Customer Reviews

The Night of the Sorcerers (Special Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I must thank Deimos DVD for finally making this sexy horror favorite of my youth available in such a beautifully preserved and presented form. It's taken awhile, but I knew it would happen eventually and now it is here.

If you grew up in Southern California, Night of the Sorcerers (aka La Noche de los Brujos) was a regularly run Spanish origin horror film, usually popping up on channel 13 or 9. I have even seen it more recently on the spanish language channels. Yes, the plot is silly. Yes, the dubbing is atrocious. It's even kind of dull in spots. But if you've ever seen it, I doubt you can forget it.

Written and directed by the late Amando de Ossorio (Tombs of the Blind Dead, Fangs of the Living Dead), this voodoo/vampire hybrid is gory, sexy, stupid, scary, dream-like and unintentionally funny all at once. Ossorio often references his other films in his movies, and here it's no exception (the ending will remind many of the finale in Fangs). However, I don't mean to say the film is derivative. It's actually very unique. Certainly, it's wonderfully trashy, even after all these years.

The full-screen image quality is outstanding- the HD transfer is flawless. Bright, vivid color and crisp, clear, sharp detail. You can either pick dubbed english sound or original Spanish with or without subtitles. Extras include a theatrical trailer (!), alternate scenes, spanish language titles and a still gallery. I'm a little aware of some online controversy regarding the "uncutness" of this new Deimos/BCI release. All I will say, having seen the other versions, is that I am very happy with this edition.

While I doubt this will be appearing on the Oxygen network anytime soon, it is certainly a must buy for any Euro-horror buff. What are you waiting for?!?

A Spanish vampire filem (La Noche de los brujos), set in Africa, it has a touch of voodoo and S&M about it.

Starting some years earlier, the film has a woman attacked by an African tribe where she's whipped and then beheaded and then returns as a vampire.

Jumping to the present a small group of people camp near-by and one by one the women of the group are drawn to the same sacrifice area where they are tied up, whipped until their clothes are in tatters and then bitten to become vampires.

As a vampire, the pale woman skips about in poorly lit jungle wearing a tiger-fur bikini (see woman on front cover)... where they got these from is not known.

That's pretty much the film there. One by one women become bikini-wearing paled vampires leaping about in slow motion.

A group of explorers arrive to study the wildlife in the same area a brutal murder happened in 1910. Nobody cares and, of course, things start to happen to them. Mostly at night when the guys asked to keep watch over the camp are either making out or sleeping. Easy camp to sneak into, really. Anyway, people are killed, the sexy Spanish actresses end up as vampires, dressed up in skins, running slow motion through the jungle, jiggling the whole way and things get weird. You get the picture. Witchcraft, vampires, sexy women, stupid men. Heavily armed men, but pretty stupid and easy to distract.
Loved the alternate footage, the still gallery, and the insert of liner notes. Sometimes it was hard to see what was going on because most of the night scenes were really day scenes with filters and stuff. But the film was still fun to watch. In a twisted, B-movie, half-clad vampire women kind of way.

A different twist on the vampire scene. Beautiful women find strange zombies and a woman dressed in leopard skin outfit only to thirst for their blood. one great scene where a beautiful victim is whipped and clothing torn from her body only dangling from the ropes she is bound with to have her neck bitten from behind by the leopard vampire woman.

When I'm watching an 'exploitation' style movie I generally re-adjust my critical thinking accordingly and my criteria may include some specific peculiarities that don't normally pertain to 'serious' cinematic analysis. Accordingly, my review & rating for "The Night of the Sorcerers' isn't based on holding it up for comparison to the likes of 'Citizen Kane', but more simply: did it 'work' within the context of the genre. From that perspective I'd heartily proclaim: "Hell, yeah!" I'd have to say that a previous reviewer did a pretty good job of extolling the virtues of what this mid 70's Spanish horror flik has to offer - basically some over the top supernatural action and attractive women shedding their clothes and running around in the jungle with with big fangs and tiny leopard skin bikinis. I often judge 'how good/sexy' an exploitation film is going to be by how long one has to wait for the first sight of a naked breast on screen. By that standard 'Night of the Sorcerers' should be 'Oscar' level fare as, barely five minutes into the plot, you have the spectacle of a woman tied to a tree by a tribe of chanting 'African' natives who then remove her clothes with a bullwhip!, rape her, and sacrifice her by be-heading so that she can be reborn as a vampiric leopard woman who roams the jungle for prey! After this 'stunning' opening sequence, the plot settles down to focus on a group of 'animal rights activists' who are in Africa - a couple of guys and three gorgeous women. One by one the girls get lured off to suffer the same fate as witnessed in the opening scene - stripped and sacrificed by a group of zombie natives who rise from their graves at night until only one couple is left alive for the film's 'surprise' ending. This film is pure 'cheeze' from beginning to end and that's exactly what makes it so mindlessly engaging. The 'Special Edition' package put together by the Eclipse DVD authoring group is very nice! The film transfer quality is super clean and it would appear to have all of its' 'sexy' scenes intact - LOTS of toplessness (but no full frontal). There is a nice insert booklet included that gives info on the background of the film and its' director, Amando De Ossorio. The 'extras' include some production & promo stills and 'alternate' scenes where the actors are 'clothed' - in order to meet censorship codes in certain countries. It is refreshing that on this disk the more explicit version w/ nudity intact is what you get on the principle disc - I have other Spanish 'Franco era' vintage films where it is the opposite and one must search the extras to see the excised 'skin' shots. If you're looking for some pure outrageous exploitation weirdness - this is a good pick! I've noticed that there is a 'version' of this film available from the Sinister Cinema folks at a much lower price - having not viewed it I can't really say how it compares in terms of picture quality and/or 'completeness' - but I can definitely recommend the Eclipse version.

Kudos for Deimos DVD! I have been trying to find this movie on DVD for the past 2-3 years with no luck in sight. This movie is so hard to find & I got lucky with Amazon.com. Just finshed watching it & I must say I am impressed! Since it was mastered in high definition from the orginal negitive I could not belive how vivid the colour is & sharpness of the picture clarity was. I remember seeing once on brodcast TV back in 1975 & I never saw it again. If you are a fan of European cult classic hooror movies this one is a must have for any DVD library. It's scary, dark, atmospheric & very sexy!Salem's Lot

I liked a lot this film. It is very original, it places the vampires in an unpublished universe (the jungle, the voodoo) and contains numerous spectacular scenes. There are many new developments and suspense , a pleasant moment !

This version is not the special edition that the other reviews are discussing. THAT one is OOP and costs quite a bit.

This is the old TV print, with all of the vampire action cut out and terrible print quality. Do NOT waste your money.