Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1977
Alucarda
Buy Alucarda now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = Alucarda
| image = Alucardaposter.jpg
| image_size =
| native_name =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = Juan Lpez Moctezuma
| writer =
| based_on =
| starring =
| distributor =
| released =
| runtime = 77 minutes
| country = Mexico
| language = English
| budget =
| gross =
}}
'Alucarda' ('Spanish': 'Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas', or 'Alucarda, the daughter of darkness') is a 1977 English-language Mexican supernatural horror film directed by Juan Lpez Moctezuma, and starring Tina Romero, Claudio Brook, Susana Kamini, and David Silva. A loose adaptation of 'Carmilla' (1872), it revolves around two teenage orphan girls living in a Catholic convent, who unleash a demonic force and become possessed.
Though a Mexican production, the film was shot in English. Internationally, it was released under several alternate titles, including 'Innocents from Hell' and 'Sisters of Satan'. The film has been noted by film scholars for its themes regarding national tradition versus modernity, as well as the tensions between science and religion, and the failures of both. Because of its depiction of nuns in emotionally-heightened, supernatural situations, the film has been associated with the nunsploitation genre.
Plot
In 1850, Lucy Westenra gives birth to a daughter, Alucarda, in a derelict colonial palace in the woods. Immediately after the child is born, Lucy begs a hunchbacked gypsy to bring Alucarda to a nearby stone-walled convent inhabited by an order of Catholic nuns, as she fears the devil will claim her daughter. As the gypsy flees with the infant, a demonic voice emanates throughout the palace as Lucy dies of complications from childbirth.
Fifteen years later, a teenaged Alucarda still resides at the convent. Alucarda swiftly takes an interest in Justine, a new orphan her age who has arrived, and is eager to become her friend. Alucarda quickly refers to Justine as her sister. While playing in a forest, Alucarda and Justine witness a band of gypsies holding a funeral procession. One of the menthe hunchback who helped deliver Alucardaoffers to sell Alucarda an amulet. Shortly after, the girls stumble upon the abandoned palace, and wander into a crypt. There, Alucarda professes her love for Justine, and the two make a pact that they shall die together. In the crypt, they unwittingly open the grave of Alucarda's mother, and are immediately overcome by a powerful supernatural force that reduces Alucarda to tears.
Later, during mass, Justine inexplicably faints. While Alucarda tends to Justine in her room, she goes into a fit and begins wildly reciting the names of demons. The hunchback gypsy appears in the room as Alucarda invokes Satan, and the girls, nude, perform a blood ritual. Meanwhile, while praying, Sister Anglica has a vision of Alucarda and Justine performing a Satanic ritual with the gypsies in the woods and engaging in a mass orgy. During the ritual, one of the priestesses is stricken down by Sister Anglica's invocation of God, and is killed.
The next day during school, Alucarda and Justine begin chanting and professing their dedication to Satan, much to the horror of the nuns and their peers. The nuns make several unsuccessful attempts to have the girls repent, one of which ends with Alucarda attempting to seduce Father Lzaro during confession. Lzaro and the nuns, horrified by this, engage in a mass flogging of each other as punishment for their failure to save the girls from demonic influence. After, Lzaro concludes they must perform an exorcism of Justine, who has grown progressively ill. During the exorcism, they bind Justine to a cross and poke at her flesh with instruments, eventually causing her to bleed to death. Dr. Oszek, arriving to examine Justine, walks in on the exorcism and is horrified by what he sees. Deeming the practice archaic and sadistic, Oszek takes Alucarda with him, fearing for her life.
Alucarda awakens in Dr. Oszek's home, frightened and confused, and is comforted by his blind daughter, Daniela. Meanwhile, Oszek is summoned back to the convent, where the nuns have found that Justine's corpse has disappeared. Upstairs, Sister Germana is found inexplicably burned alive. When her body reanimates, Father Lzaro bludgeons and ultimately decapitates her. The event challenges Oszek's science-based beliefs, and he flees back home, fearing for Daniela's safety; upon arriving, he finds Alucarda and Daniela are both gone.
Oszek is led to the abandoned crypt by the nuns, who suspect Alucarda might have gone there. Inside, Sister Anglica finds Justine's body lying in a blood-filled coffin. Now a vampire, Justine attacks Sister Anglica, but Anglica manages to stop the attack by praying. Oszek interjects and pours holy water on Justine, driving her into a fit, and she bites Anglica's neck before disintegrating. Followed by Oszek, several monks carry Anglica's body back to the convent, where Alucarda has arrived with Daniela. Using supernatural powers, Alucarda begins destroying the convent and causing various clergy to spontaneously combust in the grotto. Upon witnessing Anglica's corpse, Alucarda is suddenly overcome with sorrow, and goes into a fit of rage at the base of a burning crucifix in the chapel. After she collapses, Alucarda's body disappears into the ground as Father Lzaro and Oszek look on.
Cast
Themes
Some scholars, such as Frances Di Lauro, have noted that 'Alucarda' is undergirded by anti-government and anticlerical sentiments that are manifested in the exaggerated idolatry, representations of clerics as tyrants and persecutors, and overt iconoclasm. Tensions between modernity and tradition are also prominent themes. Film scholar Doyle Green characterizes the film as an "apocalyptic collision of modernity and tradition in a perpetual Dark Age." Scholars Ral Rodrguez-Hernndez and Claudia Schaefer contextualize this clash (and the film's representation of it) within Mexico's national history, exemplifying "literary and cinematic representations of persistent clashes between tradition and modernity, myth and reason. The added dimension of visibly transgressive actions taken by two young women against teachings, structure, and moral guiding principles of the church speaks directly to a post-1968 generation that celebrates the body but has lost faith in the society's master narratives." Aesthetically, Rodrguez-Hernndez and Schaefer note visual references to Francisco Goya's 'Los caprichos', specifically during the sequence in which Alucarda and Justine engage in the blood ritual with the hunchbacked gypsy.
Green also interprets 'Alucarda' as being preoccupied with themes of mental illness and the handling of it within the Catholic Church. Green states that, in the film, "the convent becomes a psychiatric domain without psychiatry," a theme also explored significantly in Ken Russell's 'The Devils' (1971). Because of these shared depictions of Catholic clergyspecifically nunsin the context of hysteria, Green notes that both films became associated with the nunsploitation genre. The tension between science and religious dogma has been noted as another theme, specifically in the final act, during which the logically-minded Dr. Oszeka man of scienceis faced with supernatural occurrences he cannot rationalize.
'Alucarda' is also associated with the vampire movie genre, although it is not a traditional vampire movie. Many critics have noted its similarities to Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's early vampire novella 'Carmilla', especially the romantic relationship between the main female characters. According to director Lpez Moctezuma, "the film draws on the vampire tradition, and in a way the protagonist is a female vampire but not in the sense of a blood drinker." The title of the film and the name of its eponymous character is derived from 'Dracula' spelled backwards, a derivation also used in the form of "Alucard" in other vampire-related media.
Release
'Alucarda' opened at the Paris International Festival of Fantastic Film in March 1977. The film was released under the title 'Sisters of Satan' in the United States in 1978, and subsequently released on video under various titles including 'Sisters of Satan', 'Innocents from Hell', and 'Mark of the Devil 3'.
Critical response
Columnist Michael Weldon of the 'Psychotronic Video Guide' wrote that the film was "The strongest, most imaginative, and visual witch movie since Ken Russell's 'The Devils'."David Wilt of the University of Maryland's 'Mexican Film Resource Page' notes that the film is "visually, a rather stylish and interesting picture," comparing it to the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has also expressed his appreciation for the film and other works from director Juan Lpez Moctezuma.
Home media
Mondo Macabro released a special edition DVD edition of 'Alucarda' in 2002.See also
* 'Satnico pandemonium' a 1975 Mexican horror film with thematic similarities
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
Buy Alucarda now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1977