La visita del vicio

I honestly don't know what I've just watched. Recommended for José Ramón Larraz completists only - anyone expecting the slow-burning exploitation/eroticism of his 1974 film 'Vampyres' will doubtless be disappointed with this.

A mildly sexual relationship develops between two young women, Triana and Lorna - and Triana is 'plagued' by dreams of a naked man on horseback. When he appears in actuality ... not a lot happens, all in a washed-out series of images (artistic choice or a sign of its age? Not sure). Shame, because it's an intriguing premise.

Possibly this film is notorious mostly for the image of a naked woman inside a wooden horse, which is being approached by another horse. It's enough to make the eyes water - but not much else remains in the memory. If you're persevering in the hope of a good ending ... I wouldn't bother. My score is 3 out of 10.

"The Violation of the Bitch", is a very interesting title and one that made me confident that I was about to see something at least passable...but unfortunately, the film doesn't live up to it's title and unfortunately it's more of a missed opportunity than a great exploitation flick. The plot makes it sound like the film is going to be interesting too, and we focus on a young girl who has a recurring nightmare of a man on horseback raping her. She goes to live with a sex starved female and they soon kick up a relationship; but then the nightmare rapist manifests himself and a strange love triangle develops. I have to admit that the version I saw was only seventy three minutes long and may well have been a cut version; but unless they cut out all the interesting bits, this is still a bad film. The characters should really be important in a film like this; but instead they are non-existent and that ensures the plot is not very interesting either. As the title would suggest, there's a handful of hardcore sex scenes thrown in; but they're not very well filmed either, which really makes this a rather torrid seventy three minutes of film viewing. Not surprisingly, this is a rare film and it's one that is not worth tracking down.

Lorna is a young painter living by herself in the countryside. A couple friend on their way to London leave Triana (a shy black-eyed gypsy girl) with her. Triana has terrible nightmares in which a naked man on a horse pursues her. And these nightmares show to be grounded on reality when the horseman materializes in real life. Triana and Lorna become more and more attached to each other... and the horseman breaks into their lives. Triana feels repulsion for him and Lorna feels curiosity. A fortune teller had told Triana that a horseman would appear in her life and that when she gave in to him, a tragedy would occur. Bizarre love triangle!

The story is stylishly told. Creative cameras show the countryside, the house and the high grasses surrounding it, the dream sequences, the wind moving the clothes on the clothes line, the river, the small animals hopping around, and to crown it all, beautiful erotic scenes. All this is punctuated by a beautiful soundtrack of Spanish guitars.

Classic Spanish pictures of naked women, a flamenco dance that will be a prelude for things to come, a gypsy party.... "La visita del vicio" (The coming of sin), like the countryside and people it portrays, is dreamy, erotic and atmospheric.

Larraz is one of those directors who succeed in making a picture with virtually no money (e.g. Jesus Franco). By using some unorthodox images like a naked man on a horse, and by doing some smart editing, he manages to give this film a creepy feeling that shows you don't need millions to make a decent picture.

This does not mean this is a good movie, although it had some strong scenes, including the infamous horse-with-woman-inside scene, it has a weak ending, a couple of standard middle-of-the-road sexscenes and the acting is (as always in eurotrash cinema) rather amateuristic.

I'd recommend this to anyone who has seen every Franco 70s movie available and wants to see something similar. However, Larraz made a much better picture with Vampyres which stands much higher on my all-time top eurotrash list.

I've picked up the DVD because I liked the weird cover. It wasn't quite worth it but it wasn't that bad either. The best thing about this "Spanish Emmanuelle" (that's what the producers expected from director Larraz) is the dream sequence in which a woman is placed inside some model of a horse. Well, you have to see it. It leaves everything to the imagination of the viewer and depending on how sleazy your mind actually is, the scene comes across as very naughty. Otherwise, it's harmless softcore stuff with a rather weak ending.

My rating: 4/10