La noche de los brujos

1973's "The Night of the Sorcerers" (La Noche de los Brujos) emerged from writer/director Amando De Ossorio, best known for his quartet of 'Blind Dead' chillers ("Tombs of the Blind Dead," "Return of the Blind Dead," "The Ghost Galleon," "Night of the Seagulls") but first emerging in 1968 with Anita Ekberg's ultra timid "Fangs of the Living Dead." By contrast, one might view this Spanish picture as definitely full blooded, fangs sported by gorgeous young vampire women dressed in leopard skin bikinis who hop through the African jungle in slow motion like demented Easter (or is that Playboy?) bunnies, a definite improvement over his previous non scary outing. The arresting opening captures everything on full display, Barbara King's wide eyed missionary tied between two trees, her clothes whipped off her naked body before the African natives cut off her head with a machete for a blood sacrifice to the leopard god, after which the entire tribe is mowed down in a hail of bullets...while the young woman's head screams and bares her crimson fangs. Alas, nothing else comes close to topping it, the next 40-plus minutes drawn out by dialogue scenes in only two locations, outdoor shooting at Madrid's Aldea del Fresno and the indoor clearing set for the initiation rites. A tiny cast of five lunkheads arrive to research the absence of elephants in the region, learn about the voodoo worship of leopards and how their undead followers roam as cats during the day before regaining human form by night. Jack Taylor ("The Mummy's Revenge") is the lone scientist, Simon Andreu ("The Blood Spattered Bride") nothing more than a gun carrying guide, Kali Hansa ("The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff") his spitfire girlfriend, afraid of the jungle but jealous of the bodacious blondes on safari, Lorena Tower ("It Happened at Nightmare Inn") as photographer Carol, Maria Kosti ("Night of the Seagulls") as filthy rich layabout Liz, her father financing the ill equipped expedition. The monotony of their interactions is only broken by an exact replica of the pre credits sequence, Carol the new victim with camera left on the ground, the once frightened female missionary now a snarling seductress sporting her new leopard skin adornment, cracking the whip herself before putting the bite on their helpless captive (we see how the severed head has been reattached to the body with an adhesive strip that, when removed, effectively kills the vampire). Another 20 minutes conducting a never ending search sets up poor Liz as the next victim, both vamps indulging in a little bloodletting after drowning the ineffective scientist in his own developing liquid. Andreu repeatedly lets his guard down as all this goes on, but with everyone else missing he heads out to the clearing with his rifle to await the nightly ritual, his lover the only female left to be targeted, a series of bad decisions guaranteed not to bring 'em back alive. Fortunately, the iconic imagery makes up for its numerous dull stretches, the director conjuring up slow motion reminders of his greatest triumph with sadistic relish.

Amando de Ossorio will always be best remembered for his Blind Dead series of films, and that's a very good thing as the films he made outside of that trilogy aren't nearly as good - this one is a prime example. The subject of voodoo is an interesting one, but it never seems to cross over very well to movies, as just about every film I've seen on this topic has been disappointing and unfortunately, this one is no different. It's a real shame too as a film with these elements really could have been a lot better, but Amando de Ossorio isn't able to create an interesting plot around the central idea and unfortunately it falls flat. The film starts with a sequence that sees a woman have her head cut off during a voodoo ceremony. From there we focus on a team of researchers who head out into Africa in an attempt to find out why elephants are disappearing from the area. They soon discover that the locals are afraid of a legend about some voodoo witches in the area, and naturally this turns out to be true and some of the researchers get killed...etc etc.

I'm not sure if it was just a problem with the copy I saw (apparently, there's a remastered DVD out now), but this film is very dark and it's often difficult to make what - if anything - is going on. The cinematography is nothing special either and that's a shame because any film set in Africa has the potential for plenty of interesting shots but that isn't capitalised on. Amando de Ossorio does manage to pack some gore and nudity into the film, though it's scant consolation for the rest of the film. The sorcerers themselves also don't manage much in the way of intrigue as they don't appear all that often and when they do, not a lot happens. The plot surrounding the team of researchers is completely worthless and didn't generate anything that I cared for, which gives the film a rather flimsy backbone. Simón Andreu is the only name on the cast list that I recognised and he doesn't do enough to stand out. To the film's credit, the women featured are invariably very nice looking. Overall, this is not a great film and I can't recommend it; see Ossorio's Blind Dead series or The Loreley's Grasp instead!

OK, this is not a good film. But I think it is somewhat underrated, while the director Amando Ossorio's more famous "blind dead" series is somewhat overrated (especially the last two). Instead of undead Teutonic knights, in this film we have a tribe of living voodoo-practicing Africans. Of course, voodoo sacrifices have been practiced historically in places on the "dark continent", but this bunch are little more than cartoon stereotypes (all they need is a big pot to cook people in). I suppose it doesn't help that the tribe exclusively captures white women, whips all their clothes off, rapes them (at least in one case), and then decapitates them--which somehow causes them to become undead "panther women", prowling half-naked through the jungle in slow motion (and WITH their heads). But is this the only film of the 1970's to portray black Africans as "primitive", or to play on the illicit thrills of interracial sexuality? Hardly. All those who call this racist and/or sexist really need to see more European exploitation films of that era. This is actually pretty weak tea.

It's also a very typical low-budget Spanish horror film--short on a logic, long on atmosphere, extremely confusing but with a generous helpings of nudity and violence (at least in export prints). It's certainly more incompetent than Ossorio's best films, but I'd put it on the level of a mediocre Paul Naschy flick, and it has the same scruffy charm as a lot of those. There's also a couple of recognizable actors among the European characters who come to a bad end at the hands of the African voodoo cultists and "panther women", including Jess Franco regular Jack Taylor, as the expedition leader, and the slinky and sexy cubana Kali Hansa as the "half-breed". It's out on DVD now and is worth a rental, if maybe not a purchase, for fans of Spanish horror.

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.

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.