La noche de los brujos

No Horror fan can doubt that Spanish director Amando De Ossorio deserves great praise for his absolutely awesome "Blind Dead" series, which he began in 1970 with "La Noche Del Terror Ciego" ("Tombs of the Blind Dead"). These four films enjoy an enormous (and well-deserved) cult status and the eponymous undead Blind Templars range among the creepiest creatures ever to appear on screen. "La Noche De Los Brujos" aka. "Night of the Sorcerers" (1973) is sadly a weaker film in Ossorio's repertoire, as this little trash offering makes no sense at all and furthermore tends to get quite boring.

In 1910, a tribe of savages in an African country behead a hot woman, who then turns out to be a female vampire... Decades later, two scientists (Simón Andreu and Jack Taylor) and three hot babes travel the country in order to take photos of endangered animals and happen to come to the exact same spot...

In spite of a better cast (frequent Giallo leading man Simón Andreu, Exploitation regular Jack Taylor and sexy Spanish cult-siren Bárbara Rey, who also was in "Ghost Ships of the Bind Dead") "La Noche De Los Brujos" reaches neither the creepy atmosphere nor the suspense or entertainment level of any of the 'Blind Dead' films. This is not to say that "La Noche De Los Brujos" is completely without qualities, however. It is, to a certain extent, fun to watch. The female cast members are entirely hot (especially Bárbara Rey and the maroon-haired Kali Hansa), and all take their clothes off at some point. Also, in typical Ossorio manner, the gore-effects are very well-made. That's about it though, as the film is sometimes unintentionally funny and the storyline is flawed and full of holes. A Horror film doesn't necessarily have to be 'realistic', but it should have a certain inner logic, and the story-parts should connect, which isn't really the case here. "La Noche De Los Brujos" isn't a complete disaster, but its definitely not very good, and there are far better films by Amando De Ossorio to check out. 4.5/10

Eerie and creepy film titled Night of sorcerers or Woodoo - Inferno des Grauens (1974) from our cult film director Amando De Ossorio . This chiller in minimum budget packs thrills , chills , nudism , some good action , gore , horror and few funny moments . Plenty of lots of blood and gore , including repellent images when happens beheading , biting and other gutsy moments . The picture starts in Bumbasa 1910 , there a team of scientists go to Africa to study the wildlife . The group of researchers travel into the African jungle to study the mysterious disappearance of animals in the area , however it turns out the wildlife is vampires . Meanwhile a bunch of playful natives indulging themselves in dancing and partying while engaged in one of their favorite pastimes , beheading women . As a Zombie tribe rises from underground to wreak havoc upon some beautiful Euro-babes and unfortunate victims . After that , Zombie Leopard women go on the hunt to bite some hapless .

This is pretty entertaining Zombie voodoo stuff . Atmospheric horror movie contains terrifying scenes when appears the tribe of voodoo-zombies and takes place the brutal killings . The tribe rises from the ground , take the women , whip them and slice their heads off on an altar in lousily made scenes , including primitive special effects . You will watch it and think it is either awful , hilarious, a masterpiece, or all three . It's a slight fun with passable make-up , naive special effects , acceptable set decoration and functional art direction . The fable is sometimes silly and laughable , though a few effects and action are professionally made . Some illogical parts in the argument are more than compensated for the excitement provided by the Leopard women running in slow-moving , though sometimes are a little bit cheesy . While not a hit during its original run, the film became successful when reissued nearly 30 years later . In the film appears known Spanishtrash actresses as Barbara Rey or King , Kali Hansa , Maria Kosti and Loreta Tovar . And two Eurostars as Jack Taylor and Simon Andreu ; both of them starred several exploitation films during the 60s and 70s . Creepy and frightening musical score especially when the appearance the leopard women , being composed by Fernando Garcia Morcillo . Colorful and evocative cinematography filmed on location in some African place and in Aldea Del Fresno , Madrid . And being recently mastered in high definition from the original negative .

The motion picture was professional though regularly directed by Amando De Ossorio . Amando began in films as a writer and assistant director and continued his career by making short films and industrial documentaries . He was one of the main directors of the Spanish horror boom in the 70s, specially for his quartet of films about the living dead Templars which started with his first great success and immensely popular ¨Tombs of the Blind dead¨ which to be continued by a trilogy : ¨Return of evil dead¨ , ¨Ship of Zombies or Blind dead 2¨ and ¨Blind dead 3 or The night of the sea gulls¨ . Amando owns his own studio and created and/or designed many of the simple special effects sequences you see in any of his many imaginative undertakings . Amando who recently passed away was a good craftsman who realized a lot of amusing as well as entertaining films . He displayed a varied career and specialized on all kind of genres as Western in "Rebels in Canada" and "Grave of the Gunfighter" , Monster movie as ¨Serpent of sea¨ and , of course, Terror as ¨Malenka¨ , The possessed¨ and ¨night of witches¨ . Ossorio also studied painting and photography , moreover, he also made his living as a painter of creepy images of the Knights Templar in his later years.

In the world of Spanish horror, one of the directors whose most talked about is Amando De Ossorio. The reason for this is mostly due to the fact that he is the man who gave the world the "Blind Dead" films-atmospheric, exploitative and haunting films (well, except for the third one) about evil, eyeless Templar knights who come back from the grave. the films made him a renowned name in horror, even after his death. Yet people also tend to forget his other entries in the field of horror-the rather lamentable "The Sea Serpant", the largely forgotten "The Possessed", the middling vampire horror-comedy "Fangs of the Living Dead" and the enjoyable monster flick "The Lorelei's Grasp." Oh, and of course, this movie, the fun exploitation vehicle "The Night of the Sorcerers."

A group of researchers go into the heart of Africa. Thing is, the area has a dark secret: years ago, voodoo priests captured women for dark rites, whipping and decapitating them in the process. Also, for some reason or another this turns said women into leopard skin bikini wearing vampires. In a surprising turn of events, the voodoo priests are back, and s#!t's going to get real.

From the get go, some of today's audience probably will find "The Night of the Sorcerers" a bit objective. Though not exactly a member of the PC Police myself (it comes with watching this kind of thing), I can see why: the image of large black men in Africa torturing naked white women is something that puts a bit of a bad taste in one's mouth. Also, fans of the "Blind Dead" films may be let down by this venture, as it lacks much of the atmosphere and scares of those movies.

That parts just fine though, because it doesn't try to replicate the success of those movies, and it most likely isn't meant to scare anyone. This is a movie with the following

* Hot European women-all in which end up in a state of undress at one point.

* Hot vampire girls in leopard skin bikini's running in slow motion

* Occult rites

* Bloody death scenes

* A total lack of logic

And so much more. This isn't meant to be taken as serious film-making. This is dumb, sleazy exploitation garbage made for undemanding audiences, and you know what? It's good at what it does. Amando De Ossorio knows what kind of film he's making, and clearly knew what those who frequented Grindhouse theaters and Drive-In's wanted, and he delivers.

It also helps that he was a talented director too, as he films the whole thing with vivid colors, requisite fog drenched night scenes and stylish, almost artistic violence. Plus, the acting is surprising good, with genre vets Simón Andreu, Maria Kosty, and Jess Franco regular Kali Hansa doing fine work in their roles.

Is "The Night of the Sorcerers" a great movie? The short answer to that is "no." It is however, a fun slice of exploitation hokum, and makes for a fine Saturday afternoon viewing. It's the "Citizen Kane" of Hot European Vampire Girls in Leopard Skin Bikinis movies.

The Night of the Sorcerers (1974)

** (out of 4)

Mildly amusing film from director Amando de Ossorio takes place in Africa where various voodoo ceremonies are taking place. As the film opens we see a woman captured and have her head cut off. From here we're introduced to a new group of people who have come to do some research and before long they are taken one by one to the voodoo grounds.

THE NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS has a lot of the right ingredients for a good movie but sadly it falls well sort of putting everything together and turning it into something memorable. I say this because the story is an interesting one, there's plenty of gore to be found, the cast is attractive and there's even a kinky sex scenes. All of this should have led to a much better movie but we've got a lot of flaws that keep it from being better.

I think one of the biggest flaws in the movie is the use of slow-motion. If you're familiar with the director's Blind Dead series then you know that he's a fan of using the slow-motion but it just doesn't work here and in fact it looks pretty bad. Just check out the scenes where the woman are chasing someone and the way the slow-motion has them bouncing (slowly) is just comical at times. It certainly kills any chance of suspense or tension.

Another problem with the film is that the story itself is rather spotty as it basically just sets up the next victim without too much detail or anything else. A character shows up, gets captured and then killed. As I said, the film has some good qualities including the setting, which was nice and I'd also argue that the cast was a lot of fun. The film is mildly entertaining but there's no question that it should have been better.

Amando de Ossorio's La Noche de los Brujos has one of the most entertainingly trashy pre-credits sequences ever...

Bumbasa, 1910: natives perform a ceremony in the jungle, tying a beautiful woman to a tree and flogging her until her blouse falls open. She is lashed some more until her underwear falls off (these guys have got some serious whip skills!). The natives dance while the chief rapes the poor woman, after which she is placed on a sacrificial altar and beheaded with a machete. As the tribe smears themselves in her blood, a squad of soldiers arrives and shoots the lot of them. Suddenly, the woman's decapitated head springs to life, baring a mean pair of fangs - she's a vampire!!!

All of this was so insanely over-the-top that I decided to watch the whole film despite discovering that my copy was in Spanish with no subtitles.

The rest of the film takes place in Bumbasa in the present day. A group of people - two men and three sexy ladies (a brunette and two blondes) - set up camp by a river; before long, the women are strutting around in varying degrees of undress, which is nice. The brunette has some sexy time with her one of the men in the river, while one of the blondes spies from the bushes and takes photographs (without using the flash, which means that the pictures would be rubbish). Meanwhile, deep in the jungle, the natives that were killed in the opening scene rise from their graves as zombies (or ghosts, or zombie ghosts)

The next day, the blonde with the camera (who looks muy tasty in a denim mini-skirt) wanders off into the jungle, where she encounters the zombies and the vampire woman, who grab her and tie her up. The vampire whips her, and blondie's top comes open. The vamp pulls the woman's skirt off, bites her on the neck, places her on the tribe's chopping block, and hacks her head off with a machete. Again, the severed noggin comes back to life with fangs. The whole whipping/decapitation/vampire thing was great the first time around, but the same routine repeated is less impressive. So when it happens for a third time, with the second blonde, I was not happy.

The film ends with the brunette almost getting the whip and machete routine, but being rescued by her lover in the nick of time, the man destroying most of the zombies and vampires by throwing his bullet belt into their fire.

Given the amazing opening, the rest of the film, with its repetitiveness, has to be deemed a bit of a disappointment.

5/10. I nearly docked a point when the roll of film in the blonde woman's camera is developed, and all the pictures come out fine, but a gratuitous naked washing scene easily made up for that.