Director: Luigi Batzella (as Paolo Solvay)
Year: 1974
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Nuda per Satana
Genre: Supernatural; Erotic Horror
Plot:
After getting into an accident, a man tries to seek help for the injured passenger in the other car at a local castle, but when they arrive, the series of sexual deviancy and depravity makes him question the morality of his host, while she slowly succumbs to their desires.
Review:
This was a wholly effective and likable sleazy Gothic horror effort. Among the better elements present here is the delightfully sleazy setup that provides the film with a worthwhile Gothic horror setup without even touching the erotic content throughout. The presentation comes about nicely enough, giving us a reason for their arrival at the castle, following up on the accident, and how the search for help to treat the injuries makes for a solid starting point with the discovery of the castle as the potential means of salvation. This allows for the film to delve into an immensely likable setup about the nature of human evil and devilish perversion, where the occupants of the castle are shown to be their exact doppelgangers and lead them through separate adventures inside the castle. There's a lot to like here about this type of philosophical nonsense that gets brought up involving the nature of human limits, with what it will take for people to descend into their baser instincts, which allows them to, in turn, sell themselves into the Devil's domain as each individual version of the characters takes turns turning the humans onto these factors.
By the time it gets beyond that, the influx of Gothic atmosphere and style here makes the whole thing all the more impactful. The initial signs of the castle as they explore it provide the kind of fantastic requirements of the genre, with the seemingly empty location focused on featuring the kind of layout here involving the various rooms filled with various couples engaging in extreme sexual antics in this kind of location. This whole multi-tiered structure provides this one with the kind of impressive format where it dwells in the secret passageways, overtly dusty furniture, torture devices in the open, and dank basements that serve as the perfect breeding ground for all manner of overtly sexual material. Even the other scenes outside the castle, involving the group wandering around the castle grounds filled with ruins and other leftovers featured in the area, help to explain a lot of the expressive philosophical matters elsewhere in the storyline, but everything combines together into a solid enough showcase of Gothic mindsets.
With the Gothic sensibilities established, the series of explicit, graphic sexual content carries on throughout the film. The first hint of this comes from the discovery of the couple enthusiastically screwing behind closed doors, which gives close-quarter viewpoints to the sexual acts being performed. Other sequences include feverish licking and sucking on private parts while the participant is strapped down to an altar or inserting objects into private areas, full-on lesbian orgies, or more traditional forms of fondling going on in the castle bring about further forms of sexual content here, and with everything on display in here focused around orgies, screwing, or kinky variations the general air here is degeneracy and depravity. Whether that’s for everyone is up to an individual’s preference, with these factors over whether that provides some kind of enjoyment or not, due to the lack of genuine genre content. Most of these scenes are done in the place of other types of genre content, where it revolves around the different aspects of the Satanic coven interacting with the couple or seeing the girl menaced by a giant spider, being the main points featured here as a result of the other factors.
Overview: ****/5
A truly dirty and depraved Italian Gothic horror, there’s a lot to like here that comes together for a great example of this style that won’t be for everyone out there. Those with an appreciation for the subject matter, who enjoy sleazy European genre fare, or are curious about it, will have a lot to like, while those turned off by the style or approach will want to heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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