Les week ends maléfiques du Comte Zaroff

Wow - this is one of those early 1970's European sleazy sex flicks warped in a "horror" film - there IS plenty of gore and also lots of nudity but the true joy of this dubbed version we saw was the unbelievably unintentionally hysterical dialogue. After the "Count" has run over one of his chippies with his car "Rebecca, you are broken. My poor little rag doll." Man oh man. The lead actor also "wrote and directed" and you can tell he really thought he could fool people that this was "Euro Cinema Art For Adults" but it mainly looks like an excuse for him to have nude scenes with various busty French chicks and oh yes, there;s this silly mundane plot to move along - actually at the end when there's supposed to be this "shocking: moment" - it is so lame, a high school play could put together a better skeleton - anyway, this film is good for a laugh with friends if you like to watch the European sleaze horror genre but a lot of it is awful and of course, sexist - hello - it's France in 1974 - what are you expecting - Julia???

You just got to love opening sequences like the one in "Seven Women for Satan" … During the intro there's a naked girl running through the woods, chased by a hunting dog and a malignant looking dude on a horse, until she falls off a cliff and splits her head open on a rock. Then the camera zooms out on the face of the guy and we notice how he's simply sitting behind a desk whilst his secretary waiting for him to sign some papers. "Oh I'm sorry, I was lost in my thoughts…" he then says! Sweet, I have stumbled upon yet another completely bonkers movie. Even if you only understand a minimum of French and have a look at the original title, you immediately know that "Seven Women for Satan" hasn't got anything to do with Satan or ritual sacrifices, but simply revolves on the flamboyant escapades of a perverted and mentally unstable count during his weekend in the countryside. This is, in fact, another sleazy variation on the classic milestone "The Most Dangerous Game" about a lunatic's disturbing hobby of hunting people – preferably hot naked chicks - in the forest for sports. Well actually, this is more than just a variation on the 1932 classic, as writer/director/actor Michel Lemoine had the pretension to directly link his protagonist to Leslie Banks' legendary villain in "The Most Dangerous Game". Count Zaroff supposedly is the original Count Zaroff's son but he exchanged his private island for the remote French countryside. He also can't afford to be unemployed anymore, so he's an office clerk from Monday to Friday and a maniacal killer during the weekend. Zaroff is a genuine weirdo who hallucinates about dancing with deceased woman but actually runs his car over the live ones. His butler once pledged to prevent the Zaroffs from killing, but he's obviously doing a lousy job. There isn't any depth in the screenplay and the build-up certainly doesn't pay attention to suspense or sinister atmosphere. Really, the only useful thing to do during this film is count the girls that are lured for Zaroff's deceptive trap and hope they'll reach seven rapidly. Half of the film is pointless and tedious padding footage, like the overlong erotic dance act in which a statue inexplicably transforms into a muscular black guy (???), and the other half exists of psychedelic sleaze that eventually grows tiresome as well even though all the girls look ravishing. I have the impression that it was Michel Lemoine's intention to imitate his pal Jean Rollin and make a deliriously kinky sex-thriller. "Seven Women for Satan" is a French production, so inevitably it also stars Jess Franco regular Howard Vernon ("The Awful Dr. Orloff", "Zombie Lake"). Lemoine himself surely has the looks of a crazy killer, but not the talent to depict one.

"Les weekends malefiques du comte Zaroff" (Seven women for Satan) was billed as as sexy and trashy remake of "The most dangerous game". As the film was banned in France (as far I as I know, a liberal country when it comes to cinema), my curiosity was raised still more. But I was disappointed, the film didn't meet my expectations.

Why was this film banned in France? Mystery! I would have understood if it had been banned from the UK. The British censorship is very strict and known throughout the world for its medieval standards.

"The most dangerous game" was a distant source of inspiration for "Seven women for Satan" (the English title is very misleading, but I will use it for briefness' sake. Where is Satan? 7 women?), but I think that Lemoine suffered a greater influence from Rollin and Benazeraf, and we should not forget to mention "Beyond Erotica" (No es nada mama, solo un juego).

The story runs like this: The count Zaroff (Michel Lemoine) during the week days is apparently a normal man, sometimes a little distracted from his work, because he's constantly dreaming about chasing and torturing women. Women for him are beautiful dolls, he feels like biting them, crushing their bones... he likes them so much!

When the week-end comes he goes to his castle. In the castle his butler Karl (Howard Vernon) and a big black dog called Ingmar wait for him. Karl wants to assist Count Zaroff in his evil ways like his ancestors did to Count Zaroff's ancestors. There's also a Fata Morgana apparition (Joelle Coeur) haunting Count Zaroff. She was one of his ancestors' victims. She's a beautiful long haired woman in a white gown that appears and disappears in the most unexpected places. Count Zaroff seems to be obsessed by her. And we should not forget the friendly black dog Ingmar that gets its share of beautiful women as well. One can't complain about cruelty to animals!

If you've read me till now, you may think that the film tells a story. But no, this film is almost plot less - it looks like a collage, a bric-a-brac of Lemoine's varied cinematic influences and sexual dreams. The violence, for the most part, is not shown explicitly. In this department, the film is rather tame when compared to others of the genre.

If you see the film in the right mood, it can be an amusing experience: The castle, count Zaroff and his sinister butler Karl, without forgetting, of course, the trendy big black dog, Ingmar. "Ingmar, elle est a toi!" Growl.... Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!..... Naked girls being chased, semi-naked girls dancing to tribal drums or pop music, ghostly girls materializing out of nothing, the "philosophical" pearls delivered mainly by Count Zaroff and his faithful butler Karl...

The film is difficult to judge, some scenes, particularly the dreamy sensual ones are very stylish, but the story seems to wander aimlessly and the pace sometimes is very slow. If you see this film with a receptive mind (and in a slightly altered state), you might enjoy it better.

If you are a fan of the story "The Most Dangerous Game", you might not care for this ridiculous, sexed-up, Euro-idiot version of it, but if like me you just can't resist a movie where the protagonist at one point says to a potential female victim, "Shall we have some champagne, or shall I pour it over your naked body and drink it off you as if you were crystal?", this might just appeal to you. The character in this movie is a decadent nobleman who spends his weekends hunting an unusual kind of animal--not the most dangerous game perhaps, but the most sexy and naked female game he can find. Obviously, this movie is pretty politically incorrect. In its defense though, it's also pretty damn ridiculous, which renders it considerably less offensive than the OTHER decadent-nobleman-hunting-naked-women/"Most Dangerous Game" rip-off I've seen, "Beyond Erotica" (a better made, but definitely more offensive film).

The protagonist is played by Michael Lemoine, one of those strange European film Svengali who despite a lack of good looks or talent managed to seduce a number of incredibly beautiful actresses both on-screen and off. He was married to Janine Reynaud at one point, for instance (and reputedly pimped her out to wealthy producers to finance the movies the two of them made with Jess Franco). Lemoine's leading lady/champagne glass in this movie is Joelle Coeur, a brunette French beauty who kind of resembled the British Koo Stark or the German Olivia Pascal, and had the same kind of regrettably short career.

Obviously, this is not a great movie, or even close to to the best adaptation of this classic story, but it was obviously never meant to be either. It does succeed in being what it is-- a big fat slice of cheesiest kind of Eurotica.

Directed and also starred by Michel Lemoine, this movie is not The Most Dangerous Game. The plot is still the same : an insane man enjoy the sadistic pleasure of hunting human beings. But in this one, there is a lot of bad acting by the ensemble cast, silly dialogues, not very comprehensible situations,lots of nudity and enjoyable murders. And this movie get a prize at the Fantasy Film Festival of Stiges in Spain in 1977. If you get the "chance" to see it, I don't want to recommended to anybody but still an experience to watch naked girls touching herself and dancing for absolutely no reason through the whole film.