A balding middle-aged dude bangs a woman way out of his league before dying with Shrek’s wife’s name on his lips. So begins José Ramón Larraz (Vampyres… and credited here as Joseph Braunstein) 1982 erotic occult shocker Black Candles, or as it’s also known; Los ritos sexuales del diablo… but the blu-ray refers to it as Hot Fantasies, so who the fuck knows…
Anyhow, Carol (Vanessa Hidalgo) arrives in London to stay with the aforementioned Fiona (Helga Liné) upon the death of her brother (ol’ mid-life crisis referenced up yonder), and upon arrival sees evidence of all manner of occult-biz and groovy art, which wasn’t like her bro at all… except apparently it was!
See this dread dwelling is packed to the terror tits with a Satanic cult lead by local (un)holy man Reverend Hübner (Manuel Gómez-Álvarez) and before long, our heroine begins fucking and having fucking nightmares (but mostly nightmares about fucking) and believe you me shit is going to get much worse… like “people fucking goats” worse.
Speaking of that particular (simulated… and featuring the world’s most bored goat to boot) sequence, it’s doubtless the only thing you’ve heard folks talk about regarding this film, but let me tell ya, there are enough tacky, tawdry delights in this thing for a dozen sexy Satanic shockers!
For one thing, everyone in this flick gets naked, and the sexual fuckings flow easier than rain on a mother fucking Sunday morning (though this is strictly a softcore affair, all livestock aside)! Along with that you get a guy’s asshole utilized as a new sheath for a man’s sword, incest fantasies (I hesitate to call that “hot”, so that title continues to baffle), countless lesbian trysts, goat sperm body lotion… it’s all rather stunning in it’s shear amount, and definitely delivers on anything you could ask for from a supernatural grindhouse romp such as this!
As sleazy as the subject matter may be, the film looks beautiful with artsy shots galore that make the main cast look great as they get down to the devil’s business… and to that end Severin have delivered a great presentation here with a new 2K scan from the original camera negative that keeps the colors rich and (copious amounts of) skin tones warm and natural.
Speaking of Severin, they’ve packed this Blu-ray with some choice extras including: a new audio commentary courtesy of Naschycast‘s Rodney Barnett and Troy Guinn where they examine Larraz’s career in depth, as well as the film’s reputation and reception… and how much the director despised the film (but that’s just like his opinion, man), filmmaker Diego López’s examination of the career of Helga Liné (with an interview with the same), author Gavin Baddeley’s in-depth look at the terror tropes inherent in Satanic cinema (with a focus on Spanish flicks such as the main event), and author Antonio Lázaro-Reboll taking a look at Larraz’s entire Spanish horror oeuvre.
Black Candles is lurid, sleazy, trash and that is precisely what makes it so damn appealing for lovers of the more extreme offerings the grindhouse splashed across their tarnished silver screens… if you’re feeling frisky you should definitely fix your putrid peepers on this one cats n’ creeps!
