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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
bizarre and compelling, March 26, 2006
Alucarda begins as a new mother in some sort of implied peril, sends her newborn daughter off to a convent for safe keeping. Years later her grown girl (Alucarda) and companion stumble upon mom's tomb and are overtaken by the evil force that killed her. Filled with piss-and-vinegar the two return to the convent and unleash wave of demonic terror that brings the convent to it's knees.
Riding the crest of the Exorcist and Ken Russell's The Devils, Mexican Director, Lopez Moctezuma delivered this hybrid that still manages bare his own unique brand of surrealism. Not unlike Carrie, Alucarda takes the theme of female sexual maturation to it's absurd limits, right down to having the nuns of the convent garbed in what appear to be bloodied menstrual rags. In fact, there is almost a constant "flow" of blood & nudity intertwined throughout the film; a flow which the nuns try (and fail) to quell by dishing out equal parts of love & sadism toward the two girls and themselves .
Obviously if your not a fan of non-linear flights of blasphemous fancy, you need not apply here, because this by no means your run-of-the-mill demonic possession ripoff. Though filled with a good many arresting visuals, I don't agree with those who feel this is Moctezuma's finest hour. I would still give that honor to Mansion of Madness (Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon), largely because in that film Moctezuma orchestrates his delirium with greater virtuosity and focus. I'm guessing it's the ample nudity that gives Alucarda the leg up for some of it's devoted fans.
Mondo Macabro has put out a pretty nice DVD of this bilingual production, with image quality that does justice to Moctezuma's vision. My only beef is that though they include both a Spanish and English audio option, I would have liked to get English subtitles as the Spanish track had additional music cues not present on the English track, and sounded a little more organic in general.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can i get a Blood-filled Coffin Too?, August 22, 2006
Lets make no mistake, this is a B movie, but still one of my all time favorites. Thus i give it 5 stars where more critical viewers may give it less. I am judging it for how much it achieves with what it has at it's disposal. It is beautiful & evocative, & even where it doesn't always quite make sense or balance the equation it always leaves a sense of wonder.
Still, this movie succeeds where many Hollywood & othe high budget movies completely fail. It descriptively rather than emotionally portrays a community of very real religious faith forced to confront a menacing, absolute evil. Often they look silly, ridiculous, & stupid, but never insincere. In the end, faith & the supernatural transcend science & reason in answering the conflict of this story. Many people glorify the Satanic imagery of this movie which is abundant, and yes, devil & demonic possession are treated very real as in the Exorcist, but in a larger, grander scale. Yet the end note in this story retains a very stylistically consistent conclusion that spiritual methoda answers spiritual concerns, while science answers rational concerns. It is a bold approach very rarely attempted by large productions, but very effective & pure to form here in Alucarda.
Other elements including the lesbian sublimation, parts of the dialogue between Alucarda & the other female lead, & the scene of the blood filled coffin can all be traced back to Sheridan Le Fanu's 19th century vampire novel "Carmilla". There is the sense as in the 19th century vampire stories like "Carmilla", & "The Beautiful Dead", where our femme fatale is simultaneously empowered by her love for others and cursed to destroy all she loves to sustain and use that life-giving power. She can't stop existing of her own will, yet she can't stop killing in order to exist, so all she loves continues to die around her.
This movie has a lot to offer if you care to look, but it's probably not a comfortable choice for family viewing because of the graphic nudity and Satanic suject material. Also, personally, i would not want any child to see the blood filled coffin i referenced earlier. I think that it is one of the simplest yet creepiest scenes in horror history. Yet if your a fan of the early vampire literature it gives a very strong insight into the undead as viewed at that time, as well as a descriptive view of religious faith which exists beyond the bounds of scientific investigation or rational plausability. View it by yourself or with a trusted friend. I think you will like it, & even learn a lot from it.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great DVD of a neglected Classic, January 30, 2004
Alucarda is an erotic, psychedelic horror masterpiece from mexican director Juan Moctezuma. It's both a work of art and a luridly entertaining exploitation shocker. Moctezuma was a collaborator of Jodorowsky's and fans of that filmmaker's work will likely enjoy this. You can also sense the influence of Mario Bava and Jean Rollin on Alucarda, the former in the rich use of color and the latter in the stylized erotic images. The Mondo Macabro DVD looks fantastic and comes with some nice extras including a british doc about the director and an interview with filmmaker and Alucarda fan Guillermo Del Toro. Some might recognize bits of dialogue from this film, which have been sampled by the Electric Hellfire Club and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult.
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