To the tune of Santana’s Black Magic Woman:
Got black magic rites
Got black magic rites
Gonna pour salt in my eyes
‘Cause it’s less painful than to watch.
Redemption Films’ latest release continues its perplexing campaign to preserve and rerelease some of the trashiest, sleaziest, misogynistic European horror movies from the Sixties and Seventies.
Black Magic Rites has all the hallmarks of a Redemption movie: beautiful women, lesbianism, plenty of nude scenes, plenty of scenes where women are tortured, a confusing plot, and godawful directing. The movie stars the gorgeous Rita Calderoni, and once again we’re treated to seeing her beautiful body subjected to all manner of torture and degradation including a very long scene where a group of townspeople drive a stake between her breasts then burn her alive.
However, Rita isn’t the only woman attacked in this movie. In order to resurrect a dead witch, a group of four Satanists need the hearts and eyes of seven virgins. They enlist the aid of a vampire woman who seduces these women and leads them into the recesses of an old castle where the Satanists perform their ritual. Oh, and there’s something about Dracula, too. Anyway, these scenes are very disturbing, mixing the obvious sexual pleasure of seeing beautiful women naked with violent acts of torture, making this an awkward, almost shameful movie to watch.
There’s really not much to say about this feature that I haven’t already written about in previous reviews of Redemption movies. While I do enjoy exploitation movies, these titles take the genre too far. The sheer hatred for women displayed is astounding, and honestly there’s no real reason to resurrect these movies. If you’ve enjoyed other Redemption movies, then you’ll probably like this. Otherwise, well, you know the drill.
You can definitely tell that this movie was made in the seventies, but Redemption has done a decent job of transferring this feature. The video is presented in Widescreen Anamorphic 16:9, and the audio in Dolby Digital Stereo. The only potential downside is that the only language track is Italian, but there are English subtitles. I had no problem with this, but there are some people who dislike subtitled movies.
Trailer (running time: 3:19)
Stills Gallery
Maybe it’s a bit immature of me, but I’ll admit that I like cheesy movies featuring female nudity. I know that that is the main attraction of these movies, but I find no joy in watching women being tortured and debased. I don’t understand why so many of these filmmakers hate women so much, but they obviously do. Fans of this type of movie will probably enjoy this, but quite frankly, I’d be happy if this is the last Redemption film I ever review.
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Redemption Films presents Black Magic Rites. Directed by Renato Polselli. Starring Christa Barrymore, Mickey Hargitay, Rita Calderoni, and Moschera Consolata. Written by Renato Polseli. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated NR. Released on DVD: September 30, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.
