Customer Reviews

Welcome to the Grindhouse - Black Candles and Evil Eye

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

 

 

This is gonna get confusing so hold on. I decided to take a chance on this low-priced, grindhouse double-feature cause i enjoy fairly obscure horror films with an exploitation angle to them. Problem is, both films aren't very good attempts at the horror genre. EVIL EYE struck me as the potentially better horror film but it was less exploitive and coherent than BLACK CANDLES and ended up being a very frustrating film experience, especially the ending when you think "was that it?". Actually, you will feel that way at the end of both films as one could say they end EXACTLY the same way. So if you don't like the way one ended, prepare for deja-vu with the other.

So if both ended up being poor horror films with even worse cliched endings, why the 3-star rating then? Simple. If you're looking for sexploitation in a satanic cult-themed horror film, you've hit the jackpot with BLACK CANDLES. It is surprisingly wall-to-wall sex-scenes(have your finger on the fast-forward button ready when the 'tender love scene' involving a goat appears). THE TEACHER/PICK-UP grindhouse release doesn't have the amount of sex and sleaze that this movie alone has.

Overall, 3-stars for this set as it really is an average set of movies but at a decent price. But honestly, add 1-star on the strength of BLACK CANDLES alone if you enjoy softcore in your horror. Subtract 1-star from the 3-star rating if you actually want good horror films with decent endings that don't jerk you around. DVD picture quality isn't very good compared to the 'cleaner' looking TEACHER/PICK-UP release, and no extras except for three grindhouse trailers for THE PICK-UP, LEGEND OF THE 8 SAMURAI(hilarious), and DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE.

(edit: if you choose to view both films back to back under the 'grindhouse experience' option on the main menu, after the intermission you'll get trailers for PRIME EVIL and SISTER STREET FIGHTER).

If your interested in THIS dvd, then I'll already assume your into these kind of movies, and get the euro-sleez genre. Black Candles is Bad-Ass! There are some great 70's Satanic rituals. Some pretty hot chicks, nudity and murder that I enjoyed. This super hot chick get banged by a goat during a ritual. Satanic Beastiality! How awesome is that? The transfer from the film to dvd looks pretty good. The other movie did suck, or it would have gotten 5 stars.

(This 5 stars is just for "Black Candles"). If you are looking for movies that portray a Satanic group from a traditional point of view, along the lines of Rosemary's Baby and The Ninth Gate, this is the next best movie, in my opinion. It's a shame that it's less known than some other ones, like these: The City of the Dead (uncut British version of Horror Hotel), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), The Black Cat (1934), The Seventh Victim (1943), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), Alucarda, The Pyx (1973), Anticristo (1974), The Devil's Rain (1975). Although the others I just listed are similar themed, they just don't portray, from beginning to end, the same type of steady paced traditional Satanist perspective that this one does. It still falls behind Rosemary's Baby and the Ninth Gate, and, like one previous reviewer pointed out, has no climax or finalized plot development at the end (like "House of the Devil" does, another recent movie). On the other hand, like another reviewer mentioned, if this is the type of movie you are looking for, you have "hit the jackpot" with "Black Candles". Some of the scenes seem kind of extreme or disjointed, and it doesn't have the steady flow of the Polanski movies, which still makes it kind of a distant third runner up after "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Ninth Gate". But still, it's the one that comes closest to the first two.

I love horror films and even bad ones.
But these are hard movies to love. I can forgive most cheap horror movies
made in europe from the 1970's for most of their failings. but these are part of the throw everything at you and it doesn't need to make sense at the end type of movie. This was related to the drug culture of the time which was into burning their brains with acid and thinking that they learned anything other than learning what a schizophrenic see's and thinks like! Both movies are low budget affairs and even the excellent actor richard conte can't save 'evil eye' from being a jumble of confusion. The other one is similiar too but it has some disturbing scenes of it's own. Still if you love bad horror then you may want these around; you won't enjoy them as much as many other bad horror films from that decade but at least you get two horror movies here.

When the movie Grindhouse featuring, "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" came out at the cinema-plex, there was the hope for starting a new nostalgia. So, BCI decided to release movies from it's catalog and formed the Welcome to the Grindhouse Series. But, unfortunately Grindhouse proved a failure at the box office, so go figure. so, here we have a double bill of "Black Candles" and "Evil Eye." With both movies previously released, the suckers like myself bought them anyway. First off, both are not good movies. Also, they are virtually on the soft-porn side. So parents, use good judgment with your kids. "Black Candles" features lesbianism and disturbing bestiality. Girl-girl actions, ok. But, with barnyard animals? Quite disturbing. On the other hand, I do enjoy the whole feeling of the Grindhouse experience. With trailers and such, is such a cool concept. I only wish the movie had done better at the box office. If you have all the other releases, then get it to complete you collection. But if not, avoid at all cost.