Sinthia: The Devil's Doll

Sinthia: The Devil's Doll (1970)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Ray Dennis Steckler's in the director's chair for this weird mix of incest, Satan and of course sex. In the film a young girl named Cynthia sees her mommy and daddy having sex. Cynthia has a thing for daddy so she brutally murders both parents. Flash-forward several years and she's involved with a Satanic cult. If you read any review for this film I'm sure the word "confusing" is going to be found. Yes, this movie doesn't make a bit of sense but I think some have been way too hard on it. Many have called this one of the worst movies ever made and many even went as far as to say it's the worst thing Something Weird Video ever released. None that statement is far from the truth because I thought there were some entertaining moments to be found here. Yes, on a technical level the film is quite the mess because it doesn't make a bit of sense and it really does seem as if the director doesn't know what he wants to do with the story. It bounces around with no rhyme or reason and it's nearly impossible to ever know where the thing is going to go next. Some might say this adds a surreal nature to the picture but I think if this is true then it was done on accident. Fans of Al Adamson's drive-in pictures from this era will be happy to see Gary Kent on hand here. Shula Roan plays the title character and while it's far from a good performance she at least keeps you slightly entertained. The film is full of all sorts of strange colors but the psychedelic approach doesn't always work. I will at least say there's plenty of nudity and strange sex scenes to help keep it moving. THe biggest problem is that there's just not enough story here to carry the 78-minute running time, which really starts to drag badly around the 50-minute mark.

Dont get me wrong I love Stecklers films , "Rat Fink a Boo Boo" , "Thrill Killers" , "Wild Guitar" , "Super Cool" all have a pervading feel of fun and to be corny the "joy" of just making a film. But sadly "Sinthia" is one of his lapses into the adult movie genre. He has made sine full length hardcore films which have to be the most un-erotic scenes committed to film. It seems that "Sinthia" was his practice run for the lamentable pap that was to follow a dozen years later. The girl in question is having strange dreams and see's a lot of hackeyed hallucination sequences and people trying to look scarey with little more that painted faces and paper plates with hair. To be honest the plot didnt grab me at all and the film wanders between soft core orgy scenes (with hideous people) and running around on the beach. Its 100 % worse than his later films "The las vegas serial killer" and "The Chooper" (Blood Shack) and made me feel disappointed that from the same mind that gave me some of the original film I have ever seen came this run of the mill sort core trash. For archive value to fans of Steckler its a must , I was told for years before I saw it how bad it was and how that even I would hate it, but thats never put me off before but for once I have to say that im sorry I didnt listen to advice , but then again im glad I have seen it.

Another 'masterpiece' by the infamous Ray Dennis Steckler, who also was the man behind the incredibly crappy but highly amusing film with the greatest title ever, "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?" (1964), "Sinthia, the Devil's Doll" (1970) is an abysmally bad and virtually plot-less Trash gem that is highly recommendable to fans of 'so-bad-it's-good', but should be avoided by anyone else. The eponymous Sinthia (kudos for the clever wordplay) is a girl with certain... err... issues, who is so madly in love with her daddy that she kills both of her parents when she catches them having intercourse. Years later, Sinthia, who has blossomed into a beautiful young woman, is still tormented by guilt (the poor thing). Her psychiatrist gives her a somewhat unusual advice to make her guilt go away... Or something; the plot really is way too confused to even call it that. There are three reasons to watch "Sinthia", one being the film's extreme weirdness, another the absolute lack of logic or coherence, which, in such a uniquely outrageous extent makes it worth watching. The most convincing reason to watch "Sinthia" is the lovely Shula Roan in the eponymous role. Roan, who never appeared in any other film, is sexy and very cute, and while she certainly isn't the best actress ever, I still wish we could admire her 'talents' in a few other films. The film furthermore includes several (unintentionally?) hilarious sequences, and breasts are shown every other minute. In spite of that, it is overall very boring, and only recommendable to my fellow Trash-fans who are willing to endure periods of pure boredom for some bits of enjoyable weirdness.

I understand how one can judge this as a bad film, I myself felt this was the case for many years. Actually I've felt this way about many of Ray Dennis Stecklers films only to return, because somehow these films have some sort of magic to them i.e. a mysterious staying power.

I've criticized all the usual things one would criticize because I too was conditioned to judge film by traditional standards, but somehow find myself coming back to these films, again and again. I now appreciate the very things I had criticized because they're really part of the film as an organic whole.

That these films don't conform to the golden rule of creating and maintaining an illusion is irrelevant, because this was not Ray's objective. His approach is more auteur based, where you experience the presence of the filmmaker him/herself behind every frame, in what becomes a multi faceted experience of how a filmmaker expresses oneself and their subject matter. A more idiosyncratic sensibility emerges as one film merges such conflicted influences of the French new wave, classic Hollywood, B movies, home movie aesthetics, Cinema Verite, Antonioni, to what is his own invention in what has come to be seen as Camp or Pop Art. One can certainly discern this from film to film, in addition to his interviews/commentary tracks, where he himself acknowledges, this. That he in part made films about films.

I thought of Sinthia the Devil Doll, as I mentioned earlier, as a bad film, ONLY to find that there is much that is memorable and redeeming about it. Cinematically you'll find Ray experimenting quite extensively with super-impositions, gestural hand held camera-work, editing and expressionistic lighting that, like Munch, portrays dissonance in what is the tortured psyche of a troubled woman. What I most appreciate was how Ray, through these various means, had created and sustained a unique atmosphere, that is at once eerie and dreamlike. It is to such a degree that one experiences the film as a literal transcribing of the character's mind/psyche/thought processes. It's more of a subjective approach that is similar to certain, 'experimental' films, such as those of Kenneth Anger.

I recommend that one watch this film as it's own complete vision. To do so, I urge the viewer to see beyond the confines/ prejudices/ conditioning over what is considered 'good' or 'bad' in film, because while they're some flaws, (particularly the interludes between the girl and a psychiatrist, scenes Ray was forced to add), there is much the low budget adds to the nightmarish quality. It's the claustrophobic sets, non glamorous casting, amateurish acting that lend the film it's own surrealistic identity.

Novice actress Shula Roan plays the title character, who as a 12 year old had butchered her parents while they were having sex, and then set a fire to try to cover up the crime. Because of her age, and the "crime of passion" nature of her misdeed, she's declared not guilty. But now, at age 20, she's in the care of a psychiatrist, who urges her to purge herself of her nightmares in a symbolic way. Along the way, she encounters Lucifer (played by screenwriter Herb Robins) and artistic types such as painter Lennie (Ted Roter) and actor Mark (Gary Kent).

One of cult filmmaker Ray Dennis Stecklers' ventures into adult cinema, "Sinthia the Devil's Doll" is not the kind of thing that this viewer can easily write off. It is true that it's going to bore some people, despite the expected plethora of skin. In fact, this plays like a bizarro mix of skin flick and arthouse picture. It has just enough weirdness and atmosphere to make it passably interesting, plus it has a "performance art" aspect to it, with characters spouting dialogue as if they're always on stage, acting in a play. Definite credit should go to Steckler, who served as his own cinematographer, and lights props, sets, and actors in colourful ways, as well as Andre Brummer, who composed the original music.

Ms. Roan acts her little heart out. Even if she wasn't a professional, it's hard to deny the deep commitment of her performance (Sinthias' main character flaw is severe daddy issues). The rest of the cast, including B picture mainstay Kent ("The Thrill Killers", "Satan's Sadists") and the sexy Diane Webber ("Mermaids of Tiburon", "The Witchmaker"), are fine.

Even at 77 minutes, this is pretty slow-paced, and it won't maintain the interest of all audience members. Still, it's not just the typical trash movie, and that's worth noting.

Six out of 10.