Macumba sexual

An erotic film very typical of Jesús Franco.

Undoubtedly, Jesús Franco was a clearly expressionist director, a director who liked to speak more with images than with words, something that is very clear, for example, in this film Macumba Sexual, in which a strange African princess begins to torment a beautiful girl that will go in his search merging both in a spiral of pleasure.

The argument, if there is one, is a mere excuse of Franco to show us a succession of scenes of high sexual voltage where the characteristic dreamlikeness of Franco seasoned in the powerful beauties of Lina Romay and Ajita Wilson, which impresses with her slender physical , remember Grace Jones quite a bit.

This African actress aroused controversy in her day due to suspicions that it could be a transsexual, a rumor never confirmed, which is why for example Andrés pajares refused to kiss her during a scene in a movie in Spain, because at that time It was believed that all gays and transsexuals were infected with AIDS. Ajita died due to a car accident with 37 years.

The film is a pure and hard sexplotaition, with a certain exotic air, with a couple of interesting scenes, quite well photographed but that really lacks history and plot, has that strange and at the same time interesting touch of Franco, who always gave all his movies with their crazy flat camera movements and zooms, here however their direction is rather sober and restrained.

For Franco and gender fans.

There is some confusion as to the correct title, running time and date of this film. On the DVD Jess himself mentions that the film should be 'Macumba' and yet IMDb has a separate listing for this title. Anyway we have what we have and thankfully it's a goodie. If not quite as delirious as was intended it certainly has a life its own and whilst there is barely any plot or even dialogue it takes us with it, back and forth. The fantastic, open-legged performance from Lina Romay in her hottest of hot pants, helps enormously. So too does the majestic/devilish turn from Ajita Wilson. The Canary Isles settings are wonderful and with the film being so well shot it looks fantastic all the time with some real stand out scenes such as Ajita's appearance on the beach, striding along with what looks like a couple of hounds and turns out to be a couple of naked slaves on leashes! There are a lot of sex scenes but thanks to an obvious chemistry between the two leading ladies these are lively and often most erotic. Jess seems aware here that the same sex set- up again and again for a prolonged period does not equal erotic and he allows himself to play with his zoom lens at some surprising moments. There is one particular bed scene where shafts of sunlight fall across the nakedness and he picks this out momentarily causing the flesh to go out of focus. It is little bits and bobs like this throughout the film that give it if not a surreal quality then certainly a unsettling edge, despite all the sun and sex. Excellent.

Macumba Sexual (1981)

** (out of 4)

Golden Era flick from Jess Franco about a voodoo princess (Ajita Wilson) who returns from the dead to haunt a woman (Lina Romay) with sexual hallucinations. This is more erotic than horror but it's something we'd only get from Franco. The film starts off well in its dreamlike nature but by the thirty minute mark things get dried up. I'm not much of a fan of Wilson, who also appeared in a couple other Franco films but Romay is up to her usual goods. Franco himself provides a few laughs in his brief cameo. As expected, there's tons of nudity, sex and lesbian scenes but these all come off rather boring. Some beautiful locations and a terrific music score keep this from becoming really bad.

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Macumba Sexual. Before we get into it, here are my ratings:

Story - 0.75 Direction - 0.75 Pace - 0.25 Acting - 0.75 Enjoyment - 0.75

TOTAL - 3.25 out of 10

Oh, dear! If I were Jesus Franco, I'd try and get my name taken off this travesty. I became an on-off fan of Franco's when I watched his version of Dracula. Though it wasn't brilliant, there was something about it. That cannot be said about Macumba Sexual. At this point, I would say, if you're looking for a sexual horror film, then go and check out Black Candles - it's far superior to this.

The story is passable, though basic. It's time for the Goddess Of Unspeakable Lust to pass on her mantle to another. Who shall it be? Okay, so the first thing that's misleading here is the Unspeakable Lust part. There is nothing unspeakable about anything in this film. The story doesn't dare to push any boundaries, whereas, the aforementioned Black Candles does. There is so much scope in this story's premise it's ridiculous. But what is more foolish is that the writers don't even try to make the story interesting. It's as if they had the sex scenes in the bag and decided to add a little tale to stick them together. So the narrative the audience gets is poorly written and confusing at times, but at its utmost, it's boring - and not a good "Boring".

This brings us to the sex scenes and the direction. Because the story is nearly nonexistent, I think Franco decided he'd put as much effort in as the writers. The pace is so slow that it could put an insomniac to sleep. And the sex scenes are just as tedious. Macumba is the apotheosis of softcore sex films. Nothing ever happens, and the camera is perfectly angled, so you can never see that nothing happen. Being an English man, this is the style of blue movie we had to endure - thank god for the internet. I would have hoped that Franco could have brought something interesting to the screen.

But worse is yet to come. The main thing when making a sex film is to get some sexy actresses and hunky actors. It looks like the casting director had low esteem too. The Goddess is hardly that. She's a poor man's Grace Jones, without the good looks. Her two slaves are worse. The woman is unremarkable, but the bloke is downright ugly, though he does a scary pervy face. Maybe she should be known as The Goddess Of The F-Uglies, which would also account for the woman she chooses to usurp her. Hey, at least the male role has an actual porn-stash. And that is the best thing I can say about them and their nonexistent performances.

Do yourself a favour and miss this mess of a film and watch Black Candles instead, there's even a storyline and acting included.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror list to see where I ranked Macumba Sexual.

Take Care & Stay Well.

A young couple meets princess Tara on an island (filmed on Gran Canaria) after she previously appeared in their dreams already, accompanied by a bird-like demonic creature. The princess says she ruled in the name of the god Macumba for 300 years already. This is obviously a quasi-remake of "El Signo del Vampiro" where the heiress of Dracula provided a similar personification of obsession beyond death. "Macumba", 11 years later, even goes a step further in stylistic obsession and must be counted among Jess Franco's best movies, even though Ajita Wilson is no match for Soledad Miranda. Franco quotes Kubrick's "The Shining" here when the name of the princess is typed again and again on the machine, and seems to refer to Herzog's "Nosferatu" when the timeless ship sails without wind (and we never see the faces of a crew, either). Besides making an unbelievable lot of movies, Franco certainly watches even more which explains how he can reinvent his own style over the decades, never running out of ideas.

"She is the mirror of evil and of death", the hotel manager says once about the princess, and the word "mirror" is the key here. No matter how normal the young couple appears to be, they have a dark side in them which is mirrored (and set free) by Tara. Tara never enters the city - everyone who want to meet her must travel through the desert on the back of a camel! The voyage is a ritual of cleansing, purifying, though in the opposite sense of purgatory, because it opens the traveler's mind up for evil. Certainly a movie about sin, not virtue.