Tortures diaboliques

If you like Hammer horror flicks, you might like this Italian effort grounded in the same genre. Well- possibly.

You know the formula: pretty girls in white dresses (esp Krista Nell), central casting bad guy in a dark cloak- and a gothic pile in which to set events.

All pretty derivative, but done in a competent but generally unchallenging manner.

If you want sleaze, then this is not for you. Some gore. Very little nudity. In fact very little "edge" at all. Saw mine on German DVD as "Tanz des Satans". No better in translation .....

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.

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.

For someone who has bought "Pierrot le Fou" (1965), "Massacre pour Une Orgie"(1966) "Affare Beckett l'" (1966), "The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance" (1975) in the hope of seeing Christa Nelli (most often billed as in my title), this 1971 film is the best film I have seen of her.As it is some 32 years old it has been out of circulation for some while and hitheto has been a difficult title to find.However a German company, "Marketing Film", has recently brought out a new 2003 Dvd reissue edition (89 mins) under the title "Tanz Des Satans".This is an excellent product with crystal clear pictures and Dolby sound.There is no grainy picture as on some old videos and it looks as if it could have originally been filmed this year.

Instead of her black beehive hairstyle most often seen in her mid-sixties films, Krista Nell sports here a lovely head of light auburn hair and dresses very fashionably in different outfits for most of her scenes.Basically the story involves two sisters, Maria and Hilda (Krista Nell).Maria works as a nurse and is due for a long holiday which makes her very happy indeed.She only just manages to escape and is rescued from a traumatic event and is then rushed to a sanataorium to recover.Someone has evidently played with her mind!However the evil and hypnotic Dr Tills Nescu (Espartaco Santoni) will not be denied and with inside help, manages to abduct her from the sanatorium, taking Maria back to his forbidding castle.Hilda resolves to find her beloved sister and with the help of the local police and Interpol together with a friendly and helpful doctor from the hospital, she manages to track down where Maria was last seen.Dr Nescu has a secretary Andrea, (Teresa Gimpera who looks very much like Jill St. John) and who is obviously very much in his power.He is something of a playboy what with his yacht and trappings of a millionaire.Andrea also has to suffer all the girlfriends of her boss around his yacht much to her displeasure.Soon however Dr. Nescu has fallen for Hilda who he sees as special, much to the resentment of Andrea whom we suspect has lesbian feelings for Hilda herself (although this is never consummated).

To find out more, Hilda follows Dr Nescu and his entourage back into his castle where grisly horrors await.I will not divulge any more of the plot but it does involve devil worship.A good film I rated it 6/10.Please bear in mind the original language is Spanish but my Dvd came with German/English dubbing options.One gripe however.Italian Krista does not provide her own English dubbing as in "Affare Beckett l'??" and I wish these type of European Continental films provided proper credits so one can read the cast list, production values etc. as in most British/American films.

"Feast of Satan" is a Spanish Gothic horror produced,co-written and starring Espartaco Santoni. He plays a wealthy doctor Tils Nescu,who is also the leader of sect devoted to the worship of an evil Hindu deity.Hilda Torres(stunningly beautiful Krista Nell)investigates when her sister is discovered in a terrified state.Traveling to the Spanish tourist resort of Marbella,Hilda becomes Nescu's most recent lover and will herself become his next victim."Feast of Satan" is a pretty average example of Eurohorror.The film offers only a little bit of atmosphere and there's very little nudity.Still the main reasons to see this somewhat obscure horror flick are Krista Nell and Teresa Gimpera,both incredibly alluring beauties.So if you're a fan of early 70's Spanish horror give this one a look.7 out of 10.