Sodomia

Fantastic, sublime piocture, concerninmg two mysterious folk of Gypsy origin. The soundtrack which is not credited, is one of the all time best. At first was not sure of the soft focus but as you watch, it kind of seduces you into the powerful, erotic events that unfold. I have only seen the cut version (alas) but please ignore the terrible reviews to this one. Even if you don't like this type of material, the music alone is a haunting masterpiece. The cover poster (pictured), is original/incredible. An uncut, remastered version would be very most welcomed.

Contrary to popular belief, the world of 70's exploitation and trash cinema can be quite the mysterious and contradictory place. Take this rarely seen and obscure piece of Spanish awkwardness, for example! This movie is weird and confusing even BEFORE you decide to watch it. If you look it up on this marvelous website, you stumble upon the page of a seemingly stylish, artistic and somewhat psychedelic film entitled "The Coming of Sin", which showcases a cover image with a golden and transparent horse standing in a meadow. In case you know yet nothing about the film, you're tempted to think this will be an artsy and tasteful exploitation feature. However, the VHS exemplar that ended up in my dirty little hands is proudly entitled "Violation of the Bitch" with the provocative tagline "She Asked for it …" written in equally giant letters and showing the drawing of a busty woman kneeling down in front of a pair of female legs and begging for her life. Now, what type of film do you expect to see in this case? That's right, pure rancid sleaze and gratuitous violence!

The actual finished product is somewhat of a mixture between wannabe artistic and wannabe shocking. "Violation of the Bitch/The Coming of Sin" is plentiful of nudity (both male and female) but severely lacking a decent storyline and action sequences. A wealthy but lonely and sexually frustrated female takes a shy but voluptuous gypsy girl into her mansion for some company and random lesbian entertainment. The girl suffers from a recurring nightmare about a naked man on a horse stalking her. The dream actually becomes reality when one morning there's a naked horseman at their door. The gypsy girl naturally reacts reluctant, but the insatiable artist is fascinated by the appearance and a bizarrely uncomfortable triangular relationship develops itself. In spite of the reasonably short running time (little under 80 minutes), "Violation of the Bitch" is a tedious film with an unpleasantly large amount of padding footage. All the potentially intriguing plot elements (the gypsy girl's history, the horseman's background…) are ignored in favor of long and meaningless sequences containing two female lead characters staring at each other naked or posing for nude portraits. The climax is totally implausible since it contradicts with everything the script attempted to make us believe earlier on, but hey, at least the VHS cover art wasn't a lie. José Ramón Larraz has always been one of my favorite Euro-exploitation directors (the man was single-handedly responsible for "Vampyres", "Black Candles" and "Symptoms") but this is unquestionably one of his lesser efforts. Unless you're a tolerant and extremely open-minded fan of odd exploitation sleaze, avoid!

Here's another sumptuous-looking, highly atmospheric and sensuous fantasy from Spanish art-exploitation director Larraz, who was responsible for Vampyres, the finest of modern vampire movies. The scenes are bathed in soft-focus greens and ochres, emphasising the dreamlike pastoral setting and highlighting the players' striking emerald and almond eyes. The three main characters are gorgeous in unique ways, the Spanish guitar score is a perfect complement to the mood, there is one memorable surrealistic image, and the story is absorbing and quite unpredictable. Only the rather arbitrary ending is a let-down. A perfect example of the heights reached by 70s Euro-fantasy, with psychological and cultural subtexts intensifying the conventions of the erotic and horror genres.

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.