80's Spanish Horror Part Five - (José Ramón Larraz Edition)

ESTIGMA

(1980)

Overall: MEH

After spending the majority of the 1970s with erotic thrillers and the like, writer/director José Ramón Larraz returned to supernatural, psychological horror with Estigma, (Stigma), his first such film since 1974's Symptoms.  Here, the focus is on a creepy looking young man Sebastián, played by Christian Borromeo who could easily be Cillian Murphy's older brother.  Perfectly cast, the actor has a naturally off-putting charm even as he spends large portions of the movie silently smirking or simply conveying a plethora of disturbed emotions.  These involve a past life and psychic abilities that can will someone who makes him angry to death and then makes him bleed from his mouth, hence the title of the film which is a reworking of the term "stigmata".  An interesting enough premise to be sure and Larraz keeps the atmosphere mysterious and visually interesting. with distorted shots and a few dream sequences played for unwholesomeness.  Speaking of which, there are incestuous elements to Borromeo's character that while never graphic, are still capable of making the more squeamish of viewers uncomfortable.  It does not graduate into memorable territory and has a half-baked ending, but it is also not without some effectively unnerving qualities.

 

BLACK CANDLES

(1982)

Overall: MEH

Notable for its exceptional sleaze factor, José Ramón Larraz's Black Candles, (Los ritos sexuales del diablo, The Sexual Rites of the Devil), is a ridiculous occult romp that embraces the type of sexy demonic boundary pushing inherent in many exploitation movies.  Though it was released in the early 80s, it is unholy soulmates with many other 1970s films that explored identical subject matter, with male and especially female nudity everywhere, alms to Satan being uttered, unwilling participants ushered into such devilish hedonism, etc.  Larraz was no stranger to such softcore pornographic aesthetics as he had made the notable British lesbian undead film Vampyres eight years later.  Back to his own native, Spanish turf at this point, Euro-genre fans will welcome the veteran, top-billed scream queen Helga Liné who is predominantly naked and sultry in prime, black magic form at the impressive age of fifty no less.  The story is interchangeable nonsense that is hardly if at all important and it only serves a purpose to offer up set pieces like a woman lustfully fornicating with a goat in a barn, a man getting his asshole penetrated by a sword, and sex scene after sex scene after sex scene.  For people who like boobs, soft focus photography, unshaven pubic hair, lots of Satan, and essentially no story whatsoever, Larraz has you covered here.

 

REST IN PIECES

(1987)

Overall: MEH

A ridiculous entry in José Ramón Larraz's often sleazy catalog, Rest in Pieces, (Descanse en piezas, Ruhe in Frieden), is more like a hilariously asinine Claudio Fragasso movie than something that came from the guy who made the low-key and atmospheric British films Vampyres and Symptoms a decade and some change earlier.  The script from Santiago Moncada hinges on the wacky premise of a rich old Auntie who, (inspired by the need to be immortal, as well as the need to reap vengeance on her sister that presumably stole her man years earlier), leaves her entire estate and wealth to said sister's only daughter, only to have that daughter then deal with a small community full of wackadoo zombie/former mental patients under her Aunt's financial protection.  Convoluted in all of the proper, hilariously nonsensical ways, few of the details are properly fleshed out which is of little importance anyway considering that it is all played for campy macabreness.  Dorthy Malone, Jack Taylor, and Patty Shepard will be familiar to most viewers who are interested in such Euro-silliness in the first place, but rightfully unknown Lorin Jean Vail "steals" the show in a outrageously inept and wooden performance that is bound to delight bad cinema enthusiasts everywhere.

EDGE OF THE AXE
(1988)
Overall: MEH

A Spanish and American co-production that was filmed in Mexico, Edge of the Axe, (Al Filo del Hacha), is a rare television slasher from director José Ramón Larraz.  Coming late in the game for the sub-genre's boom, it unfortunately bares its own problems devoid of the standard ones found in typical cut-and-paste slasher movies.  While not filled with moronic, obnoxious characters and obviously absent of any nudity due to it being a TV production, it is also incredibly sluggish and confused.  There are moments of "Wait, who the hell is this again?" characters showing up and doing things, plus the film lackadaisically crawls along with all of the stock kills happening in a typically uninspired fashion.  Because the pacing makes it so tough to relate to anybody on screen or even relate to the basic plot, you are left with dated, goofy music at regular intervals, another masked killer, another twist ending, some daft dialog, and a bunch of victims whose demises barely register with the viewer on any kind of emotional level.  Larraz still had one more horror movie in his system to nearly go out on, but this one is tame, redundant, and more silly than memorable.