Huntress: Spirit of the Night

Huntress: Spirit of the Night is an erotic horror film directed by Mark Manos.

An architect discovers the animal inside her after she falls prey to an ancient curse on a visit to her Welsh homeland.

This film can easily be called as soft core porn film instead of a horror film as this has very limited to almost none horror scenes. The film has no suspense, no gore and no violence. The film ends abruptly without making any sense. Watch only if you like soft-core films as this film has nothing to offer on horror part.

One of those Gothic Romances Full Moon made in 90's, like Meridian - Kiss of the Beast. Shot in Romania, it looks gorgeous - autumnal scenery, Gothic castles with flowers, lace curtains, old books in vitrine, etc. Red haired heroine looks pretty good, too, especially in her later, vintage looks. The plot has lot of promise, with the warnings, Torches and Pitchforks searching the Beast, all played entertainingly straight. There is no gore, quite a bit of nudity. Acting, staging and Welsh accents are often clumsy, too much time is wasted in soft core, and the ending is terrible - the story just ends! So... a mixed bag.

Quite similar to some of the more horror based Full Moon pictures, this is quite atmospheric and focuses on Tara vising North Wales for her father's funeral and being overwhelmed by a strange sexual awakening (even stuffed animal heads seem to get her excited). Big City Releasing (Independent distribution comapny) are main producers here but Full Moon's scent is rife (the story was originally planned for a 1980's Empire release). Beautifully filmed, humorously acted. Soft core actress Jenna Bodner makes her debut as Tara and is watchable but relatively plain looking. Great music from Fuzzbee Morse (Full Moon composer of Dolls and Dark Angel amongst others). Director Manos did a few jobs at Full Moon (including editing on Dark Angel and directing Josh Kirby 4) and did a few years at Playboy editing their 'documentaries'. This film is slow paced - the sex scenes are okay but merely add to the length of the film. Odd mixture of fascinating old fashioned horror and sex flick, this is always entertaining but never as good as it could be. The ending is ridiculously abrupt, think short tapes were got as a 'job lot'. Fine.

The story is essentially a mystery of both the occult and human nature. A serious minded young woman, Tara, returns to the exotic world of her early childhood and makes new acquaintances. Sexual encounters awaken her inner passions, and she soon exhibits a newly discovered physical prowess.

Jenna Bodnar, as Tara, is fairly attractive. The few erotic scenes and moderate violence add needed excitement, but they are not done to excess. Suspense and intrigue are the main appeals of the film. The setting is dark and foreboding, and the main plot develops slowly.

Tara inherits a wealthy estate from her distant estranged father. Inexplicably, just before his death he insisted that she stay away from the place. Tara's life is in danger and someone is trying to take advantage of her. Local folks repeatedly warn Tara, but they hesitate to tell her what they know. Even her new found mysterious lover, who seems to understand her true nature, offers little help. So, Tara is left practically all alone to ponder her mysterious circumstances. Naive, she is easily exploited, and she suffers a sinister fate.

The movie's main disappointment is the fact that it ends with the story unfinished. Tara slowly transforms into something frightening, but we never get to see what she becomes. I don't know if there is any sequel, in which case I am not sure the movie is worth the effort.

The Beast Inside Her (1995) is currently available on Tubi. The storyline follows a successful business woman who inherits an old family estate. Shortly after arriving at the home she also inherits an old family curse, the curse of the werewolf.

This movie is directed by Mark Manos (Liquid Dreams) and stars Mihaela Mihut (Selfie 69), Jenna Bodnar (Descendant), Charles Cooper (Blind Fury) and Michael Wiseman (Planet of the Apes).

This is not a horror movie, it's soft porn with horror references. The term they use on IMDb is "horror erotica." Well, I'd call it "horror badica." Yes, there's plenty of worthwhile nudity throughout the movie, but the horror elements are limited and the gore is non-existent. There definitely should have been more kills and emphasis on the horror elements. Even the werewolf concept was weak. Overall I'd score this a 2/10 and strongly recommend skipping it.