Inquisición

Inquisition (1976)

*** (out of 4)

Paul Naschy made his directorial debut with this WITCHFINDER GENERAL type film that adds in a ton a nudity, gore and all out sleaze. In the film Naschy plays a man who puts many to death as he finds them to be witches but things take a turn when he falls in love with a young woman (Daniela Giordano) without realizing she has a pact with Satan (also played by Naschy). After watching this film you'll be wishing that Mr. Naschy had directed some of his earlier horror pictures and especially those that didn't quite reach the high entertainment level. I was really shocked to see how wonderful his direction was here because he really nailed the atmosphere and setting and in the end he delivered a sleazy but oh so entertaining picture. By 1976 there had already been several films dealing with this subject. Some were classics (WITCHFINDER GENERAL) and others were just trash (MARK OF THE DEVIL). This film here takes the serious elements of that first film and mixes in the sleaze of the second one but it's really Naschy's direction that makes it work so well. You really do believe the period setting and this here helps you buy into the story even more. Even better is that the "love story" isn't just there to pad out the running time and instead the director makes you get involved with both characters. It helps that Naschy and Giordano work so well together as they two of them can bounce the flirtatious moments off one another as well as the more dramatic ones. Even the supporting players are quite good, although there's no question that the main focus are the two leads. Another major plus the film has working for it are the Satanic cult scenes. These are shot incredibly well and the visual look of them are excellent. The thick fog adds to their quality but the sets are all rather amazing and again, there's Naschy bringing it all together. The gore and violence level isn't stomach-turning but it is pretty thick including one scene where a chained up woman gets her ripped torn off! The nudity level is incredibly high as all the torture victims are always naked plus there are other scenes that appeared to have just been thrown in for the chance of more naked bodies. This includes one scene where four beauties are splashing around naked in a lake for no other reason than they're extremely hot. INQUISITION is certainly one of the better films of its type and deserves to be better known.

Euro-horror star Paul Naschy (a.k.a. Jacinto Molina) made a creditable directing debut with this gruesome and exploitative tale, packed with gorgeous women and pervasive Old World atmosphere. He also stars as Bernard de Fossey, magistrate and witch hunter in the 16th century. He and his cohorts arrive in the Peyriac region of France, determined to seek out sinners and transgressors. He meets a stunning young woman, Catherine (Daniela Giordano), who bewitches him. She loves another man, but when that man dies under suspicious circumstances, she's willing to align herself with Satan to see justice done.

"Inquisition" is not for the squeamish, what with its unflinching shots of torture. It doesn't dwell on these scenes any longer than unnecessary to make its point, though. Still, many viewers will wince at the sight of a girls' nipple getting twisted right off her breast. And there are some very fine looking young women here, showing off their birthday suits to great effect. Naschy did know how to please the exploitation loving crowd.

Of course, he also delivers what is considered to be one of his best films (if not THE best). He cannily captures a historical period of great ignorance, superstition, and fear, when innocent people could be persecuted, and confess to acts of witchcraft just to get the torture to stop. At the same time, there is at least one dissenting voice: the local surgeon, who dares to venture the opinion that people like De Fossey may be acting hastily.

Naschy gives one of his finest performances as the tormented De Fossey, and also gets to strut his stuff by playing The Devil and The Grim Reaper as well. Giordano is a stunner, and does a convincing job of portraying righteous indignation. A standout supporting performance comes from Antonio Iranzo as the resentful, one eyed manservant Renover, who gets back at those women who spurn his advances by accusing them of being witches.

Overall, this is a solid film notable for some ambiguity and a lingering, grim nature.

Seven out of 10.

Following the success of "The Conqueror Worm", and the "Mark Of The Devil" films, Naschy steps up, and adds another "monster" to his resume, with "Inquisition".

'Tis a bad time in this part of the world. The tyrannical rulers, are draining the public, there is little sustenance for the poor, and witchcraft is blamed for many troubles. Naschy enters as the resident witch hunter, and is soon torturing confessions out of many locals. In the dubbed, American version, there is a surprising amount of nudity, and many of the local women cluster together, as the girl who Naschy fancies, sells her soul, to catch a glimpse of the face of the man who killed her lover. There is reasonable 70's gore, and nudity, but this is no "Mark Of The Devil", though it ends much the same. When they shave Naschy's head, and burn him at the stake, he looks uncannily like the final immolation of "the mole", in Jodorowsky's "El Topo", yet seems prescient of Brando, in "Apocalypse Now".

XVI Century, France, three members (Paul Naschy, Tony Isbert, Ricardo Merino) of the Inquisition travel throughout country judging, torturing and condemning suspicious of witchery. At a village stay in the house of the Mayor(Antonio Casas) and the inquisitor judge named Bernard De Fossey (Naschy) falls in love for his daughter Catherine(Daniela Giordano). She suspects that death her lover (Juan Luis Galiardo) has been planned by Bernard for the reason of jealousy and then Catherine deals with witchery arts by means of two sorceresses (Tota Alba, Monica Randall) because she seeks revenge.

This is a good first effort Jacinto Molina as director and is lavishly produced for Naschy standards. Although Molina initially thought in Torquemada , he met the prestigious writer Julio Caro Baroja who explained him the Spanish Inquisition is less interesting and did not pursue witches as happened in France or Germany. As Jacinto wrote the screenplay and subsequently directed this co-production Spanish-Italian set in France.

Naschy gives his knowledges about Inquistion and witchery as he explains about the ¨Fornicarius¨and the ¨Garden of flowers ¨ by Torquemada that the devil and Sabbath are the same. And accusing Inquisition publishes what may be the most blood-soaked book in human history: ¨The Malleus Malleficarum¨, the witches' hammer,it is instructed the clergy on how to locate,torture and kill all freethinking women,during witch-hunt , history tells, fifty thousand are captured ,burned alive at the stake. Also Paul Naschy/Bernard De Fossey tells : 72 infernal princes command over 7.000 demons as ¨Satanas¨ the Grand General and Emperor, ¨Belcebu¨, prince of demons , ¨Asmodeo¨, superintendent of inferno, ¨Astaroth¨ Grand duke of occident, infernal treasurer, and ¨Beltegor¨ who rules over 70 legions of devils.

It's a B series entertainment with abundant sensationalistic scenes and a Naif style.The movie has a bit of ridiculous gore and is an engaging horror story full of witchery, tortures, burning poles and several other things. This time Paul Nashy/Jacinto Molina exhibits little breast but he was European weightlifting champion .Pretty slow going, but hang in there for the Inquisitors versus witches , colorful Aquelarres and astonishing devils. Good cinematography by Miguel Mila and Julio Burgos is accompanied by a correct remastering. Eerie and atmospheric musical score by Barratas .The motion picture is professionally directed and played by Jacinto Molina , a slick craftsman though regular actor.The flick will appeal to Paul Naschy fans and terror genre enthusiasts. Rating : 6, Acceptable and entertaining.

Inquisición was written by, directed and stars Paul Naschy. I would imagine that he was starting to get tired of starring in the often less than brilliant Spanish horror films that he made a lot of prior to 1976 and decided to make something a bit more serious; probably taking influence from Vincent Price in the excellent Witchfinder General, and this film is the result. While the film is of a higher quality in terms of acting and content than most of Naschy's filmography; it's also rather dull and unfortunately has nothing on the earlier Vincent Price film. The film takes on a period setting and, as the title suggests, focuses on the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition is out hunting witches; and Bernard de Fossey is leading the hunt. However, a local girl takes offence at him and his compatriots hunting down the local townsfolk and decides to take action by hooking up with Satan himself to make the leader of the Inquisition fall in love with her, and thus leaving the leader with a personal crisis to negotiate.

As mentioned, Paul Naschy takes the lead role; and as usual, he is one of the best things about the film. Naschy obviously enjoys playing the lead role in his own film (actually this is the first one he wrote and directed) and the role is somewhat different and more involving than his previous ones. One of my main problems with the film is that the style of it is very bland; Spanish horror is more famous for its stunning Gothic locales and this film is severely lacking in this area. The plot moves very slowly and there is little in the way of distractions from the lead character's plight; which in truth is not all that interesting. To the film's credit, it does feature some very good torture scenes, some of which are quite nasty; a nipple removal scene is a highlight in that respect. Naschy does take tentative steps to lift the film by showing us pictures of some of Satan's minions (apparently the Dark Lord has quite a hierarchy set up!) but not enough is made of it. Overall, this film might be of interest to Spanish horror or Naschy completists; but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to track it down.