Queens of Evil

It coud have been a good short film, or an acceptable medium-length film, but it is one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. Nothing happens in the movie before the last 7 minutes. There is no plot, no tension, no pace, no mood, it is not haunting, or trippy, or visually mesmerezing, or atmospheric. Nothing at all. And I am really into slow and long movies. I love low budget movies from the 70s, but I can not positively value a movie for having only a good final seven minutes.

Another "Euro-Cult" offering I was unaware of (prior to the week-end before last, in fact) but, proving intriguing upon reading its synopsis, I decided to get hold of immediately; this fact, however, did not really have anything to do with my watching it so quickly – just that the disc the film was recorded on was handy at the time. Anyway, QUEENS OF EVIL was quite good, if not exactly a 'lost' gem; thematically, it anticipated THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987) – though I have never watched the latter myself – since the plot revolves around a bearded young man traveling on a motorcycle (Ray Lovelock) ensnared by three lovely women (Haydee' Politoff, Silvia Monti and Evelyn Stewart) he encounters and who are ultimately revealed to be witches; incidentally, while the girls live in seclusion in the woods, their abode is decked-out with all the modern trimmings one associates with the fashion world (including blow-ups of each of them hanging above their respective beds)! Lovelock and Stewart were both "Euro-Cult" stalwarts (he even supplies the rather thin vocals to the soundtrack's two numbers!); I first noticed Politoff in the equally obscure giallo INTERRABANG (1969) – where she had emerged the best of another sensuous trio – but, here, it is Monti (the one I was least familiar with) who particularly shined as the hero's most fiery seductress. Though the film's languid pace was to be expected, it also proves somewhat uneventful until the violent twist ending – organizing a party to which they invite their devilish friends, the girls reveal their true nature and turn on the mystified 'hippie'…egged on by their leader, an aging aristocratic type Lovelock had actually met (and apparently saw killed in a car crash!) at the very start of the picture!! For the record, I had previously watched the good Spaghetti Western TODAY IT'S ME…TOMORROW YOU (1968) from the same director, with two more (and still different) titles I will hopefully manage to check out during my ongoing "Euro-Cult" marathon.

Queens of Evil is a completely obscure Eurotrash flick, and that's not surprising at all as this film has zero mass market appeal and will appeal only to fans to obscure cult cinema - and even then, not all fans. Queens of Evil is a simply bizarre movie and I really don't know what the point of it is. It can't really be pigeon holed into any of the main genres of Italian cinema - it would probably fall somewhere between a sex flick, an exploitation film and a cult themed Giallo (a la All the Colours of the Dark) - but even that definition doesn't really fit it. Our main character is David - a hippy travelling aimlessly on his motorcycle. After a strange encounter with a man who needs his tire changing, David rides on and soon comes across an apparently deserted house. He decides to spend the night in the shed and is surprised the next morning to be awoken by a beautiful young woman named Liv. Liv seems keen to get rid of David, but after her sisters catch sight of him; they ask him to stay and David soon discovers that he has bitten off more than he can chew...

The atmosphere is the key thing about this film. Director Tonino Cervi handles the film well and ensures that it's always mysterious. The locations used make the film feel isolated and claustrophobic and this adds well to the atmosphere. The film boasts a good cast, with the handsome Ray Lovelock fitting into the lead role well and convincing as a hippy. You'd expect some nice female talent too considering the plot here, and the film doesn't disappoint. All three of the leading ladies (Evelyn Stewart, Silvia Monti and Haydée Politoff) provide nice eye candy and also manage to create a foreboding chemistry between themselves and Ray Lovelock. The film is very slow to start and not a lot happens for the first hour or so; but to be honest, I preferred this part of the film to the build up to the climax. Considering how slow the first two thirds are, you would think that the film would kind of explode at the end, and while we do get something of a twist; the ending actually isn't all that interesting and doesn't make a lot of sense. Overall, this is an interesting mood piece and I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure why and I wouldn't recommend it.

In the wake of a road accident, a young drifter on motorbike is lured to his unforeseen fate at the hands of three stunning sisters, residing in an incommunicado deep-woods cabin(with interior furnishings that look like they were lifted from the sets of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE).

LE REGINE is a more-than-partially successful merging of pop-artsy midcentury modernism with fairly routine erotic eurohorror. A variably intriguing mood piece with a retro-cool music score by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino(a soundtrack LP was released), it's thick with a phantasmagorical atmosphere, both sinister and celestial. The highly attractive primary castmembers vitalize their characters with moxie, especially during the intermittent soft-erotic scenes(which are to the libido as the spur is to the bronco).

Le REGINE maintains a slow but steady pace, and remains interesting and consistently watchable straight through to the alarming and entirely out-of-nowhere final curtain. While it's certainly not a perfect picture, this largely overlooked oddity warrants reassessment, and probably deserves a few long-withheld acknowledgements...it's a notch or two above the standard for sexy 70s Eurotrash, and just that little bit out of the ordinary.

7/10...a nice surprise.

Hailing from the hippie era, Queens of Evil is a warning to blokes wishing to lead a carefree life without the burden of rules, regulations and boundaries: beware of the bourgeoisie, whose supremacy is threatened by the hippie lifestyle, and of women who might seek to trap such men in a relationship and force them to betray their ideals.

Ray Lovelock (The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) stars as handsome drop-out David, who stops his motorbike to help a rich man (Gianni Santuccio) fix a flat tyre on his car. The driver returns David's kindness by mocking the young man's lifestyle and surreptitiously pushing a nail into the front tyre of his bike. After fixing his puncture, David gives chase, demanding to know why the man was so mean; the wealthy man loses control of his vehicle and crashes into a tree. David sees that the driver is dead, so continues his journey. When he sees a police car on the road ahead, he takes another route that leads him deep into the woods, where he happens upon a cottage by a lake. David settles down for the night in a wood shed, and is woken the following morning by a beautiful young woman (Haydée Politoff), who introduces herself as Liv.

Liv invites David to stay for breakfast, and introduces him to her sexy sisters, Bibiana (Evelyn Stewart) and Samantha (Silvia Monti). He accepts Liv's invitation, and is surprised by the stylish decor of the cottage (there are massive portraits of the three women on the walls and countless scatter cushions). He is given cake to eat for breakfast ('let them eat cake'), after which he announces it is time for him to leave. The draw of three beauties is too much for him, however, and he returns, accompanying the women on a fishing trip. Bibiana shows David her hobby - embalming squirrels - and Samantha takes his bike for a joy-ride. Liv appears to be able to matter transport herself. Despite the sisters' obvious eccentricities, David stays, and beds both Samantha and Bibiana.

Waking in the night, David sees the three women talking to a man. He sneaks out of the house to follow the mysterious visitor, but is knocked unconscious by a lightning strike during a sudden storm, after which he has a very strange dream in which the sisters wear crazy wigs and body paint. Regaining consciousness in bed, having been found in the woods by the women, David enquires about the stranger: they tell him that the man is the owner of a nearby castle, and that they have all been invited to a party there that night. At the gathering, David feels intimidated by the rich weirdo guests and their incessant questions, and flees into the welcoming arms (and between the welcoming legs) of Liv. After shagging the youngest of the sisters, and renouncing his hippie principles, all three women turn on David, hacking him to death with a variety of sharp implements.

The final scene reveals the owner of the castle - the very same man who David met on the road at the beginning of the film - to be none other than the devil, who uses the three sisters to help him do away with hippie folk like David who have no moral code, for how can the devil exist if the concept of sin no longer exists?

Although not quite as wonderfully weird as The Spider Labyrinth, which was produced by this film's director Tonino Cervi, Queens of Evil features its fair share of fun strangeness, the film a dark, surreal art-house fairytale that must surely have involved mind-altering substances during its making. It's a frequently perplexing tale, the directorial style and bizarre story not always easy to decipher, but those who dig obscure cult Euro-horror should find enough to enjoy here.

I rate the film 6.5 random shots of a seagull out of 10, rounded up to 7 for that amazing kitchen.