Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas

Alucarda (Tina Romero) is an impressionable young lady who develops a fondness for displays of blasphemy and Satanic worship. Susana Kamini is Justine, a sweet-faced teenager who joins Alucarda as she goes off the rails. Ever-reliable Claudio Brook, essaying the good Doctor Oszek, is unconvinced of the merits of possession until he tangles with our devil-loving teeners.

Director Juan Lopez Moctezuma delivers a texturally rich, erotic tableau of horror. Setting his film in a convent, he exploits every religious symbol he can get his hands on in order to fully realize his nightmarish vision of Satanic anarchy amongst those of the cloth.

Similar in tone to Ken Russell's THE DEVILS, this is a more Gothic work with a strong religious flavour. Its erotic aspects are quite potent (there is much nudity), as are its numerous detours into bloodshed and self-inflicted violence.

A slack third act had a detrimental effect on my overall enjoyment of the piece. I became slightly bored and prayed for a quick, fiery finale.

Undeniably a work of passion and skill, its fire-baked imagery and scream-filled soundtrack color it highly valid in horror annals.

This deliciously sacrilegious and surreal bit of insanity from 1978 is pure exploitative gold. They just don't make them like this anymore!

The sets are imaginative and quite impressive. The convent has the appearance of a cave and the multiple tiered Christs hanging from the ceiling is one of the most brilliant props I have ever seen! Instead of traditional habits, the nuns are clothed in what appears to be torn bloodied bandages. Tina Romero, who plays Alucarda gives a brooding and wonderfully wicked performance. When the action starts, it keeps a spirited pace right through to the end. There is more hysterical female screaming then I've ever witnessed in a single film! The dialog is over dramatic at times and there are a few moments that are bordering on cheesy but Moctezuma's strange, daunting and moody presentation keeps it from slipping into silliness. There is some great bonus material on the DVD, including a brief doc on the films director, Juan López Moctezuma and an interview with Guillermo Del Toro. You will be treated to bizarre images, flagellating nuns, satanic rituals, copious nudity, lesbianism, and bloody violence. It is all complimented nicely by some trippy organ music. This little gem from Mexico City is a must see for horror fans! Highly recommended!

"Alucarda" is one of those interesting horror titles that successfully blends art with trash. It has a somewhat limited colour palate - reds, browns, tans and the like - and director Juan Lopez Moctezuma creates a remarkable gallery of truly disturbing imagery. It treads on fairly familiar ground in terms of religious horror, yet it is compelling in its own sordid way. A well chosen cast delivers deeply committed performances, although some of the ladies do so much screaming that it may well put off some viewers. It's pretty short at only 78 minutes, and doesn't really have that much story. But Moctezuma just drenches the whole thing in real doom and gloom atmosphere.

Alucarda (Tina Romero) and Justine (Susana Kamini) are two young ladies who meet at a convent and soon develop a turbulent relationship. The more headstrong Alucarda decides that they will defy and question their religious teachings, leading to much conflict with the priests and nuns. Soon, it is determined that the girls must be possessed and that exorcisms will have to be performed.

One nice touch is to have the heroic Dr. Oszek (Mexican icon Claudio Brook), a man of science, begin to believe the same things as his counterparts, and fear for the life of his daughter Daniela (Lili Garza). Everything builds and builds to a very intense finale with lots of death and destruction. Some horror fans will delight in the frequent nudity and the heavy doses of blood. Our two main actresses Romero and Kamini are both quite attractive and alluring.

This comes recommended to fans of this sub-genre.

Seven out of 10.

You can have so much fun with this!

In this crazy exploitation movie, young nuns Alucarda (anagram for Dracula) and Justine strike a blood pact, summon demonic forces of some sort and wreak havoc in a small religious community in Mexico. That's it in a nutshell.

It isn't simply a bad film, though it is in conventional terms. It's so utterly nonsensical, so bizarre and hysteric it becomes much more than it is. And isn't the whole point with movies that we construct what they mean to us?

It falls somewhere between Jess Franco's lesbian vampire films, and unconsciously Arrabal's Panic Theater and the Pythons. The beauty of it is that you can read it any way you feel like, there is no logic which is something I seek in films. Or rather, the logic is so inane compared to the anarchic joy, it breaks. My preferred reading is that the whole cacophonous mess is something between Justine's fears of motherhood strangling her sexuality (viewed through a Catholic prism), a confessional of scandalous teenage thoughts, and mischief caused by two young nuns in the back benches during Sunday school, perhaps imaginary, perhaps blown up into 'possession' by the shrill teacher.

It is all entirely theatric, but unselfconscious which is why its chaos works. Everyone is acting crazy, nuns drop down out of the blue. A book (ostensibly on demonology) simply reads 'Satan'. It's all of it disconnected, we visit one place then another. There is a satanic ritual and orgy for no good reason.

There is so much screaming, there is screaming inside the screaming.

It's awesome.

For the first ten minutes or so I thought 'Alucarda' was going to be a waste of time. It looked very cheap and mediocre. But boy, was I wrong! The movie very quickly kicked into gear and after that it was one fantastic scene after another! I suppose technically this movie could be classified as nunsploitation, as it is most definitely an exploitation movie and it DOES have nuns in it, and, like virtually all the movies in that fascinating subgenre I've seen, it draws a lot of inspiration from Ken Russell's 'The Devils', but I'd be a bit wary of giving it that slightly misleading description. The focus of the movie isn't on the nuns, but the girls they look after, "good" Justine (Susana Kamini) and "evil" Alucarda (Tina Romero), and their strange relationship, and that to me puts it closer to the witch tradition, or even to 70s erotic vampire movies like Hammer's 'The Vampire Lovers' and 'Twins Of Evil', or similar movies by Jess Franco and Jean Rollin. Anyway, this is my first experience with Moctezuma's movies, and if this is anything to go by, I hope it isn't my last! He was a friend of Jodorowsky and produced the cult classic 'El Topo'. 'Alucarda' isn't "just" a horror movie, like Jodorowsky and Ken Russell, Moctezuma creates some unforgettable surreal imagery and that combined with his strong anti-catholicism makes this a very striking movie that will appeal to Bunuel buffs as much as 'Carrie' fans. 'Alucarda' is a very underrated movie and not to be missed!