Morella: O Espírito Satânico

Edger Allen Poe gets the Roger Corman treatment in this flick with plenty of naked women and lots of sexual situations. The story involves a witch put to death. 17 years later, her daughter is all grown up and stands to get a good sum of money. Seeing this as the perfect chance to return to life, the mother tries to take over her daughter's body. Film is totally devoid of entertainment, not even all the sex and nudity can help this one out.

Rated R; Violence, Nudity, Sexual Situations.

Breasts. That is kinda what this movie was about. It was tailor made for a latch-key kid in the 90s to stay up late watching HBO to eventually see breasts.

Breasts.

It delivered that.

There was some plot about an evil witch and breasts. Something about a love affair and breasts. There were a few deaths and breasts and...

...yes, there was a thong despite the fact it takes place a long time ago before there were thongs and...yes, breasts.

What you have here is really a movie about breasts, but, it is a period piece Lovecraftian movie about breasts.

So if you want breasts, this is the movie for you, especially since it really makes no effort whatsoever to pass itself off as anything but a movie about breasts.

Breasts. You really have to appreciate that honesty.

Well, let's get this out of the way. BOOBS. Lots of BOOBS. As a woman, I am not personally impressed by boobs so trying to rely on that as a selling point for a film is just tacky to me. Now that's out of the way, I'll talk about the actual movie.

What I liked: *The setting. *The way it was shot. Some of the scenes were really shot beautifully. *The costumes were nice with the exception of a scene that shows underwear that doesn't suit the era. *The story.

What I didn't like: *Some of the acting was pretty bad. *The script was lousy but it may have come across lousy at times because the acting was so off. *The amount of boob-age.

This wasn't downright awful, to me but it left something to be desired. It really could've been so much more because there really is a story there. Maybe someone will take another stab at this one someday.

This movie was a total farce. They used Edgar Allen Poe to get several young women out of their clothes. No different then your typical stupid slasher film. The only difference is that it is based off a short story by Edgar Allen Poe. Don't watch this movie

The Haunting of Morella (1990)

** (out of 4)

Based on the Poe story, Morella (Nicole Eggert) is put to death for being a witch but before dying she passes off a curse in front of her husband and baby daughter. Seventeen years pass and the daughter (also played by Eggert) begins to have strange visions and soon a possession begins.

Jim Wynorski's THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA deserves a lot of credit. It was a Roger Corman produced cheapie but you have to give it credit for at least looking like an authentic period piece. I must admit that I was really shocked to see how good the film looked. More times than not these low-budget movies update the setting to where they don't have to worry about costumes and other things like that but that's not the case here. I thought the director did a very good job at delivering a nice atmosphere and the setting was perfect.

As far as the film goes, I wouldn't call it a complete success but there are enough interesting moments to make it worth sitting through. As you should expect from the director, the horror elements often take a back seat to the nudity and sexuality. There's plenty of both here but the horror elements aren't too bad for what they are. There are a couple bloody moments that will have fans of the genre happy.

David McCallum offers up a good performance in his role. Eggert is simply okay in her part. Lana Clarkson stands out in the role of the friend and you've also got Gail Thackray in a small part. THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA isn't a complete success but it's certainly entertaining enough to make it worth watching.