awful dubbing.

Devil Kiss belongs to that substandard group of Euro Gothic Horrors that include films like "Vampires Night Orgy", "Hannah Queen Of The Vampires" or something from Jess Franco. Its got all the prerequisites that someone going into a film like this would want - a castle, a crypt, an evil bitchy Vampiress type woman, resurrected dead, crudely shot, badly edited sex scenes - heck, there's even a weird very 70's fashion show. But it somehow fails to generate suspense, hold interest, or entertain, even in a "bad movie" kind of way. It certainly is no Hammer production, that's for sure. If you have a soft spot for these types of crusty European horror flicks, you might want to hunt this one down and watch it in the background while you have something else to do. All others are advised to check out one of the hundreds of better titles in this genre (Castle Of Blood, Slaughter Of The Vampires are two good examples) before accepting an inadequate "kiss" from this haphazard "devil".

In France, the former Countess Moncorn comes to the Haussemont Castle posing of the medium Claire Grandier (Silvia Solar) for a séance with her telepathic friend and scientist Professor Gruber (Oliver Matthau). They are welcomed by the Duke de Haussemont (José Nieto), who recognizes her. There is an interruption in the séance and the Duke invites Claire and Gruber to stay in his castle and offers his basement for the professor to proceed in his experiments.

However Claire has an agenda, since she holds a grudge against the Haussemont family that she blames that was responsible for the suicide of her beloved husband Phillippe to acquire his properties. Claire uses the Book of Astarov associated to the ability and knowledge of Professor Gruber to reanimate a corpse controlled by Gruber seeking revenge against the responsible for the death of Phillippe. But her scheme gets out of control.

"La perversa caricia de Satán", a.k.a. "Devil's Kiss", is a Spanish B- movie that gathers all the elements of this type of film: a rip-off Frankenstein with a bald creature; Satanism; naked women; a medium; a mad scientist, all associated to cheap locations, poor edition and bad acting. Further, the DVD released in Brazil has a cover that is a great work of art and audio in French, English and Portuguese, but does not have the original one in Spanish. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Beijo do Diabo" ("The Devil's Kiss")