Les vierges des messes noires

Well, there you have it, another disillusion on my account. Two, actually! First of all, even though I like to think of myself that I know a little something about 70's euro-exploitation and its most prolific contributors, I never heard about Joseph W. Sarno before. Here's a guy who made over seventy rancid and cult-laden exploitation movies and I haven't seen a single one! How? Why? What happened here? Secondly, and even worse, just when you think to have found a new source for obscure cult movies, that director's most famous and supposed "masterpiece" turns out to be an irredeemably dull and irritating film. Admittedly, lesbian vampire movies form a pretty insignificant sub genre as a whole, but some of them bath in ominous atmosphere and curious sensuality (like José Larraz' "Vampyres" or Harry Kümmel's "Daughters of Darkness"). Joseph Sarno's film has nothing to offer, except copious amounts of gratuitous nudity and even that becomes boring rather quickly. The events take place in a secluded old castle, hidden deep in the German mountains, where five centuries ago lived a malicious and bloodthirsty (literally) baroness. Her loyal disciples still throw naked dance parties in the castle's catacombs, which are lit by penis-shaped candles…AUCH, and hope to resurrect the baroness any time soon now. Suddenly (don't even ask how) the castle is full of young and sexy female guests, so even more erotic rites ensue. Sounds delicious and entertaining enough, but "The Devil's Plaything" contains a massive number of sequences where literally nothing happens and where the cast members' ignorant facial expressions are simply unendurable! Sarno isn't capable of creating suspense or building a Gothic atmosphere (or maybe he just didn't bother to) and the actresses' capacities restrict themselves to standing in front the camera topless and pull a really pathetic face. Please do yourself a favor: no matter how desperately you strive to see all lurid lesbian-vampire movies of the 70's, this one isn't worth a penny! Even the repertoires of Jess Franco and Jean Rollin are pure art compared to this dud.

This masterpiece of lesbian horror comes from exploitation master Joseph W.Sarno.It features plenty of soft core sex,really hot lesbian sequences plus a lot of naked women.The acting is pretty good and the film is quite atmospheric and well-made.Marie Forsa is one of the hottest chicks I have ever seen in a horror movie-it's a visual pleasure to see her wonderful body.Sarno really knows how to pick up hot looking ladies.A must see for fans of sexploitation!

I bought "The Devil's Plaything" under the alternative title "Vampire Ecstasy" uncut on British DVD release, set in a German castle it is a tale of vampires, rituals and lots of sex. I won't beat about the bush (pun intended, ha, ha!) but this is a soft core skin flick dressed up as a horror movie. Erotic horror if you like, director Joseph Sarno was apparently one of the pioneers of this sub genre. The Gothic castle is set amongst beautiful German mountain scenery, impressive but the female vampires seem immune to sunlight (though not garlic or crosses), and there's not a set of fangs in sight. Barely any blood either. The cast consists of European actors who appear to have been speaking in English. If this were the case then credit to them for doing this, however their performances do come across as very wooden and would probably have been better filmed in German with English subtitles or dubbed into English. Apart from a disfigured, creepy male servant all of the cast get naked and this probably makes up about half of the move's running time. The sexy female vampires perform rituals in the castle's dungeon, gyrating to a repetitive drumbeat and doing suggestive things with phallic shaped candles! There are also several sex scenes though nothing of the hardcore variety. My problem is that after a while this just became very repetitive and lost its eroticism, not helped by a running time of 103 minutes. As a horror movie this is lame, as a European sexploitation flick then it's worth a look.

... than this has a lot of Horror in it! Like almost way too much of it. Full frontal and everything. There is no explicit intercourse being shown, but other than that it feels like at least 50% of the movie plays in the nude. A lot of women who may not be able to convince you of their characters motivation, but seem to be able to convince others to obey them (through singing as is suggested and their bare bodies).

I wonder if some thought: who needs Viagra, when you can chant and make people horny just like that. Of course Viagra was not a thing back then. But Horror movies were. Not that there is much evidence of that here. I mean it get eerie from time to time, but this puts the Horror mantle on to let you watch a soft-core movie and not feel bad about it. Here's the thing: you can have fun with this, because it's so bad it gets entertaining. You can't be prude (I think I thoroughly established that) and don't expect too much Horror out of it ... Fancy an ... old castle with hot women dying to get into your pants? (on a serious note: the best thing is the location itself, really puts value to the whole thing)

Well the story is a little hard to follow the first time, but that's only because of all the bare breasted '70s painted-up vampire/witches dancing to the bongo drums. This of course interrupted by a few vampiric orgies. And there are some very interesting candles and uses for them. And for girl on girl action, vampiric or not...this movie just rocks!!!