La perversa caricia de Satán

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")

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".

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.

Claire Grandier (Sylvia Solar) and her cohort "The Professor" (Olivier Mathot) use mad science and eeevil occult means to exact revenge on an unsuspecting Duke. They start digging up graves right away to create a killer zombie.

DEVIL'S KISS has every element that a schlock movie fanatic wants: See! The pre-credits voodoo dance! Witness! The ultra-mod, polyester fashion show! Watch! The resurrection of the hideous Franken-ghoul! Gasp! As someone takes their clothes off about every five minutes!

What are you waiting for?..

It's surprising (and disappointing) to see how low the score is on this fabulous slice of '70s Euro-Gothic sleaze. My suspicion is that the wrong people are checking this out; who knows what they're expecting? Anyone with eyes can look at the ad art, read the synopsis, and understand what they're getting. If viewers hate erotic '70s Euro Gothics - why did they choose to watch it? Don't tell me they thought it would be overproduced, over-budgeted, over-hyped junk like "Star Wars!"

"Devil's Kiss" epitomizes what the second half of a drive-in bill used to look like. It's quirky and refreshingly unpredictable, thanks to its modest European indie-film pedigree. It's dripping with atmosphere, making it perfect for late-night viewing. It's visually appealing and at times, quite titillating. So what's not to like?

As with classics like "Kill, Baby, Kill," one doesn't watch this movie to see a life-altering, soul-shattering plot. One watches to willingly succumb to the dreamy erotic spell of a cinematic witch's brew.

Ten stars.