Los ritos sexuales del diablo

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Black Candles. Before we get into it, here are my ratings:

Story - 1.25 Direction - 1.25 Pace - 1.00 Acting - 1.00 Enjoyment - 1.00

TOTAL - 5.50

Okay, so when the film started, I groaned. Though, it wasn't through pleasure. No! I thought Black Candles was to be a weak-assed softcore porn film with a slight occult twist. If so, it would undoubtedly turn out to be a horrid affair. But luckily for me, I was wrong. But how was I to know as a couple of the alternative titles, Hot Fantasies and Naked Dreams, scream 1970s softcore? They don't even mention anything about the occult.

So I continued to watch. As time ticked by and the film rolled, I realised a story was unfolding on the screen. Moreover, it was a good story. A story about greed and power and the lengths people will go to so they can achieve both. I was impressed the writer didn't hold anything back, even the more bestial sex. At its basic, Black Magic and Satanism are about our more primal urges and needs. Sex and control. Therefore the sex scenes, of which there are plenty, are pivotal to driving the plot. The director does an excellent job of shooting the infernal carnel trists. In fact, he's a damn decent director all-around. The only letdown is the flow of the film. In view of all the sex scenes, the pace is a tad slow throughout, and you may find boredom waiting. Even though the women are stunningly beautiful, I still found my attention faltering at the umpteenth coupling. And though I found myself enjoying the story, the Dallas ending left me wanting. It would have been nice to have the story completed. I know the climax is a twist, a what-if? But it doesn't work.

Another thing that shocked me was how good the cast performed. Because of the sex scene at the movie's beginning, I wasn't expecting too much. So when the actresses and actors proved their talent, I was pleasantly surprised. Their performances and the director's skills made this an enjoyable experience.

If you like occult films, then Black Candles is for you. You may have to search for it as it goes by many names - and don't shelve it because of the ones mentioned above. I think they should have gone with the literal translation of the Spanish title - Sex Rites Of The Devil - it sums the film up perfectly. It is well written and skillfully shot, though you think there's too much sex, which dulls down the story.

Feel free to check out my Absolute Horror list to see where I have ranked Black Candles.

Take Care & Stay Well.

I didn't go into this film expecting much as I've never heard a good word said about it. Black Candles is basically just a variation on the same sort of plot that worked a lot better in the earlier Spanish horror film 'Satan's Blood', as well as a whole load of other films. It starts out interestingly, as we are introduced to the central characters and we start to get an idea of where the plot is going. There seems to be a correlation between devil worshipping in Europe and having loads of sex, and that's something that director José Ramón Larraz (who made a whole load of trash films, including the sleazy 'Vampyres') seems keen to capitalise on, as the actors spend a good half of the film without any clothes on. The plot is, of course, very simple and starts off with a man dying suddenly while having sex after a woman sticks a pin in a voodoo doll. We then get introduced to his sister and her husband, and they travel down to stay with the dead man's husband; her sister-in-law, and it transpires that she's into devil worship (Shock! Horror!)

Everything about this film is completely amateurish! (Which is odd as Vampyres was quite professional for a sleazy slice of Eurohorror. Obviously Larraz didn't get better at film making as he went along!). The acting is terrible; sometimes even cringe-worthy, which is quite shocking since I'm certainly used to watching films with less than great acting. The scene setting is frankly lazy, and Larraz makes practically no attempt to build an oppressive atmosphere or lift the film out of the pits in any way. This would normally stamp out any chance of a decent rating for a film; but Black Candles still deserves a few points as it's actually quite funny, and luckily the director's laziness doesn't extend to the sex scenes; which are actually quite erotic, mostly owing to the fact that the women are nice to look at. There are a couple of nasty scenes too; a sex scene with a goat…which I didn't enjoy too much and a death scene that involves someone having a sword shoved up his backside! Overall, I can't recommend going out of your way to see this film; its obscurity isn't undeserved - but it's not terrible in spite of the fact that everything about it is trash, and that can't be said for every film like this one.

What Black Candles lacks in plot and character development, it makes up for in sleaze and overt sexuality. I can't think of the last time I saw a semi-mainstream film this steamy and overloaded with sex scenes and nudity. Most of the time, it's riding a fine line between softcore and hardcore.

Since all the performances have been dubbed, it's hard to judge many of the performances or the dialogue. The story seems to be a take off on Rosemary's Baby with a paranoid woman thinking she's being roped into a Satantic cult for some nefarious reason. These reasons are never made clear and, besides one nasty scene where a man is stabbed by a sword through his rectum, it's light on horror.

I know and like Vampyres, another movie directed by José Ramón Larraz in 1974. That one mixes softporn scenes with some bloodthirsty female vampires. Los ritos sexuales del diablo aka Black Candles mixes some satanic witchcult with, well, softporn. So all in all I dare to say that both movies by Mr. Larraz are only of any interest to you if you like your movies sometimes sleazy and dirty, in that oldschool softporn way. The by other viewers mentioned "goat act" is so obviously fake, it's rather funny than shocking. Anyway, entertained I was. Recommended if names like Jess Franco or Russ Meyer don't let you run away screaming in terror and pain ;)

Extremely thin 'plot' of satanic rituals or some such mumbo-jumbo provides the hokey excuse to thread copious amounts of sex scenes together. Straight vanilla sex, masturbation, lesbianism, S&M, bestiality, incest, and a few other sexual proliferation's all get their time in the spotlight here. The problem is the storyline is so dull that the rampant sexuality gets pretty tedious after awhile. Who knew that a film with an intimate goat/ girl encounter could be so damn boring? Well now I do.

Eye Candy: Venessa Hidalgo shows all; Helga Line provides T&A (both on display quite frequently); women viewers get the occasional penis.

My Grade: D+

Region 1 DVD Extras: Trailers for "Pick Up", "Legend of Eight Samurai", "Don't Answer the Phone", "Prime Evil", & "Sister Street Fighter" (also the same DVD holds a second feature movie "Evil Eye")