Las amantes del diablo

I am an enthusiastic fan of European Horror in general and I LIVE for Italian and Spanish Gothic Horror productions in particular. That being said, one will always be in for one disappointment or another, regardless of genre, and this is definitely the case with "Las Amantes Del Diablo" aka. "Feast of Satan" (1971). My expectations for this flick weren't very high, since fellow Eurohorror buffs had already warned me that it wasn't very good; however, I tend to love trashy flicks that others find silly. While I expected this film to be silly, I did not expect it to be boring. Well, it is.

The film's premise isn't all that bad and could have actually made a cool flick, had it been executed with a little more love. The film is about a young woman (Krista Nell) who, in search of her disappeared sister, comes to a small coastal village where she encounters the sinister Dr. Tills Nescu (Espartaco Santoni)... The title already gives away in which direction the film is going, and though it is only 90 minutes long, it seems to go on forever. There is zero action and zero suspense, and endless periods in which literally nothing happens. European Horror cinema is generally known to be as atmospheric as cinema gets. Sadly this isn't the case with this yawner, which features hardly any atmosphere-building settings (with the exception of one somewhat eerie-looking castle). The ridiculous and absolutely out-of-place elevator music doesn't help. Unlike most European Horror / Exploitation flicks from the 70s this one is almost gore- and sleaze-less. The highlight of the film is a scene in which the yummy leading actress Krista Nell (who sadly passed away far too young from leukemia) bares her breasts for about two seconds. The female cast members, particularly Nell and the equally ravishing Teresa Gimpera, are nice to look at, but then, there's about 10.000 other Eurohorror films of which one can say the same, and which are a hundred times more recommendable than this one. The film's most entertaining moments are those which are (unintentionally?) funny, such as the mustached dwarf who simply is there for no reason whatsoever. The film also features Julio Peña, who might be known to Eurohorror fans for being in several films starring the late Spanish Horror legend Paul Naschy (R.I.P.). The film catches up a little in the last 15 minutes, but this doesn't make up for first 75 minutes of boredom. There isn't much else to say about this film, other than that it is dull as ditchwater. Not Recommended.

Not much happens that doesn't involve talking. The women are all quite lovely and can act too and the locations are also pretty, though zoom happy camera-work/direction mar this.

There is one pretty fun dream scene but it takes almost an hour to get to it. Lots of zooms to people's eyeballs. You'll lose count. The villain plays the organ a lot, no reason other than I suppose so you know he's the villain.

Some brief nudity but very little violence, it's well enough done to keep you going but just barely, there isn't any psychological dept to the situation and the plot is pretty straight forward--you'll be ahead of the lead investigation almost all the way so that adds to a level of, "Oh let's get on with it." But despite the zoom's overuse this is well produced, but more of a mystery I suppose than a thriller and if you think you're in for a Satan movie.... Well, look elsewhere to scratch that itch. Rather silly gray hair in some scenes, when you see it you'll know what I mean. Mostly for those who need to see everything but there are worse films out there. Too much talk is this one's downfall.

This Spanish-Italian horror movie from 1971 revolves around the evil Doctor Nescu who seduces various beautiful women, until they take part in his satanic rituals. Altogether tame and very slow moving, not to say boring. It feels like half of the running time is spent by people standing around talking, smoking cigarettes and drinking wine. Then smoking another cigarette and drinking another glass of wine. If you didn't watch this movie, you didn't miss much. To mention a few positive things: Krista Nell, usually only in supporting roles, stars as Hilde who tries to escape from the Doctor's spell. She can be seen in a good lead role here. Occasionally we get some nice psychedelic camera work, and a good, scary soundtrack with plenty of organ playing is provided by skilled Italian composer Carlo Savina.

If it wasn't for the presence of the gorgeous Krista Nell, '70s Euro-horror The Feast of Satan wouldn't be worth the time. Nell doesn't even get naked all that often, but she is very easy on the eye and consequently makes an otherwise dull film just about bearable.

The sexy Austrian actress plays Hilda Salas, who goes looking for her sister Maria (Verónica Luján), who was found babbling like a loony in the middle of a road and who went missing from hospital soon after. Hilda's search leads her to ladies' man Dr. Tills Nescu (Espartaco Santoni), who lives in a castle with his lesbian secretary Andrea (Teresa Gimpera) and creepy manservant Brito (Gene Reyes). After spending time in the company of Nescu, Hilda begins to fall for him, but doesn't realise that the man is a Satanist who plans to put her under the influence of his occult force and add her to his collection of women.

A mediocre plot and lacklustre direction do little to distinguish this movie, but director José María Elorrieta wisely makes the most of his beautiful star, putting her in several skimpy outfits, occasionally getting her to show a little T&A. As far as the horror is concerned, the film is extremely light on chills or scares, more likely to have the viewer nodding off at times instead of giving them sleepless nights. Try to stay awake though, otherwise you might miss the hilarious final act in which all the villains die and Hilda goes the same way as her sister.

I'm a big fan of Euro horror and went into this one hoping for something along the lines of Sergio Martino's excellent paranoid Giallo All the Colours of the Dark, and came out of it severely disappointed. The plot focuses on Hilda Torres, a woman who decides to infiltrate a strange cult when her sister goes missing. She soon gets noticed by Tils Nescu; doctor and leader of the cult, and he has his own designs in Hilda. The film does look very nice and this is complimented by a cast featuring several nice looking ladies, but this doesn't cover up this film's main problem - that being that it's far too slow and the plot is completely uninteresting for most of the film. There's a hell of a lot of talking in the movie and it started to grind me down after a while. Usually with films like this, I can pick out a few good things to say about it; but Feast for Satan is seriously lacking in anything positive aside from the aforementioned good looking cinematography and actresses. There's a little twist at the end that doesn't really add much to the film and overall I feel safe in saying that even you're a fan of Euro horror, you can find something better to do with this part of your life.