Blood Sabbath

A trippy, hippy horror from the 70s, this weird tale of witches and water nymphs features tons of full frontal nudity, a surreal atmosphere, a groovy soundtrack, and just a little graphic gore, giving it (in my opinion) a distinctly European vibe despite being made in the San Fernando Valley, California. And, like a lot of experimental, psychedelic Euro horror from the 70s, it proves to be rather incoherent, and very tedious.

Anthony Geary plays David, a young Vietnam veteran who falls in love with Yyalah (Susan Damante-Shaw), a mysterious, supernatural blonde woman who cannot love him back because he has a soul. In order to be with the woman of his dreams, David arranges for Alotta (busty Dyanne Thorne of Ilsa fame), the queen of a coven of witches that plagues a nearby village, to relieve him of his soul...

Despite featuring lots of babes with massive minges (as was the fashion at the time) cavorting together in the buff, plus the impressive sight of the legendary Ms. Thorne jiggling her huge cans and shaking her tush, Blood Sabbath is ultimately an unmemorable piece of trash that is unlikely to appeal to even the most desperate of perverts (even if birds with big bushes happen to be your particular thing!). The meandering storyline is extremely dull, and with only one instance of graphic violence (a manky severed head held aloft by Alotta), fans of exploitation and low-budget horror would be advised to approach with caution.

Boob Sa-butt, more like! If you like nudity, naked girls, and women with no clothes on then this film is right up your street. Our hero, David, is a Vietnam vet wandering the land with a guitar and not much else when he's set upon by naked, annoying hippy girls and before you know it he's being rescued by a water nymph and falling in love. Trouble is, the water nymph can't totally fall in love with him until he loses his soul. Why? I've no idea, but luckily there's a coven of witches nearby who just happen to be on the lookout for a soul. Makes sense to whomever wrote the screenplay, I guess.

You've also got the local fisherman guy, and the local priest who is now having an attack of the guilt after filling his boots with naked witch acolytes for years. What price will David pay for the witches services? How will his water nymph missus react? Does anyone come out unscathed from making pacts with witches? And will Dyanne whatshername get out her knockers and boogie for the lads? The answer to that last one is indeed a 'yes' and it's enough to make a bald man cry, if you know what I mean.

Look, Blood Sabbath is a strange, strange film. It should be kind of boring, but the frequent nudity and all round surreal nature of thing keep you going. David's a Vietnam vet, and I get the feeling that all this film takes place in some kind of purgatory or something, which would explain the annoying hippy people and the flashbacks to him accidentally shooting children. Either that, or I've watched far too many weird films and something bust up there in my brain, there.

The wimpiest and whiniest Vietnam vet in cinema history (played by "Luke" from "General Hospital")falls asleep in the forest for some reason and when he wakes up he finds himself being assaulted by five beautiful, naked women, so he does what any guy would do--he runs away screaming. Later he falls in love with a fully-clothed water nymph (don't ask), but can't be with her unless he gives up his soul (really, don't ask). Fortunately, the head of the coven of naked women, played by Dyanne "Ilsa" Thorne, is willing to take his soul off his hands, especially after he becomes very insistent ("Take my soul, damn you!"). But then he drinks sacrificial blood which is a problem for some reason and his water nymph lover is horrified ("You're covered with blood. . . sacrificial blood"!). Then the movie just starts to get weird.

Obviously, the only reason to watch this movie is to see a lot of naked women, including the top-heavy Dyanne Thorne dancing around in nothing but a skimpy black bikini bottom. "Luke" has a brief nude scene too (one for the ladies, I guess). It's also pretty unintentionally funny. Besides the looney situations and idiotic dialogue, the movie is chock-full of other absurdities. You would think from the sylvan location of the story and the water nymphs, satanic coven, etc. that this would be set in the British Isles or somewhere in the Old World, but it is supposedly set in Mexico! It doesn't look anything like Mexico and no one maintains a consistent Mexican accent (let alone speaks Spanish), but the coven does decapitate a "padre" at one point. That's the only scene that might recommend this to horror movie fans, but you see one priest decapitated by a satanic cult, you seen 'em all. Then there's the "Vietnam" flashback footage, but the less said about that the better.

This film might stay with you a little longer than most horror movies from the 70's. It's about an ex-Vietnam soldier who doesn't care about the outside world anymore. He finds himself in the woods and near death. He is awoken by a very beautiful pond goddess (?) who cannot love him unless he gets rid of his soul. Of course he wishes to be with her and will do anything to get rid of his soul. He asks the loner woods guy what he should do. He, just like everyone else, warns him to stay away from this woman (Yyalah). But he won't give up. He even asks the local priest how to get rid of his soul (in a slightly comical way, I might add). He decides to go to an evil witch who annually sacrifices a child so that "the village" will have good crops.

Well, I won't spoil it for you, but as you can see, it deals with the supernatural and goddess/witch love. As people have mentioned on here, there is tons of pointless nudity that includes naked slave witches dancing around and worshiping the main witch.

The movie is slightly magical and doesn't seem to be as raunchy as it sounds. There's even nature frolicking scenes and happy music. The actor who plays David must be a bit of a nerd in real life because it shows in the way he acts. He punches in the air with joy when something goes right, or he uses big giant facial expressions as if he were in a play. His acting makes the movie seem a little weird. Yyalah is also quite beautiful, even though she wears a horrible wig the entire time.

I give this a 4/10 because the movie has something about that makes you like it and you can't put your finger on why.

The world's least convincing Vietnam Vet (Tony Geary) finds himself in the middle of a conflict involving a coven of hot naked chicks. Oh, and they all want to have sex with him/rape him (Oh no!)

Yes, that's the premise. Done while Vietnam was still in our psyche (and the hippie movement was dying, thank God), "Blood Sabbath" is one of those sleazy, strange horror/exploitation flicks that played in drive in theaters. As you can see from the premise, the movie is as dumb as it sounds. Nudity is abundant (not that there's anything wrong with that), dialog is stilted, Vietnam flashbacks are poorly done and have little to do with the ridiculous plot, and the movie in itself is a totally surreal experience.

Honestly, how do you rate a movie like this? It's bad, but it's so strange and stupid that it defies description. I honestly can't see an oddity like this being made today. See it if you want to see what independent horror was like before "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and after "Night of the Living Dead."

Awesome score by Les Baxter BTW.