Las amantes del diablo

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 .....

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.

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.

This is actually more a Spanish horror movie than an Italian one (so it's really more "paella horror" than "spaghetti horror"). I'm sure there was probably Italian co-production money involved, and the cut I saw was obviously not a Spanish one (since it had some brief nudity). But most of the cast was Spanish except for the Austrian actress Krista Nell, who was usually relegated to supporting roles but acquits herself well here as the lead. She plays a woman whose sister has gone around the bend after accidentally becoming involved with a satanic cult, so for some reason she tries infiltrate the same cult with not much better results.

As far as the plot goes, the movie is pretty weak. The directorial style doesn't begin to approach either the best Italian horror/gialli films or the British Hammer films, but it's not bad for early Spanish horror, and this is one of the few Spanish films that could actually be described as "psychedlic" in places (Spain's dictator at the time, Francisco Franco, had little use for the kind of decadence sweeping the rest of Europe that period, but, hey, if it's a bunch of satanists doing it. . .). The acting in general is unremarkable, but Nell and Teresa Gimpera, who plays the jealous girlfriend of the cult leader, are better than average. This is one of those movies I wouldn't look to hard for, but it's worth watching if you somehow run across it.