Rabidly sensationalistic and mean-spirited rapes of the softcore films whose timidly teasing approach to exhibitionism obeyed the knee-jerk conservatism of an industry ran by special interest groups hungry to control sexual expression, the 'thrill me' generation of seventies filmmaking put the sadism into sex, progressing from the flower-child leftovers of the pseudo-respectable adult film to the 'roughies' that demanded delicious depravity and gloriously amoral sexuality. Indulging the sadomasochistic urgings of our wonderfully depraved human condition, adult film companies were quick to penetrate the taboos of painful pleasure in the mid-late 1970's, packaging filthy, sweaty-pig sex in delectable and happily amoral wrappings of gothic symbolism, decadent imagery, and both storylines and themes taken from a pulp novel of the supernatural and outré. It was but a small step from this to the philosophically troublesome, sometimes revolting, always provoking field of horrific pornography, a specialized genre combining titillation, torture, and terror for amusement, suspense, and sheer exploitative excess.
The first of a series of attractively box set compilations from Alpha Blue Archives, here you'll find the sleazy sexual shenanigans and violence of old school New York pornographers with an additional thematic emphasis on the supernatural, occult imagery, and fetishistic kinks. Satanic Sickies is exactly what it promises to be - a lewd and luscious collection of horrific pornography unapologetically exploring the raunchiest depths of our instinctive desire for primal violence and sex. Alpha Blue captures the atmosphere and freakishness of these fearful fuck flicks, becoming for our dubious pleasure a seedy sideshow of terror and titillation with movies of a deliriously demented nature. Appealing to the beast within us, these no-frills, bluntly filmed and presented movies interweave sex and sadism with Satanism, witchcraft, and horror stock-imagery, poking fun at the very instincts they appeal to . . . daring us to like it!
Seekers of dark miracles and sweaty flesh need seek no further than these shockingly morbid movies of ritual magic, sacrifice, violence, mutilation, satanic possession, and necrophilia. The first box set, featuring rare ménages of supernatural smut, runs the gauntlet from straight-faced examinations of terror and subjugation to tongue-in-cheek (and tongue-crack) porno parodies of grade-B horror films. Including Sex Rituals of the Occult, Dark Dreams, and Waltz of the Bat, these fetishistic features strip flesh and inhibitions with equal fervour. In addition to these titular titillations we have the monkey-spanking depravity of Daughters of Satan, the silly slap-stick of Sex and the Single Vampire, and the earnestly attempted if uneven Necromania.
Necromania is a little-known cinematic orphan of the infamously bad filmmaker Ed Wood, Jr., whose exploitation of Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson didn't even approach the bad taste (and worse production values) of this lovely piece of lunacy. This revealing bit o' soft-core hilarity and occult ambience is worthy of comparison with some of the genre's cheesiest duds. A couple having marital problems that revolve around the husband's inability to sport an erection procure the services of Madame Heles, a necromancer, hoping to find the amorous key that will help his hard-on. After a cheesy ritual with a Walmart quality skull, Heles' sultry assistant Tanya pleasures the clients, helping them with that 'hoodoo she do' before they're ready (and randy enough) to face the Madame. A worthwhile entry in Wood's inept but strangely likeable Z-monster fear-fests, this conglomeration of infidelity, boobs and black magic resonates with the dark humor, silliness, and an overall sense of exploitative, wide-eyed adolescent fun. One of the sexually softest titles in the package, this flicks otherwise laughable satanic elements provides a nice contradiction in terms of quality and approach to the rougher, grimmer, more fantastical driven films mixing hardcore scenes of penetration and sadism with the dark fantastique.
In a direct opposition of both feeling and aesthetic motive is Michael Hugo's Hardgore (1974), perhaps one of a select few of horror-pornos to approach taboo-bursting themes of sexually exciting death, power release, and the total subjugation of women with such grim determination, scathing honesty, and unblinking fascination. Considered one of the most deliciously demented, bloodiest, repulsive hybrid of horror and sex to attack the viewing mind, this film stretches the limitations of endurance and taste, going so far as to make one wonder what's wrong with us for watching such perversity as women are abducted, mind-washed, raped, aroused, and murdered (not necessarily in that order) for the dark pleasures of the lord Satan.
Maria, a nymphomaniac, is trapped in an asylum overseen by the demanding Dr. George (John Seeman) and his staff of sexy if slightly unhealthy-looking sirens - nurses eager to shed their clothes and their patient's blood with equal enthusiasm! Encouraged to liberate her sexuality by tasting the forbidden fruit of just about every sexual deviancy thinkable, Maria finds ecstasy with the nurses, each of which in turn are horribly murdered. Wandering in a sleep-like trance from room to room during the evenings, her waking world becomes a distorted mirror of malicious murder, horrid hallucinations, occult orgies, and blood-splurting - all of which leads to an admirably downbeat, atmospherically moody ending. Hardgore, like several of the other films in this generous, economically priced package, boasts decent clarity although occasional lines, smears, and blemishes litter the screen. Hey, what do you want - this isn't Disney!
Playing like a low budget serious effort at horror cinema with hardcore sex inserted into the plot, Hardgore is competently directed and even acted with some degree of professionalism; the story itself is as emotionally involving as it is sleazily pleasing with its hardcore presentation of sex and death. The asylum is moodily photographed, with such atmospherically charged scenes as the Satanic Mass, shadowy stalk-n-slash scenes, and orgies (overseen by the Lord of the Flies) lending the feature legitimacy as both thriller and sordid sex shocker. In equal turns psychedelic and pornographic, the emotional tones of characters are mirrored by cheap yet effective shadings of settings, and the sudden contrasts of brightly colored occult energy clashing with the dark, somberly lit hallways evoke the sensibilities and look of an adult faerie tales, albeit a dark one. By gum, sir, it's art!
Satisfying as a sordid spectacle of bloodshed and smut, blood gushes as enthusiastically as sweat and cum. While breasts are fondled, penises sucked, and various orifices invaded, just as many are cut, slashed, and mutilated. Horrific highlights include: a nurse's slit throat, sprouting wells of blood, moist-and-meaty castration, a penis whacked off (literally) as Maria runs her tongue over it, and, for those in search of more retrospective moments, an electrified dildo shoved up a nurse's vagina, complete with smoke and as she writhes in pain screaming. Of course, everyone's favorite ice breaker is the delicately tasteful scene wherein an unfortunate girl is beheaded as someone rams her from behind . . . oh, yes, my fearful friends, this and more awaits you in this box set - a dark gift for fiends like us which should perhaps be packaged as a threat to sanity (or as a gift to your girlfriend . . . if you want her to leave you!).
These blue-ball shockers of incredibly subversive if minimally expressed storylines are mirrored by honestly presented acts of raw sex and stunning violence, lending them the dangerous appeal and disgust attempted by such late-comers to the sex-and-pain game as the Guinea Pig series. Reminiscent of the cheaply produced flogging scenes featured in David Cronenburg's Videodrome, which commented on the depths of depravity both watcher and exhibitionist endure to satisfy internal longings for forbidden fruit, these movies, when taken in context, are as serious in their admittedly unconscious reflections as they are sensational in their raw presentation of sadism. And for those who don't look for a subtext beneath all the bush, beatings, and bleeding breasts, there is plenty to satisfy as well, not the least of which are Rites of Uranus and Suburban Satanist.
In what can only be described as a minimally expressed, tightly contained ménage of raw sexual acts of depravity Rites of Uranus is a scathingly sick piece of anti-entertainment. In a bleak, barley lit room (similar to what one imagines snuff cinema would resemble), a woman whose identity is taken from her is placed on an altar while cultists surround her chanting 'Uranus!' In this minimal setting we have Woman exposed/used as little more than meat - pounds of flesh ripe for fucking, mauling, using, and ultimately forgetting. This is made horribly clear as the degenerates stick a lit candle up her anus and masturbate in front of her, debasing her as she performs fellatio on them. The (ahem!) film closes as abruptly and with as little sense as it began as the candle is removed and she humps the Priest. Rites defies you to find any redeemable social or artistic merits within its torrid mess of humiliating flesh theatrics.
We can't, nor are we meant to.
This vignette, like several of the other pieces in the Satanic Sickies Box Sets box sets -- devoted to supernaturally-tinted hardcore smut and degradation -- don't pretend to be art. This is a fine, honest thing in a day and age where every external claim or action is simply a veil concealing an ulterior motive. These films poke fun at the concept of decency . . . whatever that might be! Content to wallow in their own filth, they are neither commendable nor condemnable; they simply exist. Suburban Satanist is still another example of this simplistic approach adapted by filmmakers more concerned with ass than aesthetics. Focusing on factual, unadorned sex for its own sake, this sickie of celluloid is spiced with accents of deviltry. Forsaking plot or even an attempt at story value, Satanist is a bloody splats of cum, featuring chants of 'hail Satan' while welcome a priest who, making do with that 'good old religion,' requests the devil to rise from hell. Satan does, donning a cheap red mask, after which he and his worshippers pile-drive into a sultry slut draped over an altar, dry humping her (they were so horny that they forgot to remove their clothes?!) Everyone ejaculates. The film ends. We ask what the hell just happened!?
Long recognized as paradoxically joined elements of similar impulses, pain and pleasure, sex and death have been traditionally coupled themes in oral lore, mythology, and written fiction. This disturbing, undeniably provocative coupling has been represented, when at all, in subtle hues, more often hinted at in subtext rather than faced outright. Stripping aside pretence of taste, art, or decency, horror pornography takes the sado-masochistic themes, imagery, and sexual rawness of the 42nd Grind Street porno feature and combines it with the dark pleasures of mythic and gothic-inspired imagery, evoking terror and titillation in an uneasy, subversive, and daringly bold ménage of the supernatural.
Angel Above, Devil Below emphasizes a somewhat more unique juxtaposition of pain and pleasure, decadence and redemption while appealing to the men-in-raincoat mentality that celebrates pornographic surface action. Teenager Randy lives in the banal security of the suburbs with her mother, the later of which is more interested in spreading her legs for boyfriend George (and the local handyman) than in being a parent. One evening, while perusing a volume on Black Magic, Randy overhears her mother's enthusiastic sexual acrobatics in the next room. What happens then? Why, the Devil appears of course! A repellent creature whose budgetary appearance provides unintentional humor to his dubious mission, the Devil possesses not her spirit but her vagina, going 'downtown' - where, of course, being the Devil, he's most comfortable. An admirably crass, funny, yet surprisingly effective sexual variation/homage to The Exorcist (1973), this demented debacle of deadpan and erotic excess feature succeeds as porn and parody. A further example of the variety of Alpha Blue's wares, the supernatural atmosphere and directorial approach (don't hear this mentioned often in porn!) of Angel Above, Devil Below provides a welcome contrast to the grimy mentality of more serious and depraved pieces as Hardgore.
Including Hardgore, Rites of Uranus, The Angel Above The Devil Below, All The Devil's Angels, Surburban Satanist, Sacrilege Sex Rituals of the Occult, Dark Dreams, Waltz of the Vampires, Necromania Daughter of Satan, and Sex and the Single Vampire this bumper collection of fearful fetish fantasies is sure to please, titillate, and disgust with both aplomb and exploitative tactlessness. Extras are supplied - surprisingly! - in the form of original theatrical trailers and a generous gallery of satanic imagery.
An adult film and horror fan's perverted paradise, the only collection threatening enough to challenge the perversion factor of the above is, naturally enough, its own follow up! Satanic Sickies (2) admirably attempts to destroy whatever social norms id didn't soil in the first collection, anxious to enrage as many puritan ethics as possible in its gleeful 'fuck you!' attitude towards convention. Oh yea, it's gonna be that kind of an evening! With twice as many bleeding vaginas, torn cocks, and campy monsters, the atmosphere of these films both collectively and individually stand out as reflections of the deadly desires within, ranging from chillingly authentic to cheerfully campy to cruelly carnal; an aura of horror and the ridiculous mirror the brutality and outrage committed against men and women for pleasure. The very same pictures that capture orgasms collect splashing blood. In addition, a surprisingly large number of them ask - perhaps unconsciously -- questions of morality, mortality, and cultural acceptance.
Sexual violence as an art form is celebrated in Last Step Down and Night of the Warlock. Outlandish balls-and-blood responses to the depressingly tame commercial product of the mainstream, these kick-in-the-groin cheapies challenge the sterile skin flicks of old, which in their obedience to enforced morality featured sex as an expression of emotional love or pleasurable - pleasure defined as a process of mutual gratification, ignoring the counter-culture of sadomasochism and/or supernaturalism. Brutal beatings are more common in Hotter Than Hell and Devil's Due than loving embraces, and death often follows the life-sustaining actions of fornication. Appealing to raw sensationalism, these fear-and-fetish features are as serious about their minimal stories as they are in pioneering the relationship between pain and pleasure. Despite their emphasis on perversion, these Bastards of genre display honest-to-god story values as well as expected grime.
Pandering to the simplistic, primal instincts which makes us slow down at accident scenes, laugh at other people's suffering in comedy, and goggle at any sexual act we're lucky enough to spot, these Satanic Sickies are, in fact, nothing less than brutally honest depictions of the animal within. We witness tasteless tit-tearing poetry, revel in it, live vicariously through it in order to feed the beast that pants and howls and bucks deep within our politely restrained skins. In some degree, we need these carnal side-shows, for they are our medicine for melancholy -- exorcisms of latent instincts, hungers, and fears that we our unable (or unwilling) to let loose. See, pornography can be GOOD for you!
The titles in this collection are quite imaginative, surprisingly given their budgets and decidedly primal function. Just as the primal, basic foundation of sex is pornography, the primal essence of horror stripped of pretension is fear of pain and death. Mix these basic thematic elements together and you have the raw stuff of both, promising to arouse and mortify in equal measure. The cinematic look and feel of these features reflect the sordidness of their themes, including Satan's Sex Slaves, which is exactly what it says, Blue Voodoo, a mingling of mambo madness and Black Magic theatrics set amidst a visually provocative background of hardcore. Of a lesser quality is the inept Sexorcist, the superior Hotter Than Hell, and the rough sadism of Seduction of Amy. Collectively these features share similar plot elements and thematic interests, mixing violence and sex with the imaginative decoration of dark fantasy. Often supernaturalism is little more than eyeliner for hardcore coupling. When the supernatural is an integral part of a sexually charged story, pornographic spectacles are transformed from simplistic filth into celluloid texts approaching art, such as The Devil inside Her, an intriguing incarnation of folklore-inspired exorcism whose plot mirrors the emotional despondency and darkness of soul celebrated in its visual acts of sexual torture. While the cheap production values are a result of low budget rather than artistic integrity, the seedy naturalism evokes both a convincing realism and sense of intimacy arousing and disturbing.
Set in England of1826, The Devil Inside Her is a heady brew of sex and satanic terror. A movie whose horror movie conventions are translated through the filtering lens of hardcore, politics, and a surprisingly deft shot at social tyranny, this is a poignant look at the decadence of the ruling class, the subjective nature of good and evil, and a poke at both politicians and religious authorities who terrorize a sexually naïve girl in the throes of emerging womanhood. Faith, an innocent, loves Joseph the gardener, but her domineering father forbids their union. Meanwhile, Hope, Faith's sister, lusts after the same man, selling her soul to the devil. The ritual and following ritualistic scenes lend impressive atmospheric shades to the skin show, capturing the cultural resonance of the time. Devil also evokes the psychological beliefs and mind-set of its cultural milieu, including its belief in supernatural powers, questioning the motivations of corrupt political, parenting, and religious systems. What ensues is both tragic and enticing.
Bordering on the depraved, this film isn't content to film sex and horror in straight forward in a brash or nasty manner. No, the director has to get really sick and see just how far our tolerance for the freak show can be pushed. He succeeds in pushing the envelope with class and ass. Included in the catalogue of carnality are plenty of yummy vaginal sex scenes, female and male masturbation, the expected lesbianism, orgies, and some lush photography of rural surroundings (which for some reason reminded me of the harsh natural beauty of Mark of the Devil).
Featuring Seduction of Amy, Devil's Due, Sorceress, Suckula, Last Step Down, Blue Voodoo, Sexorcist Devil, Hotter Than Hell, Night of the Warlock, Madam Satan, and The Devil Inside Her, these hot flicks offer REAL orgasms and screams, beatings and brutalities. These puppies are exactly what you hoped (and feared) they would be - undeniable bruises against the skin of good taste and morality.
The only law is a whip, strangling hands, and a hard penis; the only salvation an orgasm before death. Also including such wide-eyed extras as Witch Sabbath Hexensabbat, Lucifer's Lust, etc., this peon to groovy self-abuse will have you closing the shades and whipping out the tissues in no time. If your wrists or your morals break, that's the risk you take. Alpha Blue -- and the respective filmmakers who put their kinks on celluloid for the world to see -- deserve respect for having the courage to depict the human hunger for sex, violence, and horror that others close their eyes to. Simply put, these box sets are gifts of carnality for those who recognize the seedier pleasures.
Alpha Blue, you're weird and you're sleazy . . . and boy do we love ya!
Review by William P Simmons
| Released by Alpha Blue Archives |
| Region All - NTSC |
| Not Rated |
| Extras : |
| see main review |