Dir. Renato Polselli
For anyone who has seen Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio (2012), this exactly the kind of Italian
horror film he was channelling when he created the film-within-a-film, The
Equestrian Vortex, that is heard but not seen. Made like a profound art house
film but all about the gore, baring of female flesh, and various kinds of titillation.
It's also completely off-the-rails in terms of tone and plotting, probably one
of the oddest entries in seventies Italian genre cinema for me to see in a
while. I thought I was in the groove for this area of cinema by now, but then
this comes up and wobbles me off said groove. Even how I came about it and how
it came to be on my To-Watch list is a mystery. Like the occult and Satanist shenanigans
in the film, Black Magic Rites
itself just materialised into existence. Attempting a cohesive take on the plot
itself could be difficult. Not because it's very complicated and abstract, but
like quite a few of these European horror films, the very simplistic plots are
used more for mood and you can have the rules flipped by the creator wanting to
introduce a new plot twist into it even near the end. Call it Jess Franco Logic, where nothing is to
be expected from even well worn material, and if you're lucky the results are
rewarding intentionally and/or unintentionally. An engagement celebration takes
place in an ancient castle, only for the dark secrets to make a beeline for the
women, especially virgins, in the spare rooms. A witch was burnt centuries
before, and not only do Satanists want to resurrect her with female donors, but
reincarnation and vampires are involved too. Don't attempt to guess the point.
Right from the bat, with its swirling colour wheel opening credits, and a woman
being sacrificed on a ritual table, this is a complete masala of influences, of
various different ideas crammed together. What you gain out of it is up to you.
Its every obsession within
European horror, from the psychedelic to the erotic, and unlike a Jean Rollin film or other Italian made
films of the time with a measured pace, this is a tonal mess that's compelling
for this reason. It writhes with titillation and fake paint red blood, but acts
like a prog rock filled art house film, and unlike a Jean Rollin film, it's not a measured atmospheric pace being
presented to cohere it together. Its diffusion of time and reality, right to
the end, is a mass of chaotic moments that suddenly happen. People being in two
places at the same time. Random village folks attack two women suddenly for
being witches. Random comedy moments take place. Said comedy moments involve Steffy
(Stefania Fassio), who fully evokes
the bizarre nature of the film; a thin brunette who is over exaggerated in her
behaviour, always falling over, and completely impervious (and blissfully
ignorant) of the gothic horror events around her in favour of romping around in
a bed with a blonde female friend and her boyfriend with an excessive facial
tick. The film around is as oblivious to its content as these characters, a
series of non-sequiturs, as exaggerated and ridiculous as her. Almost every
actress onscreen is seen topless. No idea, such as a trap involving a crushing
door mechanism with knives on it, is rejected for not making sense for that
moment. It ends as one expect the story to, but how it gets there is a tangent
in on itself, flighty and very camp to the point of being ridiculous.
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| From http://admin.highdefdigest.com/picture/original/33010 |
It works as it belongs to that
rare breed of films that cannot be called "so-bad-they're-good"
because there is a silver of real virtue to them to put them above being incompetent.
Black Magic Rites has a few at
least. With its music, and its willingness to go completely dreamlike to the
bafflement of this viewer, it will stay on the mind for at least a while where
other better made films wouldn't. A highlight is when a character is buried
alive, but what's great about it is that I haven't spoilt the weirdly
compelling convolutions that set it up or how the scene plays out. It would
have been great if there was some control or focus to the material, but it has
virtues in its mess. As for its unintended effects, it redeems a slow start
quickly. A pointlessly long flashback moment nearly killed my interest in the
film, but its cheesy peculiarities eventually intermingle with its erratic tone
and gets interesting quickly. Is it a good film? To be honest no, but it's not
bad either. It has goodness in how it is so removed from dull, plodding horror
films made from the same period that sadly outbalance the good ones. There is
so much to gain from just watching a film so unruly, so unpredictable, that you
can't guess obvious plot points or how they have gotten there in the story. And
unlike films that are random for no point, chasing after this crazed film's
tone is rewarding because everything does have an effect. Randomness if done
badly, or trying too hard, becomes predictable and dull, why intentional
attempts at something like this fail miserably. This sort of film itself is
speaking a new language and someone like me gets a high from its atonal
mutterings that feel fresh as well as ridiculously silly.
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| From http://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/clp/105073-4749-clp-720.jpg |
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