The Night of the Sorcerers (1973), originally La Noche de los
brujos, is a horror offering from Amando de Ossorio. The film declares its
intentions from the opening frame. A
white woman is captured in the jungle and tied standing up by the
arms and ankles, then her clothing is removed via a bullwhip. Once
she's naked, they place her on a sacrificial altar, and cut her head
off. It rolls into a shelf of sorts, and then pops up alive, but
with vampire fangs.
All that occurs before the opening credits.
No sooner has the woman lost her head, then her companions, great
white hunters, arrive and shoot all of the native priestesses. Eventually, we learn that this particular form of sacrifice
creates jaguar women, who are sort of vampire zombie priestesses.
Cut to the
present day, and a group of researchers comes to the same part of
the jungle to determine why there
are no elephants in the area. Naturally, they choose to camp near
the sacred ground where the zombies arise and sacrifice new victims.
The research group therefore consists of two men and three future vampire
zombie priestesses.
The opening scene certainly got all of my attention, and there
was more of the same throughout the film. This film has long been
available in many versions, most of them heavily cut. It is finally
being released in an uncut and uncensored
version. That makes it a long-lost cult item now found, which will
cause some rejoicing, but only among a tiny audience. The genre
is 70s Eurosleaze, and this certainly meets or exceeds all genre
expectations.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
