Helgerån

Helgärin aka Sacrilege is the sole non-adult film made by prolific xxx director Joseph Sarno.

The plot concerns a religious group going out to the woods, joined by a former member returned and a newspaper reporter. The former member has a sister living out in the woods who is said to be in league with the devil and killer their mother via decapitation. No surprise, once in the woods someone begins decapitating people.

Like the similar US-lensed Blood Frenzy, which was also the first and only non adult film by that director, the movie is surprisingly captivating l, despite its nearly 2 hour runtime. The first half of the movie is mostly setup and exposition, but it never feels boring.

The decapitation scenes are well done, but are very fast, and we only get 5 onscreen kills, which will probably not satiate those looking for another Friday the 13th, though the killer putting the heads on spikes in the woods is a great image. The finale doesn't much get the pulse racing either but if you can tolerate a religious drama/thriller interspersed with some quick but gory beheadings, Helgärin is a lost treat to track down.

Filmed in english, it's odd this movie never seems to have gotten a legitimate release. If this was cut down to about 80 minutes it would be much more palpable.