Blood Sabbath

A trippy, hippy horror from the 70s, this weird tale of witches and water nymphs features tons of full frontal nudity, a surreal atmosphere, a groovy soundtrack, and just a little graphic gore, giving it (in my opinion) a distinctly European vibe despite being made in the San Fernando Valley, California. And, like a lot of experimental, psychedelic Euro horror from the 70s, it proves to be rather incoherent, and very tedious.

Anthony Geary plays David, a young Vietnam veteran who falls in love with Yyalah (Susan Damante-Shaw), a mysterious, supernatural blonde woman who cannot love him back because he has a soul. In order to be with the woman of his dreams, David arranges for Alotta (busty Dyanne Thorne of Ilsa fame), the queen of a coven of witches that plagues a nearby village, to relieve him of his soul...

Despite featuring lots of babes with massive minges (as was the fashion at the time) cavorting together in the buff, plus the impressive sight of the legendary Ms. Thorne jiggling her huge cans and shaking her tush, Blood Sabbath is ultimately an unmemorable piece of trash that is unlikely to appeal to even the most desperate of perverts (even if birds with big bushes happen to be your particular thing!). The meandering storyline is extremely dull, and with only one instance of graphic violence (a manky severed head held aloft by Alotta), fans of exploitation and low-budget horror would be advised to approach with caution.

Blood Sabbath (1972)

** (out of 4)

David (Anthon Geary) is walking around the country when he comes into a small town. He goes to sleep one night in the woods and is woken up by four naked women climbing over him. He manages to escape from them (why?) and then meets one woman and quickly falls in love but she keeps refusing him. It turns out he's gotten involved with a coven of witches and now they are going up against Alotta, the Queen of the Witches (Dyanne Thorne).

BLOOD SABBATH isn't a masterpiece or even a very good movie but it's got a few interesting aspects that make it worth watching. I'd be shocked if the budget was over $100,000 but that's not a slam on the picture. It's clear that they weren't working with much of a budget yet they appeared to find every woman that was willing to strip down. The film might not offer a very original story but it offers up plenty of nudity and then there's Thorne.

The biggest problem with this film is its pacing. The film moves way too slow for its own good and this was especially true for the final twenty-minutes or so. Before all of that, we're actually treated to a mildly entertaining film. I thought Geary was good in the lead role and at least kept you interested in what's going on. Susan Damante was good as well and it's always fun to see Thorne.

Another good thing about the movie was the setting as you really did get the feeling that you were out in the middle of nowhere. BLOOD SABBATH isn't going to have too many fans out there and especially since there are so many better movies dealing with witches. Still, if you're a fan of these types of movies this one is worth seeing.

I thought this movie was weird. First of all it's mainly about naked witches killing people. Well I like that stuff though, also besides tons of nudity it has some gore but not much. The acting is bad but the nudity in this film makes me forget the acting. If you like Witchcraft/nudity/bad acting rent this movie.

Delirious mess of a witchcraft tale is watchable mainly as a showcase for the female bust. 'Nam vet drifter David(Anthony Geary, "Luke Spencer" of GENERAL HOSPITAL fame) is nettled by a group of reckless hippies who are having some sort of baby-oil orgy in the wilderness. By and by, he falls in love with a foxy water nymph named Yyalah, but she can't requite his affections "because he has a soul". The inimitable Dyanne Thorne(of the amazing ILSA films) turns up as a witch named Alotta (hmmmm...now there's a name you can have all sorts of fun with), who has plans of her own for David. This very druggie deep-woods tale of love, lust, and the supernatural culminates in a satisfactory bittersweet finale(and a closing credits crawl with that distinctly MARY-TYLER-MOORE lettering font), but getting that far along is a challenge and a chore.

An occasionally interesting, but mostly tiresome affair from the post-psychedelic burnout years(a place in time which I personally refer to as "the rattan zone"). If you're not a dedicated completest of 70s horror trash, you might opt to give this one a wide berth. I'm pretty sure it's inspired by, or very loosely based on Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's 19th century romantic fantasy novella UNDINE.

4/10

A passable load of nonsense lent a certain charm by the utter soppiness of the two main characters - a young man and his water nymph girl friend.

They are kept from getting together because he has a soul and so he seeks out an evil witch to take his soul away so that he can be with his water nymph forever. This seemed to involve a lot of topless jiggling by said evil witch.

The same weekend I bought this DVD I also bought Octopus II, She Lives by Night, and Boogeyman 2, and compared to them this was a masterpiece! Still I was glad I'd only paid £2.97 for it.