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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
bizarre and compelling, March 26, 2006
This review is from: Alcuarda (Sub) (DVD)
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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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great DVD of a neglected Classic, January 30, 2004
This review is from: Alcuarda (Sub) (DVD)
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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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Satan Satan Satan! Our lord and master...", December 24, 2003
This review is from: Alcuarda (Sub) (DVD)
Since this film is most likely going to be noticed and picked up by those who are also into other foreign "horror"/skin flicks, I shall use Jean Rollin and Jess Franco as the comparison references.
Actually, there really IS no comparison. Alucarda is much more of a 'film' than anything those directors have put out, and really makes their cinematic incompetence stand out in sharp relief.
As a "skin" flick it's about on par with Franco's film roster or Rollin's vampire films: no "sex scene" per se, but fabulous full frontals (fairly lengthy) from a couple of beautiful actresses.
Story wise, it's much more coherent than theirs, as well. Even though it probably had about the same budget as an exploitation flick, it uses the money wisely and doesn't come off as being
cheaply made.
Overall, that is. The blood and effects are by current standards primitive, but quite effective nonetheless.
This is definitely not a vampire movie, but rather a film about your typical rebellious girl stuck in a convent who makes a pact with the devil and brings her innocent, wayward friend into it.
She then proceeds to "raise hell" so to speak within the convent. A witch hunt ensues within its walls, and the apocalyptic ending is very much in the vein of "Carrie".
It's only moderately heavy on skin and blood, so the storyline doesn't suffer as a result of flesh overkill. Alucarda's strongest point is the atmosphere which pervades it--an obscure, generic thing to say and hardly explanatory, I know, but you'll understand it when you see it.
I give it four stars based on the genre, comparing it to similar films. I'm not saying it's four stars on an "Oscar" level by any means. It's definitely worth a watch if you like foreign 70s vampire/horror films. Not scary, but great nudity and decent plot. Another plus is that it's in ENGLISH!!! No subtitles needed!
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