The Night of the Sorcerers (1974)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Powerful

Must See Movie...

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

In Bumbasa, Africa, in 1910, a jungle tribe ritualistically murders a sexy young woman. In short order, they are all massacred by a bunch of dudes in pith helmets. Over 60 years later, a team of researchers come to the area to document endangered species. They soon discover that the voodoo legends of the area are not to be ignored."The Night of the Sorcerers" finds its writer / director, Amando de Ossorio, in good form, although it's not as thickly atmospheric and utterly gloomy as his "Blind Dead" series. It may strike some viewers as slow to start, but it really delivers the goods in its second half. Certainly it ticks off some of its exploitation requirements in able fashion: sex, nudity, gore. The ladies present - Kali Hansa, Maria Kosty, Loreta Tovar, and Barbara Rey - are all powerfully attractive. Simon Andreu is a hunky leading man, and the great Jack Taylor, a very familiar face to any lover of Spanish horror, is good as always. In general, the acting is acceptable.There's some good, fun stuff in this, although this reviewer will opt not to go into too much detail. Still, there are a couple of effective decapitations, and a fair amount of the red stuff flows before all is said and done. Although shot in Spain instead of Africa (with the expected use of stock footage), the locations make an okay substitute, and help give the film a pleasing look. It's gorgeously photographed by Francisco Sanchez and nicely scored by Fernando Garcia Morcillo.There's nothing truly great here, but it's still well worth ones' time.Seven out of 10.

OK, this is not a good film. But I think it is somewhat underrated, while the director Amando Ossorio's more famous "blind dead" series is somewhat overrated (especially the last two). Instead of undead Teutonic knights, in this film we have a tribe of living voodoo-practicing Africans. Of course, voodoo sacrifices have been practiced historically in places on the "dark continent", but this bunch are little more than cartoon stereotypes (all they need is a big pot to cook people in). I suppose it doesn't help that the tribe exclusively captures white women, whips all their clothes off, rapes them (at least in one case), and then decapitates them--which somehow causes them to become undead "panther women", prowling half-naked through the jungle in slow motion (and WITH their heads). But is this the only film of the 1970's to portray black Africans as "primitive", or to play on the illicit thrills of interracial sexuality? Hardly. All those who call this racist and/or sexist really need to see more European exploitation films of that era. This is actually pretty weak tea.It's also a very typical low-budget Spanish horror film--short on a logic, long on atmosphere, extremely confusing but with a generous helpings of nudity and violence (at least in export prints). It's certainly more incompetent than Ossorio's best films, but I'd put it on the level of a mediocre Paul Naschy flick, and it has the same scruffy charm as a lot of those. There's also a couple of recognizable actors among the European characters who come to a bad end at the hands of the African voodoo cultists and "panther women", including Jess Franco regular Jack Taylor, as the expedition leader, and the slinky and sexy cubana Kali Hansa as the "half-breed". It's out on DVD now and is worth a rental, if maybe not a purchase, for fans of Spanish horror.

"Night of the Sorcerers" is a fun and enjoyable exploitation classic.**SPOILERS**Moving through Africa, Liz Meredith, (Maria Kosti) Rod Carter, (Simon Andreu) Tunika, (Kali Hansa) Carol, (Loreta Tovar) and Prof. Jonathan Grant, (Jack Taylor) stumble upon an abandoned campground in the middle of the jungle. Settling in the area, they come across local trapper Tomunga, (Jose Thelman) who explains that they're in the middle of a special place where natives would hold voodoo rituals to transform women into undead vampiric leopard women. As the women soon fall under the spell of the Leopard Woman, (Barbara Rey) and become ingrained into their society, leaving the others to wonder what has happened to them. Discovering the real intentions of the group, they race to stop them before all of the expedition members are seduced by the cult.The Good News: This here is a really impressive and interesting exploitation offering. The most notable thing that sticks out is the sleaze and nudity found in most exploitation fares. Witnessing an opening prologue where a woman is tied to a wooden archway, whipped with a bull-rope to the point that all the clothes fall off, where the male natives proceed to wrap a tarp over the body and lead to a sacrificial altar where a voodoo frenzy results in a really bloody demise is one of the greatest openings ever, getting the story laid out in a nice manner while also setting the story up. The altar itself looks really great, especially the beheading stone at the top with the clawed pit below forcing the trail of blood to flow downwards into it, making for some really fun sequences when the ceremonies are to be had. Those are full-on exploitation goodness, with the whippings, open blood flowing and the nudity coming into play and making them sleazy goodness. Mixed in along with this is all the surrealism scenes of the vampire women taking over their prey in slow-motion dressed up in leopard-skin bikinis, which is an impressive sight that is still somewhat sexy to an extent. Some of the violent kills that pop up allow for some nice gore, since this one knocks off plenty, and the free-flowing blood splatter is nice to see. The other part here is the highly impressive plot-line that this one has, which offers up plenty of good points. The inclusion of the vampire tale into the voodoo ceremonies is a new twist, and one that isn't all that expected. It's also nicely incorporated into the film, making it tie in nicely with the rest of the story without being used solely as a reason to get bare skin in the film, and to mix it in with the other twists and turns regarding the direction that it's played out in is a great point, giving it some new directions. Coupled together with a great sense of fun, this one here is a really pleasant addition.The Bad News: This here really only has one big flaw to it. That is the slow point before the middle of the film. It starts off nicely with the prologue, but then there's the just incessant wandering around the camp and setting it up, which just take forever to get through. The rest of the movie is so good that the one rough patch sticks out, and it's simply them standing around fixing up the camp and standing around deciding on what to do. That consists of just about everything that the scenes take in, and the repetitiveness of them all just gets a little too much at times. It makes that section feel way too slow and dull, not really containing anything that would stand out and might be somewhat of a red flag for viewers. Some might not like the inherent nudity and sleaze presented, but the main gripe will be the slow beginning.The Final Verdict: A really pleasing and fun exploitation classic that features enough good points to come recommended. This is easily essential viewing for those into the 70s exploitation scene or the European horror scene going on at the time, while those who aren't into the more outlandish aspects are advised to seek caution.Rated UN/R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, S&M leanings and a Rape

Oh come on -- I think the majority of the folks posting to this comment thread are kind of missing the point: This movie is NOT "serious" cinematic art, but kitschy, kinky, perverted, immature & juvenile JUNGAL SLEAZE: A skinflick masquerading as a vampire film, in turn disguised as a torture show. A Playboy fantasy for white men circa 1974, with an emphasis on the sadistic.Plot summaries say as much as thesis statements sometimes so here we go. THE PLOT: A group of white European photographers "documenting the extintions of the rare species" happens upon the one clearing in Africa that a tribe of leopard worshipping natives used to hold their sacrifices [before being "completely exterminated" by a group of colonial soldiers], and decide it would make a great place to set up camp for a few days and be the focus of a horror movie. One by one, the two pretty blond girls are lured off by a leopard bikini'd vampire babe leopard witch [created from a missionary woman during the last blood rite] and sacrificed by the resurrected dead bodies of the local version of Templar Knights, who put on ceremonial masks and head dresses to make them look different than THE BLIND DEAD. At the end, the great white hunter contracted to protect the group throws his belt of rifle ammunition onto a ceremonial fire and the undead zombies & witches are all "completely exterminated" in a hail of random lead.The End.This is the story around which director Amando de Ossorio -- great on visuals but never too strong with plotting -- hung two of the most barbarically effective set pieces in erotic 1970's Eurohorror: The initial sacrifice of the pretty missionary, and the subsequent sacrifice of one of the blond girls [the other one takes place off-camera]. The catch is, you HAVE to find the uncut version of the film to really appreciate just how off the wall these two sequences are, and if this kind of stuff makes a movie for you NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS is close to a masterpiece: Both women are dragged screaming & kicking into the ceremonial clearing, lashed to trees and then have their clothing bullwhipped from their bodies as they scream in fear or pain, or a sort of near sexual ecstasy sounding groan that could be the result of the dubbing to English. The first woman is then ceremonially raped [the second merely vampirized], both are wrapped in a leopard skin, stretched out onto a goofy looking ceremonial alter and decapitated by means of a huge, phallic machete. Their heads bounce into a sort of collection resevior where the blood all pools up, turn to look at the camera and scream with feral vampire fangs bared.Actually, the heads kind of bounce up all on their own and THEN scream -- just how I have no idea, but the point is made that the sequence defies an adequate verbal description. It is sadomasichism depicted in a manner of which is totally unprecedented in western cinema: the whippings themselves are all too convincingly staged, as the women's clothing is whipped strip by strip from their bleeding flesh. While that may not sound arousing to most people to lovers of torture films like MARK OF THE DEVIL and it's ilk will be absolutely stuck to the ceiling at the end of both rituals. The ceremonial rape of the missionary woman doesn't do much for me, but she is a babe [Maria Kosti, I believe] and seeing her strung up like that does something ...And what it does is fulfill THE NEED FOR SLEAZE -- I would love to find out how or why Ossorio set about making this film [contractural obligation?] because it is SO riduclous that if you see the "uncut" prints the others are almost pointless by comparison, unless you are a collector of expensively priced video tapes.Euroman Simon Andreu [the sleazy husband from THE BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE] has an extended lovemaking scene with a mulatto woman with amazing thighs, and cult favorite Jack Taylor gets to wear a safari hat & vest and turn into a zombie before being lit on fire, but other than that nothing else really happens in the movie. The visuals in the set pieces -- especially the images of the "rock men" coming back to life with their graves spewing dry ice fog and a funky Hammond organ musical theme churning -- speak to me of perhaps a seperate production that ran out of money, or perhaps they just ended up having to shoot the outdoors stuff on the cheap. But the fact remains that the "fantasy" jungle sections filmed on soundstages carry an other-worldly feel to them that the "outdoor" footage [probably shot in Ossorio's native Portugal] never meshes: They feel like different movies.Which leads me to the skinflick conclusion of what this movie is really about -- Like Joseph Larraz' BLACK CANDLES, NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS has no deeper meaning or considerations to it's artistic integrity beyond what is depicted onscreen. Sex, blood, and boobs, broken up by conversations, arguments, ridiculous history lessons and a lesbian sponge bath [well two women are present, even though they do not interact]. Look deeper than that and you will find a very racist, sexist, cheavnanistically Eurocentric attitude that is mocking of African culture [at one point the local trapper admonishes a group of goggle eyed natives to "go back to your people"], was shot on unconvincing indoor sets that make Hammer's PREHISTORIC WOMEN look authentic OR utilizes day for night photography that was very poorly conceived: Both of these characteristics speak for a motivation for the film that has little to do with the rich vocabulary of Ossorio's BLIND DEAD films. It looks like it was done on the cheap to satisfy the nead for quick thrills -- because the film was made by a master of the visual it amounts to more than the sum of it's parts. The two sacrifice scenes have given the film an aura of mystery and forbidden fruit, if you will, that is bigger than anything that takes place onscreen at other times.Cut them out and the movie is BORING -- trust me, I have about five different forms of it on VHS.The ones to score are a Dutch subtitled print popularized by cult favorites Sunrise Tapes of Holland [now out of print and fetching upwards of $75 easily from collectors who know what it is], which has the distinction of being the ONLY commercial release of the movie in an uncut form available at retail [even if it was just in Holland], and a MUCH better looking print with Japanese subtitles that is readily available from a well-known underground outlet easily found with any search engine & a few clicks of the mouse button. Hint: If you find a tape that does NOT have subtitles and is in English, it is cut. If you find one in Spanish, call me. If it is in English and no subtitles, though, it is chopped of almost 12 minutes of footage in some forms [I think SWV's is 68 minutes long, though their color is GORGEOUS] and you are NOT seeing the version the ravers like myself are raving about.But when you do find it you will know, because six minutes into the film your jaw will be hanging open in awe of the utterly base, unredeemable sleaze you have just witnessed. The film sadly never manages to top those first six minutes, though it comes mighty close, and I give Ossorio an A for effort. Or, more precisely, for knowing that he was making 80 minutes of utter garbage that would be out of the theatres in two months and forgotten by the end of the year. Because he was making it, though, it has become the stuff of legends, and when you find it your quest will be greatly rewarded for a change.Happy Hunting?