Força Satânica

I caught this movie at 3:00 a.m. on local t.v. I didn't know the premise or anything about it but it got my attention with the typical early 90's sleaze and cheese.

The plot is something we have seen before in many 80's efforts but what makes it interesting on this case is the sexy-wicked performance by Lydie. How hot is she?. There are other aspects to consider like decent gore that looks like syrup, steamy sexual situations, cheesy rock music, and strange performances.

This isn't by means a movie I could recommend to you fellow Horror fans, I could only recommend it if you are into early 90's Horror (very peculiar).

If you can stand cheese and sleaze, this may please you.

Cult film maker Bert I. Gordon, best known for his films that feature oversized monsters (which gained him the affectionate nickname 'Mr. B. I. G.'), ended his career with several pictures that saw him becoming more exploitative by bringing sex into the mix. Satan's Princess is a supernatural cop movie, but it features an awful lot of T&A and soft-core romping, making it great fun for those who like 'em sleazy.

The always great Robert Forster plays tough retired police detective Lou Cherney, who doesn't let his crippled leg (caused by a bullet to the knee) stop him from roughing up the bad guys (his no-nonsense methods see him ramming a peeping tom's face down a toilet). Approached by a desperate father, Cherney investigates the still unsolved case of the man's missing teenage daughter and finds himself embroiled in the world of voodoo and witchcraft, the girl having fallen in with a very bad crowd led by wicked modelling agency owner Nicole St. James (played by the drop dead gorgeous Lydie Denier), who is a lot older than she looks.

The plot, which also concerns a 500 year old painting that somehow depicts Cherney and St. James, doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but the film rattles along at a decent enough pace - Forster giving it his all despite the preposterous nature of proceedings - that the lack of logic doesn't really matter. Of course, the frequent nudity from delectable Denier doesn't hurt, plus we get some wild nonsense courtesy of Cherney's possessed mentally disabled son Joey (Joey), and the occasional spot of gnarly gore for splatter fans, the juicy highlight being the smashed in face of a woman who has taken a high dive from an office building.

The ending of the film is a bit daft, St. James tearing the flesh off her face to reveal that she is an ancient demon with dreadlocks, but it's still a lot of fun.

My review was written in December 1990 after watching the movie on Paramount video cassette.

Fifties sci-fi maven Bert I. Gordon is back with the sexy horror film "Satan's Princess". Okay performances lift this mundane direct-to-video release.

Robert Forster comfortably essays his familiar role as a down-and-out detective hired by Nick Angotti to find his missing daughter Leslie Huntly.

Trail leads to vampiric beauty Lydie Denier (a stunning Canadian actress) who runs a modeling agency. She turns out to be over 500 years old, periodically killing people to stay young.

Plenty of nude scenes keep the viewer awake until Forster predictably fights fire with fire by unleashing a flamethrower on Denier in the final reel.

Alternately running through several shooting titles, including "Heat from Another Sun", "Princess of Darkness" and "Malediction" (last named referring to a 17th Century painting Denier owns), film is poorly structured. After reels of searching for the alluring young Huntly, Forster accidentally bumps into her at the modeling agency, chases her and she commits suicded rather than be apprehended.

Typical epilog to set up sequel possibilities is trite. A subplot establishing Denier as a lesbian is not followed up but merely included for its titillation possibilities.

Forster, Denier and underutilized heroine Caren Kaye all deserve more challenging assignments than this potboiler.

A burnt out cop (Robert Forster) searching for a missing woman runs afoul of a woman possessed by a demon that seduces men into her lair and then brutally kills them. Why Caren Kaye and Robert Forster ever made this beyond me. They do what they can, but they are not enough to keep one entertained in this poorly made, cheap looking film with scant effects. Rated R; Sexual Situations, Graphic Violence, and Profanity.

Apart from the always solid, Robert Forster, this film features some very telegraphed performances, an uneven script, connect-the-dots direction and the sizzling Lydie Denier, who steals the show every time she peels off an article of clothing, which is in just about every second scene. Kudos to director Bert Gordon for at least understanding that when you're dealt a bad script, there's always the lovely Lydie to keep the interest levels up.