Dorathen Better Late Then Never

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Mr_Ectoplasma Two sexually-repressed spinsters run an inn in a Spanish village. After accidentally killing a guest, her sister arrives, resulting in a cover-up. Maddened by the perceived indecency of the various travelers checking in, however, the domineering sister takes matters into her own hands, wielding judgment with a butcher knife.This compact Spanish-produced thriller is not quite what the title may lead one to believe—I had gone into the film under the impression that there was a supernatural element at play here, and there is not; this is a pure, unadulterated psycho-slasher by all accounts; it's also damned fun, too. Aurora Bautiste and Esperanza Roy play the two sisters who are riddled with repression and bursting with unexpressed sexuality. This, of course, becomes a catalyst that results in the more domineering sister, Marta, snapping, and going on a murder rampage against "impure" women who pass through, ranging from promiscuous Brits to American single mothers.There are some fantastic murder sequences, one of which involving a child is particularly disturbing. Judy Geeson plays the ostensible "final girl" role here, though a great deal of her screen time is spent touring museums and speculating about the guest disappearances while away from the inn. Some of these moments are stretched a bit thin, but they are not overly distracting. The finale is remarkably fun and there is a mean-spirited, revolting twist in the end that is quit literally stomach-turning. Overall, I found "A Candle for the Devil" to be a competent and well-made psychothriller, and perhaps even an early slasher template. It is elevated by particularly strong performances from the three leading women, as well as slick production values—it's both nicely shot and staged. Aside from a few lulls, there is a considerable amount of tension present, and the nastiness of the conclusion overshadows its notable abruptness. 8/10.

BA_Harrison In an inexplicably popular tourist spot (a remote, one-donkey Spanish village), two deranged sisters, Marta (Aurora Bautista) and Verónica (Esperanza Roy) run a busy boarding house where they are very particular about their female guests: those that they deem immoral wind up dead and dismembered, body parts thrown into a wine vat in the cellar. When Laura Barkley (Judy Geeson) turns up at the house looking for her sister May (Loreta Tovar), the murderous proprietors say that she has checked out of the establishment, when in reality she has fallen foul of the twisted innkeepers. After other female guests also 'leave' the boarding house without notice, Laura begins to suspect foul play and decides to investigate.Beware of the severely edited version of this film that comes as part of Mill Creek's Pure Terror box set: it is missing key scenes (most notably, the death of May), some bloody violence, and all the nudity that usually goes with the territory—all of which makes the truncated film a rather frustrating experience (I could tell as I was watching my copy that it was missing the good stuff). Thankfully, YouTube has once again come to the rescue and filled in the blanks for me, and I can now report that, if you can find it, the full film is definitely worth a go for fans of trashy Euro-horror, director Eugenio Martín delivering a satisfyingly sleazy time that sticks it to the strict censorship-happy political regime of early '70s Spain.Geeson doesn't take off her clothes, but her on-screen sister does, pushed down a flight of stone steps after sunbathing topless. Both of the killer sisters show some flesh, Veronica romping naked in bed with houseboy Luis (Charley Pineiro), and Marta's blouse falling open to reveal some blood-drenched boobage whenever she gets cray-cray. Martin even delivers some very exploitative full frontal male nudity from a group of young lads who get Marta all worked up by skinny dipping. The violence/gore includes a bloody stabbing, a young mother being killed in front of her infant son, a severed head in the vat of wine, and—get this—a woman's eye accidentally being served up to a paying guest in her lunch. But remember, you can only see ALL of this trashy stuff in the uncut version (or by paying YouTube a visit).6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb (this rating being for the full version of the film).

mark.waltz Two old spinsters, with love, get to terrorize the beautiful British heroine Judy Geeson in this Spanish horror movie where morality rules, and the punishment for doing anything less than moral, is to end up facing the wrath that they believe God has given them the permission to bring to Earth. Aurora Bautista and Esperanza Roy are sisters as different as night and day; Bautista is strong and ruthless, while Roy is much more feminine and certainly still desirable. But for some reason, they've concentrated on running their inn which has a very popular local restaurant, and when young single women come to stay there, they are very lucky if they make it out alive, as if they got two quiet stamps of moral approval. Geeson shows up to meet her sister (apparently much more wild than she is) and finds her to be missing. Suspicious, Geeson begins to investigate, and what she discovers is something so horrifying that it defies even her worst nightmares.Slow-moving at first, this takes off once it becomes clear that these two seemingly nice women have other things up their sleeves besides their arms. Certainly, there have been horror movies about two sisters before, and certainly, there have been horror movies about evil doings going on in hotels before. This one establishes tension, not only between the sisters and Geeson, but between the sisters themselves. It is also a warning that true insanity has an invisible face, and as the world crumbles around them, it really becomes a lot of fun to watch everything play out. The only real problem for me was the lack of a real climax and a satisfying resolution. Still, performances are all strong, the shocks are there, and overall, it never seems forced or ridiculous. It's also a strong message for moralists that there is a thin line between goodness and madness when one's standards become too much to expect from the general population at large.

MartinHafer Two nutty sisters run a pension near Madrid. Folks keep disappearing from the place and ultimately you learn that they are killing the 'morally unfit'--and sooner or later, that seems to include just about everybody! One women (Judy Geeson) arrives to meet her sister and demands to know what has become of her. And, in the course of staying there, she starts to notice that OTHER residents are disappearing.When I read lazarillo's review of this film, it was very, very helpful. Because of this review, I realize that I saw a heavily edited version--very heavily edited. It lacked the nudity and violence of the longer version--and much more. At only 68 minutes, the version I saw was ridiculously truncated. So be aware that my review is only for the short version.Another way that I appreciated lazarillo's review is their interpretation of the symbolism of the film. It was filmed in Spain two years before the death of Franco and the film seems to have slipped past the censors. This is because the criticism of the moralistic sisters could EASILY be seen as a criticism of the rigid government as well--and why it wasn't seen that way is a good question. So, when the ultra-moralistic sister takes her hatred of the promiscuous to an extreme (by killing her 'sinful' tenants), this insane behavior seems to be a criticism of the state of Spanish society at the time.So is the film worth while? Yes, but the solution to the puzzle seemed VERY obvious and there was no suspense for the viewer since the sisters are seen killing one of the residents early on in the film. I also wish I'd seen the full version--not for the nudity but just to see what the filmmakers' artistic vision was. In other words, how much of what they intended us to see just ended up on the cutting room floor? Recommended...but with reservations.