User reviews

Michel Lemoine's 1974 offering, "Seven Women for Satan," is easily one of the weirdest movies that I have ever rented; right up there with Jess Franco's "Venus In Furs" and Jaromil Jires' "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders." In the Lemoine film, the writer/director himself plays Count Boris Zaroff, son of the original manhunting count from the Richard Connell short story "The Most Dangerous Game" (1924), famously filmed in 1932 (never mind that Zaroff was a Russian and his son in this film is as Gallic as can be). When we first meet him, Zaroff, Jr. has just purchased an enormous château, in which his butler, Karl (played by cult Eurostar Howard Vernon), in fulfillment of a promise he made to Karl, Sr., the original count's butler, is training Boris in the ways of sadism and torture. To complicate matters, Boris seems to be haunted by the spirit of a beautiful woman who died in the year 1912. I say "seems" only because the dividing line between fantasy and reality here is a thin one at best. To add to the disorientation, Lemoine utilizes odd camera angles, fish-eye lenses, dreamy soft-focus photography and some truly bizarre discourse between the film's principals. The picture treats us to a fun torture chamber sequence and features the phoniest-looking dog attack scene ever (especially when compared to the 1932 film) and an excellent score by Guy Bonnet. It is only 84 minutes long, yet still feels padded with nudie-girl segments and assorted topless dancing and writhing (nice padding, granted!). Banned in its native France and yet the Silver Medal winner at the Sitges (near Barcelona) Film Festival, the picture, surreal and trippy as it is, should have been a midnight movie staple back when, as was "El Topo." Like the Jodorowsky film, it is a real stoner treat, and a must for the lysergically enhanced mind. A true rarity, but certainly not for all tastes....

Michel Lemoine's glassy-eyed face is well known to Eurocult fans, as he spent years appearing in almost all genres, including several striking, if little-known titles, like "Sex on the Beach" and "Death on the Fourposter". As a director, he made several softcore erotic features (including the noteworthy Les Desaxées) before drifting into hardcore. But he had an irresistible urge to dabble in the fantasy genre, although it was generally frowned upon in France -- and this title is the result. His directorial stylings imitate those of his mentors -- Franco, Benazeraf and Rollin -- naive, dreamlike, disorienting -- but he lacks the idiosyncratic, iconic style of his betters, making many of his sequences risible in their pretentions. In fact, Peter Tombs claims in his notes for the DVD that the intention was generally parodic (or at least something of an homage). To most eyes it will play as a rather crass, but sumptuously enjoyable, wallow in exploitation tropes, lacking narrative logic or thematic consistency, but delivering the naked and the absurd in spades, along the lines of Polselli or Brismee.

This is barely worth it's given rating but despite the slow pace, the nonsense story, the pretentiousness and the dialogue I liked it. I guess the well shot nudity helped but also the slightly odd angle (to call it surreal would be far too flattering) and surprising jolts of violence amid the sleepiness. The way the Count turns upon his first victim is a real shock and the couple trying out the historic torture instrument certainly get a surprise, as do we. Hard to recommend though because it is hardly quality stuff and certainly does not live up to Mr Lemoine's claims for the film. But then if you are not expecting too much and know something of the genre you could do worse. It's certainly as good as many of the below par and over rated Jess Franco movies.

If you are a fan of the story "The Most Dangerous Game", you might not care for this ridiculous, sexed-up, Euro-idiot version of it, but if like me you just can't resist a movie where the protagonist at one point says to a potential female victim, "Shall we have some champagne, or shall I pour it over your naked body and drink it off you as if you were crystal?", this might just appeal to you. The character in this movie is a decadent nobleman who spends his weekends hunting an unusual kind of animal--not the most dangerous game perhaps, but the most sexy and naked female game he can find. Obviously, this movie is pretty politically incorrect. In its defense though, it's also pretty damn ridiculous, which renders it considerably less offensive than the OTHER decadent-nobleman-hunting-naked-women/"Most Dangerous Game" rip-off I've seen, "Beyond Erotica" (a better made, but definitely more offensive film).

The protagonist is played by Michael Lemoine, one of those strange European film Svengali who despite a lack of good looks or talent managed to seduce a number of incredibly beautiful actresses both on-screen and off. He was married to Janine Reynaud at one point, for instance (and reputedly pimped her out to wealthy producers to finance the movies the two of them made with Jess Franco). Lemoine's leading lady/champagne glass in this movie is Joelle Coeur, a brunette French beauty who kind of resembled the British Koo Stark or the German Olivia Pascal, and had the same kind of regrettably short career.

Obviously, this is not a great movie, or even close to to the best adaptation of this classic story, but it was obviously never meant to be either. It does succeed in being what it is-- a big fat slice of cheesiest kind of Eurotica.

Directed and also starred by Michel Lemoine, this movie is not The Most Dangerous Game. The plot is still the same : an insane man enjoy the sadistic pleasure of hunting human beings. But in this one, there is a lot of bad acting by the ensemble cast, silly dialogues, not very comprehensible situations,lots of nudity and enjoyable murders. And this movie get a prize at the Fantasy Film Festival of Stiges in Spain in 1977. If you get the "chance" to see it, I don't want to recommended to anybody but still an experience to watch naked girls touching herself and dancing for absolutely no reason through the whole film.

You just got to love opening sequences like the one in "Seven Women for Satan" … During the intro there's a naked girl running through the woods, chased by a hunting dog and a malignant looking dude on a horse, until she falls off a cliff and splits her head open on a rock. Then the camera zooms out on the face of the guy and we notice how he's simply sitting behind a desk whilst his secretary waiting for him to sign some papers. "Oh I'm sorry, I was lost in my thoughts…" he then says! Sweet, I have stumbled upon yet another completely bonkers movie. Even if you only understand a minimum of French and have a look at the original title, you immediately know that "Seven Women for Satan" hasn't got anything to do with Satan or ritual sacrifices, but simply revolves on the flamboyant escapades of a perverted and mentally unstable count during his weekend in the countryside. This is, in fact, another sleazy variation on the classic milestone "The Most Dangerous Game" about a lunatic's disturbing hobby of hunting people – preferably hot naked chicks - in the forest for sports. Well actually, this is more than just a variation on the 1932 classic, as writer/director/actor Michel Lemoine had the pretension to directly link his protagonist to Leslie Banks' legendary villain in "The Most Dangerous Game". Count Zaroff supposedly is the original Count Zaroff's son but he exchanged his private island for the remote French countryside. He also can't afford to be unemployed anymore, so he's an office clerk from Monday to Friday and a maniacal killer during the weekend. Zaroff is a genuine weirdo who hallucinates about dancing with deceased woman but actually runs his car over the live ones. His butler once pledged to prevent the Zaroffs from killing, but he's obviously doing a lousy job. There isn't any depth in the screenplay and the build-up certainly doesn't pay attention to suspense or sinister atmosphere. Really, the only useful thing to do during this film is count the girls that are lured for Zaroff's deceptive trap and hope they'll reach seven rapidly. Half of the film is pointless and tedious padding footage, like the overlong erotic dance act in which a statue inexplicably transforms into a muscular black guy (???), and the other half exists of psychedelic sleaze that eventually grows tiresome as well even though all the girls look ravishing. I have the impression that it was Michel Lemoine's intention to imitate his pal Jean Rollin and make a deliriously kinky sex-thriller. "Seven Women for Satan" is a French production, so inevitably it also stars Jess Franco regular Howard Vernon ("The Awful Dr. Orloff", "Zombie Lake"). Lemoine himself surely has the looks of a crazy killer, but not the talent to depict one.

The original 1932 masterpiece THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (directed by Irving Pichel and Ernest P. Schoedsack, and starring the great Leslie Banks as one of the most memorable villains ever in cinema) is an all-time favorite of mine. Being a huge fan of (especially European) Exploitation and Trash-flicks from the 70s, my admiration for the original film will certainly not lessen my enjoyment of the numerous sleazy rip-offs. And this ultra-sleazy French take on the story, LES WEEK-ENDS MALÉFIQUES DU COMTE ZAROFF (aka. SEVEN WOMEN FOR Satan) of 1976, for which Michel Lemoine served as director, writer and star is a sleazy one indeed. As a matter of fact, this highly sadistic little slice of sleaze has an incredibly confused and nonsensical plot, and mostly doesn't make the slightest sense. However, the film should nonetheless be entertaining enough for my fellow Eurosmut-fans to enjoy, as it is a good example for the sleaziness and sheer insanity of many European B-Movie-makers in the era.

Michel Lemoine plays a descendant of the original Count Zaroff; unlike his diabolical, but ingenious ancestor, this Zaroff is a totally bonkers nut-job who brings gorgeous young women to his medieval French castle, where he gives them champagne and fondles their naked bodies before suddenly flipping out and murdering them in bizarre manners. Zaroff's butler is played by the great Howard Vernon, the super-prolific Euro-Exploitation regular best known for starring in many of Jess Franco's films.

Michel Lemoine, to whom this film owes its existence, looks extremely demented. Judging by his mere looks, he would be perfect to play an insane killer; the man's acting skills, however, are not exactly breathtaking, which makes the thing unintentionally comical at times. Howard Vernon is always somewhat creepy, and always good to see for Exploitation-buffs like yours truly. Lemoine and Vernon had worked together on some movies before, including Jess Franco's NECRONOMICON (1968) and the hilariously inept German Sleaze-Horror flick DAS SCHLOSS DER BLUTIGEN BEGIERDE (CASTLE OF THE BLOODY LUST, 1968). The women in the film are entirely gorgeous, and they all get naked at any given occasion before most of them meet violent deaths. This is Eurosleaze at its sleaziest and most politically incorrect, the film is more or less a continuum of sex and violence (the victims being predominantly hot women).

As most French Horror films, LES WEEKENDS MALÉFIQUES DU COMTE ZAROFF is very well-photographed on atmospheric original locations. The psychedelic score is also very good, even though it is very obvious that parts of it were inspired by Morricone's brilliant score to THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. The incredibly cheesy dialogue serves mainly as an explanation for the sleaze that follows. I saw the English dubbed version, and lines like "Would you like some champagne to help you dream pleasantly; or would you rather that I pour it on your body and sip it slowly as if your substance were of crystal" are hilariously inept. Overall, this film is one to see for the sleaze and violence and for the involuntary fun-factor. However, it certainly has its lengths, and tends to get tedious in-between in spite of a running time of only 85 minutes; don't expect anything eerie, let alone suspenseful, and be entertained.

Wow - this is one of those early 1970's European sleazy sex flicks warped in a "horror" film - there IS plenty of gore and also lots of nudity but the true joy of this dubbed version we saw was the unbelievably unintentionally hysterical dialogue. After the "Count" has run over one of his chippies with his car "Rebecca, you are broken. My poor little rag doll." Man oh man. The lead actor also "wrote and directed" and you can tell he really thought he could fool people that this was "Euro Cinema Art For Adults" but it mainly looks like an excuse for him to have nude scenes with various busty French chicks and oh yes, there;s this silly mundane plot to move along - actually at the end when there's supposed to be this "shocking: moment" - it is so lame, a high school play could put together a better skeleton - anyway, this film is good for a laugh with friends if you like to watch the European sleaze horror genre but a lot of it is awful and of course, sexist - hello - it's France in 1974 - what are you expecting - Julia???

I thought I was just going to watch a low-budget French horror film, though the opening scene sure changed my opinion! You see a naked woman being tracked across a vast estate by some nut-job riding on horseback! She is ultimately killed and then the story begins. This is surely NOT a 1970s version of Universal horror film! In the next scene, you see one of the sexiest scenes I have ever seen and it involved light bondage and lots of champagne. No one was being hurt and the film looked like a porno film--not exactly the sort of movie I'd watch, but harmless. However, moments later in another scene, this same man now is brutalizing this woman--both sexually and physically. Then, ultimately, he kills her. At this point, I thought I'd have enough, as any film that combines hot sex with violence against women disturbs me. After all, the idea of guys getting off watching women hurt and killed sexually is like watching the actions of a sex offender in order to get some sort of voyeuristic thrill. I tried watching just a bit more, but ultimately gave up--and worry about those who like films like this. While I never like the idea of banning films or controlling their content (I am a huge believer in the First Amendment), I certainly didn't want to see more. Thank goodness I rented this one and didn't buy it!

Seven Women for Satan (1976)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Bizarre French film is a sequel to The Most Dangerous Game. In this film, Count Boris Zaroff (Michel Lemoine), the nephew of the psycho from the first film, has sexual fantasies dealing with him seducing women and then murdering them. Because the screenplay allows it, several women soon fall into his hands and sure enough he begins to make the fantasies real. I'll admit that this is a pretty strange film from start to finish and there are some pretty good moments scattered throughout but sadly things run out of gas around the half-way mark and things never pick up. The bizarre thing is that the film goes for a Luis Bunuel like feel where the viewer never knows if he's watching something that's really happening or if we're in some sort of strange fantasy or dream sequence. The movie has a rather nice atmosphere and we get all sorts of sleaze from countless naked women to some strange death scenes. We also get some laughable death scenes including one early on when Zaroff attacks a woman. She takes off running and he begins to chase her in his car. There are woods all around and all she would have to do is duck in them and she'd be safe but instead she just keeps running through this open field. This scene certainly made me laugh as did another one where the woman is attacked by a dog. There is one gruesome scene where a couple goes to their death in a torture chamber that is quite effective. Director Lemoine gives himself the leading role and I thought his performance wasn't decent if nothing overly good. He fits the role just fine but it's clear no one is going to mistake him for Brando. Howard Vernon plays his servant and gives his typical performance. Nothing great but it's always fun to see him. The film's biggest flaw is certainly it's screenplay as the weirdness eventually runs out and we're not left with much of anything.

Writer-director-star Michel Lemoine plays Boris Zaroff, descendant of a Russian nobleman, who is himself a count / businessman. Often incapable of discerning fantasy from reality, Boris has visions of violence occurring on his vast estate. He also has visions of his deceased wife Anne (Joelle Coeur).

Lemoines' 1976 effort, which was banned in France for several years, is an odd duck of a Euro-cult movie: as it straddles the line between art & exploitation, it moves from being erotic (and succeeds pretty well in this regard) to being surreal to attempts to be poignant. Although uneven, it tends to get better as it goes along, with some very sexy women, fairly regular nudity, and a memorable sequence in the torture chamber occupying the basement of Zaroffs' castle. This sequence *does* have a good payoff.

It gets off to an equally memorable start with Zaroff seeming to pursue a naked woman while on horseback; he is also accompanied by a Great Dane during the hunt. This seems to suggest that Lemoine might be going the route of paying more homage to "The Most Dangerous Game", but that is *not* the case. This is something else.

Although it wasn't that successful from my perspective, it's just strange enough and interesting enough that aficionados of Euro-trash may get a kick out of it. At the least, it's nice to see prolific, Swiss-born Howard Vernon, a familiar face from many other European horror & exploitation films.

Six out of 10.

"Les weekends malefiques du comte Zaroff" (Seven women for Satan) was billed as as sexy and trashy remake of "The most dangerous game". As the film was banned in France (as far I as I know, a liberal country when it comes to cinema), my curiosity was raised still more. But I was disappointed, the film didn't meet my expectations.

Why was this film banned in France? Mystery! I would have understood if it had been banned from the UK. The British censorship is very strict and known throughout the world for its medieval standards.

"The most dangerous game" was a distant source of inspiration for "Seven women for Satan" (the English title is very misleading, but I will use it for briefness' sake. Where is Satan? 7 women?), but I think that Lemoine suffered a greater influence from Rollin and Benazeraf, and we should not forget to mention "Beyond Erotica" (No es nada mama, solo un juego).

The story runs like this: The count Zaroff (Michel Lemoine) during the week days is apparently a normal man, sometimes a little distracted from his work, because he's constantly dreaming about chasing and torturing women. Women for him are beautiful dolls, he feels like biting them, crushing their bones... he likes them so much!

When the week-end comes he goes to his castle. In the castle his butler Karl (Howard Vernon) and a big black dog called Ingmar wait for him. Karl wants to assist Count Zaroff in his evil ways like his ancestors did to Count Zaroff's ancestors. There's also a Fata Morgana apparition (Joelle Coeur) haunting Count Zaroff. She was one of his ancestors' victims. She's a beautiful long haired woman in a white gown that appears and disappears in the most unexpected places. Count Zaroff seems to be obsessed by her. And we should not forget the friendly black dog Ingmar that gets its share of beautiful women as well. One can't complain about cruelty to animals!

If you've read me till now, you may think that the film tells a story. But no, this film is almost plot less - it looks like a collage, a bric-a-brac of Lemoine's varied cinematic influences and sexual dreams. The violence, for the most part, is not shown explicitly. In this department, the film is rather tame when compared to others of the genre.

If you see the film in the right mood, it can be an amusing experience: The castle, count Zaroff and his sinister butler Karl, without forgetting, of course, the trendy big black dog, Ingmar. "Ingmar, elle est a toi!" Growl.... Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!..... Naked girls being chased, semi-naked girls dancing to tribal drums or pop music, ghostly girls materializing out of nothing, the "philosophical" pearls delivered mainly by Count Zaroff and his faithful butler Karl...

The film is difficult to judge, some scenes, particularly the dreamy sensual ones are very stylish, but the story seems to wander aimlessly and the pace sometimes is very slow. If you see this film with a receptive mind (and in a slightly altered state), you might enjoy it better.