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.
