Die Todesgöttin des Liebescamps

While this film does contain some better than usual sex scenes in the series, they can't offset one dimensional comic book type characters and melodramatic acting, especially the cult queen's muscle bound bodyguard/executioner, Tanga, and her snow white boyfriend, played by Christian Anders. The sadism and violence are extreme even compared to other Emmanuelle films. Anders also directed and not very well. His theme song sounds very much like a Beatles tune, All You Need is Love.

If a quasi-mythical, strange odyssey into a distorted matriarchal society marked by strange hippy ceremonies and sexual torture of all and sundry sounds like your desire for the night this might just be your choice viewing material. Its an intriguing oddity marketed in some countries as porn (Divine Emanuelle), in others as some sort of crime/action film. Its reminiscent of the "cult" films like Guyana and the real events on which they were based like the Jonestown cult: ie, kooky dnacing, chanting and solemn ceremonial garb soon ripped or torn like some Greek melodrama/historical play with bouts of murder and violence mixed with sexual power games. It is an undeniably luscious cheap film in terms of design and location with kinky indulgence in various fetishes from whipping to stalking plus generous doses of nudity both male and female. Its a quirky flick starring the Nubian-like Queen of exploitation (Black Emmanuelle) Laura Gemser wielding her power generously upon a vast array of dutiful and punishable subjects as she seeks further power and wealth. A film for exploitation/film-porn junkies with a sense of humour.

What a funny ride! Written, directed, produced by and starring Christian Anders, then one of Germanys foremost "Schlager" singers ("Schlager" being a low-brow chanson-like musical style popular with the elderly and nowadays fondly paid tribute to by "remember the 70s" disco-night revivals), it's main attraction undoubtedly is Laura Gemser in the role of a love cults' divine goddess destined to bring love to the people – or else, if that won't work. Anders, who is of course also responsible for the half-cheesy, half-stolen soundtrack, later, under the influence of eastern religious philosophy, wrote a book on "The Sense of Life", claiming that 30ft high apes once made love to other monkeys, and out came – mankind. His aims looked different back in 1981 (good picture quality on the DVD, by the way; I'm referring to the full uncut release), for "The Death Goddess of the Love Camp" (literal translation) resembles everything you would expect from a cheap, exploitative soft-sex movie out there to do nothing else than make money. The story looks a bit as if the Jim Jones tragedy meets early 70s porn, complete with some musical numbers (badly dubbed) and lots of nudity, and there are even a few torture-like scenes. Direction is terrible, but the film has it's entertaining moments, has Laura Gemser, and is weird enough to be watched at least once.

Well, it's blatantly obvious that this film has absolutely nothing to do with the Black Emanuelle series and is just a cash in on the name since it stars the great Laura Gemser. However, that should not be held against the film too much as Gemser is cast in a slightly different role as the all-powerful 'Divine One' - the Goddess of a camp of free loving hippies, and I'm not going to argue with anyone who puts Laura Gemser in that elevated status! Despite not being an official part of the series; Divine Emanuelle is still a more than decent little film with plenty of sex and nudity as well as an interesting, though not particularly original, plot line. We focus on a group of hippies ruled over the by The Divine One. They preach free love but really it's only a front to make money in the form of 'donations', which people give for sex. Things are shaken up when the daughter of a powerful US senator is inducted into the group because she fancies the slimy blonde cult leader, who is more a pimp than a preacher (and looks a bit like Owen Wilson).

The film benefits from a style that suits the breezy nature of the free love ideal. We've got a soundtrack decked out by catchy jingles, the film is full of beautiful people making love in beautiful locations and we even get a few strange dance sequences. Laura Gemser is the standout, of course, and this role requires something a little different from usual from her as unlike most of her characters; this time she's the one completely in charge. It doesn't suit her as well as playing Emanuelle, but it's a change and seeing Laura Gemser on screen is always good. The plot is stronger than what Emanuelle fans will be used to and this is a benefit to the film. There's still plenty of sex and nudity but it's not overused and the plot does actually seem to be coming first! The film moves along at a steady pace for most of the duration and the ending contains no real surprises, although we do get treated to a hilarious fight sequence. Overall, I would quite categorise this film as 'good', but it's not that bad and there are certainly a lot of worse examples of films like this!

Love Camp, AKA Divine Emanuelle, sees dusky sexploitation star Laura Gemser as The Divine One, the manipulative leader of a hippie, free-love sex-cult called The Children of Light. With the help of her blond second-in-command Dorian (played by the film's director Christian Anders), and tough 'hench-people' Veronica (the obligatory lesbian) and Tanga (musclebound Sascha Borysenko), she uses her hold over her followers to increase her wealth: rich converts are convinced to part with their cash, whilst more nubile members of the cult are instructed to sell themselves for sex. Anyone who breaks the rules, or who no longer wishes to participate in the cult's free-love ideal, are allowed to leave—whereupon they are killed by Tanga and thrown down a deep chasm.

The Divine One is keen to secure the wealth of Dorian's latest convert, senator's daughter Patricia (Simone Brahmann), but with her blond cohort gradually falling in love with the girl, the senator most displeased with his daughter's choice of friends, and an undercover cop in the midst of the commune investigating the mysterious disappearances of several members, it looks as though her days as a cult leader are numbered. Time to break out the high explosives and stage a Jim Jones style massacre...

Any Laura Gemser movie with Emanuelle in its name (or one of its 'Also Known As' titles) pretty much guarantees copious amounts of nudity; most of them, however, also deliver fairly dismal story lines, dreadful direction and ultimately, a rather dull time for the viewer. Technically, Divine Emanuelle is not much better than the majority of Gemser's softcore sex flicks, but it does have the advantage of being absolutely hilarious. Crazy musical numbers accompanied by gyrating hippies; lame scenes of torture and humiliation; Tanga the Barbarian publicly deflowering a virgin; a naked woman doing the splits; a black guy playing the air guitar; Anders giving his best Bruce Lee impersonation; a groovy, tripped-out seventies vibe, despite being made in 1981; and tons of near-the-knuckle naughtiness: this one packs so much lunacy into its running time that it's almost impossible not to enjoy.

So enjoy!