La comtesse perverse

La comtesse perverse is a provocative, uneven blend of erotic horror and surrealism, riffing on the classic "Most Dangerous Game" premise but filtered through Franco's unmistakable lens. The film's greatest asset is its atmospheric cinematography, which uses shadows and natural light to create a haunting, dreamlike quality, particularly in early sequences set on the water and in the isolated mansion. Bruno Nicolai's score adds a layer of tension, occasionally elevating the mood when the pacing lags. Alice Arno stands out as the titular countess, delivering a performance that is both menacing and alluring, while Lina Romay, in one of her earliest roles, brings a vulnerable physicality that suits the film's exploitative tone. Howard Vernon and Robert Woods are reliable presences, but the acting overall veers from stilted to melodramatic, never quite grounding the outlandish narrative. The explicit content, which ranges from softcore to more graphic scenes depending on the version, feels more like a commercial afterthought than an organic part of the story, often overwhelming the film's attempts at suspense or psychological intrigue. While the visuals and occasional surreal touches intrigue, the film is ultimately undermined by sluggish pacing, repetitive sequences, and a lack of genuine dramatic tension. Despite flashes of Franco's idiosyncratic style, the movie struggles to maintain engagement, with the final hunt arriving too late and executed without urgency or suspense. For fans of Franco or Eurocult oddities, there is some appeal in the cast and the film's audaciousness, but most viewers will find it a frustrating, meandering experience that never quite delivers on its lurid promise.

One of the most popular and copied movies of all time, The Most Dangerous Game, gets a erotic remake by sleaze director Jess Franco. The idea sounds very daring and dangerous, but thankfully, The Perverse Countess is a complete winner! From the very hot girls on display (Lina Romay is pretty much naked through the whole movie... Shocking I know!) to the exciting horror elements, this one is a stylish masterpiece of the genre. The camera moves are pretty wild, and the locations are beautiful. The music score is very nice to listen at first also (although it gets a bit repetitive by the end...) The cast is pretty damn awesome also, full of Franco regulars. As the rich owners of the island where the game is played, Alice Arno shines in the role of the evil countess, while Howard Vernon plays her husband, in his usual charming self. The impossibly gorgeous Lina Romay plays the latter victim of the eccentric couple, while Tania Busselier from Ilsa: The Wicked Warden shows up to get naked somewhere.

Very recommended movie, as it's one of Franco's absolute best. It's sad this overlooked classic doesn't have a DVD release in ANY language...

One loses hope and faith in mankind when presented with a film as completely and utterly dreadful as Les Croqueuses. One of the very worst Jess Franco efforts, this film is basically an unattributed remake of The Most Dangerous Game with nudity and hardcore inserts. Filled with the worst of Franco--overuse of the zoom lens, long boring sex scenes, and static set-ups--it is hard to understand how IMDb users could rate this so highly (two '9's, two '7's, two '6's, a '2', and my very generous '1'). For Franco or Howard Vernon completists only.

Sylvia (Lina Romay) is lured to the private island of Count and Countess Zaroff (Howard Vernon and Alice Arno), where she becomes the latest unwilling participant in the aristocrats' sport: hunting humans (and then eating them).

Countess Perverse is The Most Dangerous Game as envisioned by prolific Spanish sleaze merchant Jess Franco. With the hunter and the hunted both women, and both stark naked during the hunt, this could have been a hugely enjoyable slice of exploitative trash, but Franco seems less interested in the battle to the death between humans than he is in gratuitous sex, the majority of his film consisting of long, boring softcore romps, with the action occasionally straying into hardcore territory. There's countless crotch shots, lesbian couplings, and lots of bumping and grinding, with even Franco regular Howard Vernon getting in on the action (not a pleasant sight!) - all shot in Franco's trademark blurry, erratic fashion. Of the 87 minute runtime, at least 70 minutes are wasted on this tedious 'erotica' before we finally get to the hunt, which is just as badly directed as the rest of the film.

As if Countess Perverse wasn't bad enough, Franco tacks on a ridiculous 'it was all a dream' style happy ending that it beyond ridiculous.

2/10 - both points awarded for the interesting architecture. If one can say anything about Franco, it's that he certainly had an eye for an impressive location.

Countess Perverse (1974)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Countess (Alice Arno) and Count Zaroff (Howard Vernon) seem like your normal type of people but what horror lies within their castle walls say the otherwise. It turns out that the two are actually cannibals who are provided women by another local (Robert Woods) who the Countess hunts down with her arrow. Soon another woman (Lina Romay) is delivered for their wicked game but things don't go as planned.

Jess Franco's LA COMTESSE PERVERSE is a sexed up version of THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME and like many of the director's work from this period it's available in several versions. The film was originally a hard sell anywhere so the producer had Franco shoot more sex scenes including some hardcore ones. The film would find a release via the hardcore version and this was what was on the market for years. Finally, a 76-minute director's cut of the original version was released as well as a new hardcore version under the title SEXY NATURE.

This was my first time watching the director's cut and it's certainly better than the hardcore versions but I'd still say it falls short of being one Franco's better films. There are some interesting things scattered throughout the picture including an early sequence where one of the women are on a boat and headed towards the island. There's a really weird music score here and the visuals on the boat just make this a rather surreal sequence. The film is actually rather light on the cannibalism subject, although this here was apparently why it couldn't find a release.

The film offers up a nice cast of familiar faces. Vernon is always fun to watch in these Franco movies as is Woods. Both men offer up good performances here. Arno is extremely good in the role of the perverted countess who likes to kill women and then eat them. Romay makes one of her earliest appearances here and she's obviously easy on the eyes. The cast are certainly a major plus and especially since Franco fans will be used to most of them.

I think where the film fails is that there's really no energy or drama throughout. There's never a risk that you feel for the woman and the final hunt is rather boring and the film just doesn't contain enough to keep you fully invested in what's going on.