La Soeur de Satan

Hello, this odd film has had some s**t reviews and I feel I have to wade in and defend this monster. It's actually quite funny, the old witch looks extraordinarily ugly and her screaming had me laughing and laughing. I'd recommend this to anyone who can laugh at the very awful and enjoys a good cheesy political comment. Come on old fart reds, (it's all over now anyway), the hammer and sickle scene is meant to be as ridiculous as the rest of the film. I recommend that this wonderful film gets its very own category: Horror/Ridiculous plus a Bit of Nasty. The only horror in the film stems from how awful people can really be, and it works.

1965's "The She Beast" (La Sorella di Satana or Satan's Sister) arrived at the tail end of Barbara Steele's reign as Italy's Gothic queen, working with first time director Michael Reeves, who used $17,000 of his own money to finance the picture (total cost was $38,000). The 21 year old novice had made quite an impression on producer Paul Maslansky the previous year, doing second unit work on Christopher Lee's "The Castle of the Living Dead," earning his chance on a script conceived under the pseudonym 'Michael Byron,' with assistance from Roger Corman regulars Charles B. Griffith, Mel Welles, and F. Amos Powell, all appearing on screen in various roles (the shooting title was "Etruscan Ruins"). Modern day Transylvania was the setting (filming in both Italy and Yugoslavia), actor/dancer Jay 'Flash' Riley in impressively gruesome makeup as 18th century witch Vardella, not dispatched before placing a curse upon the descendants of her executioners; 200 years later the arrival of newlyweds Veronica (Steele) and Philip (Ian Ogilvy) spur her revival by taking possession of the bride after their car is directed toward a forbidding lake. The two stars share great chemistry, as relaxed and witty as they are believable, inquiring about the Draculas shortly before meeting the current Count Von Helsing (John Karlsen), who laments that the last Dracula is long gone, only remaining to keep a watchful eye out for the witch on the 200th anniversary of her demise. With her dark tresses parted in the middle, Barbara Steele proves as alluring in modern dress as in period Gothic, even displaying a bit of skin during her love scene with Ogilvy, with only Italy's "An Angel for Satan" and West Germany's "Young Torless" (as a prostitute) preceding her stepping away from the spotlight for a few years. She'd finish the decade with one British title, Boris Karloff's "The Crimson Cult," then an American TV movie shot in Spain, Janet Leigh's "Honeymoon With a Stranger," choosing a carefully selected array of cult items over the next several decades, achieving further acclaim as producer on two Dan Curtis miniseries, 1983's THE WINDS OF WAR and 1988's WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. Reeves would of course be best remembered for his final two features, Boris Karloff's "The Sorcerers" and Vincent Price's "Conqueror Worm," after which he suffered an accidental, fatal overdose combining barbiturates and alcohol in a lifelong struggle against depression (contrary to some reports, Gordon Hessler had already completed Price's "The Oblong Box" well before Reeves' untimely death). First time viewers may be disappointed at the preponderance of humor at the expense of horror, in particular the Keystone Kops-like chase for the finale (apparently put together with little input from Reeves, lacking the budget to make any changes), a rush to the lake to exorcise the revived witch. After working in Greece on Roger Corman's ATLAS, screenwriter Charles B. Griffith stayed behind for the odd film here and there, joined by fellow madman Mel Welles to punch up the Communist satire with one unsubtle, gruesome touch, the bloodied sickle tossed to the floor alongside the infamous Soviet hammer (one memorable exchange has the local police chief complaining that a corpse is obstructing justice by being dead!). The casting of boyhood pal Ian Ogilvy was a no brainer for Reeves, here making his feature debut as newlywed husband Philip opposite the ravishing Steele, available only for a single day which lasted an exhausting 18 hours. The US ads from Europix International compared the titular beast to both Dracula and Frankenstein, though her rampage only claims a single victim before spending most of the film in a harmless coma from Von Helsing's narcotic injections.

Barbara Steele is my all-time favorite actress, and I also have utmost respect for director Michael Reeves for his directing the brilliant 1968 horror classic "Witchfinder General" with the matchless Vincent Price, my favorite actor of all-time, in the lead. Reeves' "La Sorella Di Satana" aka. "The She-Beast", however, was quite disappointing. Steele's performance partially saved the movie, of course, but she had far too little screen time and therefore she couldn't save the entire film. One aspect, which is both annoying and kind of funny about this film is the fact that it is a typical product of the cold war. In one scene, for example, a hammer is dropped and falls on a sickle, forming the communist symbol.

In 17th century Romania, a murderous witch is captured and brutally lynched by local villagers. 300 years later English newlyweds Veronica (Barbara Steele) and Philip (Ian Ogilvy) are spending their honeymoon in Romania, near the lake where the witch was executed. When having a tea, the couple get to know the elderly Count Van Helsing, a descendant of the famous Van Helsing family, and learn that the haunted lake is still a dangerous place...

I am a huge fan of Barbara Steele and of horror in general, and "The She-Beast" is certainly the weakest film with Steele I have seen so far. However, the movie is in some parts unintentionally funny, and even though it is not very suspenseful, a film featuring Barbara Steele is never a complete waste of time. Ian Ogilvy's performance is not too convincing in this one, fortunately he did a way better job starring in "Witchfinder General" two years later, a film for which I will always respect director Michael Reeves, who was certainly a promising and great talent for the Horror genre, a talent which was sadly wasted by his early death in 1969. "The She-Beast", however is certainly not Reeve's highlight, but a rather dull movie, which can be fun to watch at times, but doesn't deliver the suspense or eeriness a horror flick should. It is certainly no must-see, but if you want to watch it anyway I recommend to watch a few other films with the great Barbara Steele (such as "The Pit And The Pendulum", "Black Sunday", or "Castle of Blood") as well as Michael Reeves' "Witchfinder General" first. All things considered, "The She-Beast" is a bit disappointing, but watchable (if only for Steele), and worth the time if your're a fan. 5/10

This film suffers from a case of not knowing what it wants to be. It starts off as a horror film about a murderous witch and continues in that mode by utilizing one of the best horror actresses of the time in Barbara Steele (as "Veronica"). Unfortunately, rather than using her talents to any great extent the director (Michael Reeves) completely omits her character for almost half of the film and decides to focus more on her husband "Phillip" (Ian Ogilvy), the innkeeper "Ladislav Groper" (Mel Welles) and "Count von Helsing" (John Karlsen) instead. And while they all performed adequately there seemed to be a noticeable void without her presence. To make matters even more strange, the movie then detours from being a horror film to a comedy with the local Transylvanian police bumbling around like the Keystone Cops. And then at the very end, Barbara Steele is reintroduced and immediately brings back a bit of horror into the production. Now, it's okay to have a little humor in a horror film. However, too much humor (as in this case) tends to water down whatever tension has been built up and generally creates an uneven feel to a movie. And I think that is what happened to this film.

Notable actors: Barbara Steele! Ian Ogilvy! Mel Welles!

This is the least serious Barbara Steele sixties horror film you'll sit through, and I'll tell you right now that if you are a Barbara Steele fan be warned as she disappears halfway through the film. I thought I was getting some sort of deal where Babs was possessed by some undead witch, but the witch is played by someone else! I want my money back...I'd be saying if I'd actually paid to watch this.

Babs and her equally snidey, sarcastic husband are on holiday in Romania, clearly there just to make fun of the locals and the communist regime everyone is under (over and over again, throughout the film). They end up at some terrible hotel in the middle of nowhere and meet "Ex" Count Van Helsing, descendant of the famous vampire killer, who tells them the story of a witch who cursed the area before she was drowned in a lake. Not interested, the couple retire to bed for some filthy squeezy, only to find that the hotel owner is watching them. One serious assault later, the couple head off, crashing into the aforementioned witch/lake. A truck driver fishes the two out of the lake and drives back to the hotel, which had me guessing rightly that this must be a very low budget film. Turns out that the guy is okay, but Babs seems to have been replaced by that horrible witch we saw being killed at the start of the film. The rest of the film details the husband and Van Helsing's attempt to get rid of the witch's spirit and bring back Babs...and (sigh), this involves a lot of slapstick comedy.

That's the thing with this film. It whips from out and out horror, like the witch rather bloodily killing a guy with a sickle, to Keystone Cops type car chases and for me doesn't gel too well. It's almost got the same atmosphere as the Fearless Vampire Killers, which isn't a good thing in my book. I know Michael Reeves has got a cult following for The Witchfinder General (and for dying so young I guess), and as a first film a lot of it works, but the comedy seems too forced for me.

Nice Italian cinematography, mind you.