Director: Jean Rollin
Year: 1974
Country: France/Belgium
Alternate Titles: Les démoniaques; Les Demoniaques (Revenge of the Virgins); Curse of the Living Dead
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After being raped and left for dead, a pair of women suddenly start to invade the lives of the pirate gang that originally killed them after finding themselves imbued with supernatural powers and set out to take revenge on the gang for what happened to them using those powers.
Review:
This one wasn't all that bad of an art-house-style horror film. As is to be expected given the film's style, a lot of the film's positives reside in the showcasing of its frequent and oftentimes excessive nudity. From the very beginning, featuring the beach rape of the girls as they're tormented by the gang features plenty of such titillating fare as the girls are captured, stripped, raped, and disposed of, while the fact that a vast majority of the revenge scenes are handled with the idea of the girls seducing the group one-by-one and then killing them off gives this one a lot of such material throughout the film.
Moreover, there are all the inserts of nameless prostitutes and village girls getting fondled and played with, alongside the finale of the female leader pleasuring herself to the girls being raped once again in incredibly wild, vivid fashion, which brings that up a lot as well, and the general atmosphere found here really gives this one a pretty sleazy feel. As well, the fact that there's plenty of rather interesting choices throughout here because of this showcase gives this a kind of artistic sensibility that comes across far more dynamic than expected. Since the opening shots of the groups' rape and attack of the girls are done almost entirely devoid of dialogue makes for a rather startling and striking opening lasting nearly fifteen minutes before anyone really speaks a word, and the entirety of scenes that go by filled with silence or a more artistic representation really makes this one feel like a much more ambitious film than just straightforward exploitation, like the way it's presented here.
Even the action scenes, from the all-girls brawl on the ship to the escape from the underground jail, are handled more like an art-house film than a traditional horror film and really manage to showcase extraordinary skills here. While all of these manage to make for an enjoyable time throughout, the film does offer up a huge nagging issue that derails it somewhat in that it never really goes for the horror at times. Not just due to the film's art-house look and feel, but the film's reliance on poetic atmosphere and the group going insane from their belief in what's going on makes this rather shock-less for nearly all of its run-time, despite the general plot line supporting such a potential outcome. The softcore groping and sex scenes don't help matters, but because the revenge finally comes in the last third of the film, it rarely feels like much of a genre effort and really stands out as the major drawback to this one.
Overview: ****/5
Stylish and poetic but not really much of a horror film, that tends to give this the main drawback here, which isn't much of a genuine drawback, as the rest of this one is immensely fun otherwise. Those who appreciate this era of genre entries, enjoy this style of Eurohorror fare, or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others might want to proceed with caution.
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