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Film: Blood Orgy of the She-Devils
Year: 1973
Director: Ted V. Mikels
Writer: Ted V. Mikels
Starring: Lila Zaborin, Victor Izay and Tom Pace
Review:
This film is one that I heard about thanks to the Horror Show Guide encyclopedia that I’m working through. This is one that I watched back almost a decade ago. I wasn’t the biggest fan and forgot about it. I’ve now given it a second watch as part of my Traverse through the Threes now that I’m a more seasoned cinephile.
Synopsis: Lorraine (Leslie McRay) and Mark (Tom Pace) enter the world of witchcraft where Mara (Lila Zaborin) foretells the future and helps them remember their past lives. When a series of mysterious murders occur, they turn to Dr. Helsford (Victor Izay) for advice.
We start with Mara leading a ritual. Helping her is Toruqe (William Bagdad) along with a bunch of young women who are dancing for the ritual. This is accompanied by a man playing bongo drums. There is also another man who is tied up. To end the ritual, he is sacrificed by the women with spears.
This then shifts to Mark and Lorraine. She is dropped off at a house and she is let in by Mara. Lorraine asks about Sharon (Kebrina Kincade) and then she is taken into a room to work on her abilities.
It is from here we learn how powerful Mara is. She meets Rodannus (Ray Myles) and Barth (Paul Wilmoth). The former wants Mara to prove to her that she has powers. She breaks his glass of wine with her mind, cutting his hand. Satisfied, he asks her to kill an ambassador for the U.N. He says he will be pay her 40,000 rubles, but then she informs him that for her to do this, she would need 10x that amount and in United States dollars. He does agree to these terms.
We then shift it back to Mark and Lorraine. She wants them to attend a séance led by Mara. We then see what happens there. Mara allows a Native American to take over her body who tells two women to change their plans, because they will die. Her body is then taken over when her aunt who tells another woman to let her father pass on peacefully and to stop fighting, because he will rejoin her mother on the other side. There is then a ghost seen by all in the room.
Mark is shaken but doesn’t fully believe it. He meets with a former college professor, Dr. Helsford. They tell him about what happened and Mark states that he still doesn’t believe that she is the real deal. He also reveals that he is going back for another ritual. Izay tells him to be careful, because magic is not good or bad, it all depends on the user.
We do see how truly powerful Mara is. She can kill the man that was hired to. Rodannus doesn’t want to pay up though. He sends his bodyguard to dispatch her. That is just the start though. There is another ritual that goes down. Mara needs to be stopped before it is too late, but it will be difficult to kill someone as power as her.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. I must admit something. Coming in I was expecting this to be full of nudity. That is not the case as it is rated PG. The most that I noticed was the outfits our women are wearing during their ritual. I’ll give this credit. The title is provocative to get people to check it out.
Where I’ll start to delve into this is that I like the concept. Even if we just look at this as a cult of ‘she-devils’ led by Mara, that’s fine. This is a coven of witches. Having this political assassination, another solid part. There isn’t a large budget and what they do is great. It would never get traced back to them. Trying to kill her to tie up that loose end wasn’t needed, but I know how people in government work. It is classic. How everything ends is fine as well. That also fits in with the talk between Mark, Dr. Helsford and Lorraine.
Now there is something that is a negative aspect to me. We have fillers here. This doesn’t run 80 minutes so they added elements of witchcraft in the past. There is one that involves witches and how they were found by witchfinders. This plays out with the witch being forced to confess or be executed as a ‘test’. There is another one where a woman is stoned to death. They are decent scenes. The first one is better than the later one. I’ve seen worse since this at least is in line with theme of the movie. It also makes sense with the professor telling this information at the least.
What truly hurts this though is that it is boring. The story is quite minimal. We have this coven and we see the different powers that Mara has. I understand the first séance. This is to entice Mark to join. He then takes part again in an age regression one, which is why we see the view in the past. That makes more sense there. The pacing just meanders here without a strong enough force guiding it in my opinion.
Something else that hurts this is the acting. No one is particularly good. I’m also guessing that the writing wasn’t strong to help either. Zaborin is good though as this main witch. She isn’t completely evil, but she does use her power for evil when needed. Bagdad is solid as her right-hand person. Pace and McRay are okay as our leads. It is interesting for the latter is that she is the model for the poster for Lizard in Woman’s Skin, but uncredited. Izay is fine as the professor. I did like all the women that are part of the cult. Their dance scenes were good. The rest of the acting is mediocre at best.
All that is left is filmmaking. I’ve already said that the pacing is off. The cinematography is something else that is fine. It doesn’t stand out and the print I saw was muddy. I’m guessing it was a VHS rip so I can’t hold it against the movie itself. This is low budget. The minimal effects were cheap. Looked to be early computer and practical ones. I have a soft spot for both here. The best part though is the soundtrack. There were multiple times with my notes that I commented on it and it gave an eerie vibe. That helped the atmosphere.
In conclusion, I’m not going to completely beat this movie up. They weren’t working with much. I don’t mind the idea of this coven of witches that are able to do rituals. The problem is that they didn’t know what to do with it so we got about a sixty-minute movie with filler. Those minutes drag as well. The acting feels amateur as does the filmmaking. The best part is the soundtrack. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Not one that I can recommend unless you like these types of films. I commend them for what they did so there’s that.
My Rating: 3.5 out of 10