Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Leofwine_draca Grand Guignol entertainment, Mexican-style. I guess every country had to cash in on the "possessed nuns" sub-genre of the '70s and Mexico was no exception. Following on from the Gothic horror wave of the late '50s and early '60s, this slice of south-of-the-border madness is a period-set horror tale, a unique and very visual experience thanks to the participation of the unusually-named director Juan Lopez Moctezuma. The movie does benefit from a pace which, after the slow set up of the first half hour, doesn't let up one bit, and colourful and distinctive cinematography which brings out the best of the atmospheric crumbling church sets and creepy crypts in which much of the movie takes place. Add in huge chunks of sex and violence and you have a movie tailor-made for the exploitation fan.As per usual with Mexican (and Spanish) movies, the acting is not the film's strong point. The one exception is Claudio Brook, who plays the dual role of an evil, hunchbacked gypsy who may or may not be the devil in disguise, and also the heroic fatherly doctor who leads the second half of the film. Elsewhere, we have Susana Kamini being pretty creepy as the innocent-turned-demonic Justine, unsuspectingly lured into Satanic ways, and Tina Romero going too far and becoming laughable as the hair-tearingly mad Alucarda, the devil's daughter who gets up to all kinds of mischief. The rest of the female cast is just there for the visual appeal, appearing naked in an orgy sequence or burning at the film's climax.For the undiscerning horror fan, ALUCARDA, SISTERS OF Satan offers up the following treats: a mouldering corpse in a coffin; the creepy hunchbacked gypsy; a church full of statues of the crucified Jesus; naked Satanic shenanigans; devil possession; an orgy; a nun weeping tears of blood; mass whippings; a failed exorcism; a gaggle of writhing nuns; torture; a possessed soul transforming into a rotted skeleton; burning nuns and monks; and a catastrophic conclusion in which the whole convent crumbles to dust and burns at the same time.Graphically speaking, there are two explicit gore sequences to shock even the most jaded viewer. The first comes when a burnt corpse comes back to life and has to be gruesomely beheaded by a sword-wielding nun - sticky, bloody, disgusting stuff. The second is the unforgettable sight of a blood-drenched naked girl rising from a blood-filled coffin and taking a huge bite out of a sister's neck (resulting in Fulci-esque gouts of spurting crimson gore), before being splattered with holy water which results in her dissolution. I've never seen anything like it! The bright-red blood and special effects of this film are pretty good too, adding to the overall effective of a cheap, tacky and exploitation-orientated B-movie which offers everything the horror fan could want.

chaos-rampant You can have so much fun with this! In this crazy exploitation movie, young nuns Alucarda (anagram for Dracula) and Justine strike a blood pact, summon demonic forces of some sort and wreak havoc in a small religious community in Mexico. That's it in a nutshell.It isn't simply a bad film, though it is in conventional terms. It's so utterly nonsensical, so bizarre and hysteric it becomes much more than it is. And isn't the whole point with movies that we construct what they mean to us?It falls somewhere between Jess Franco's lesbian vampire films, and unconsciously Arrabal's Panic Theater and the Pythons. The beauty of it is that you can read it any way you feel like, there is no logic which is something I seek in films. Or rather, the logic is so inane compared to the anarchic joy, it breaks. My preferred reading is that the whole cacophonous mess is something between Justine's fears of motherhood strangling her sexuality (viewed through a Catholic prism), a confessional of scandalous teenage thoughts, and mischief caused by two young nuns in the back benches during Sunday school, perhaps imaginary, perhaps blown up into 'possession' by the shrill teacher.It is all entirely theatric, but unselfconscious which is why its chaos works. Everyone is acting crazy, nuns drop down out of the blue. A book (ostensibly on demonology) simply reads 'Satan'. It's all of it disconnected, we visit one place then another. There is a satanic ritual and orgy for no good reason.There is so much screaming, there is screaming inside the screaming.It's awesome.

rapasvi I think Alucarda is much more than just a B movie. It exposes a very different kind of love for the time, the Lesbian love. I believe Alucarda is a sweet girl. I really like her. The English way they talk is also a differential about the movie. It is Mexican and they speak English and it made the movie became something funny, actually. Well one of my favorites. But one thing I did not like is that the doctor somehow became a Christian, when he says that he studies science and could not explain what he saw at the moment. I guess it disappointed me a little. But, it's a great movie to watch when you need to know that, well, there is always worst things than your life.

unbrokenmetal The opening scene suggests that Alucarda may be the devil's daughter. She is raised by nuns, but later daddy's DNA shows its effect, and she starts to do bad things. Very bad things. Setting nuns and monks on fire - or even kissing her girlfriend Justine. When Justine is (unintentionally) killed during an exorcism ritual, Alucarda explodes with rage and wants revenge on the priest.Everything you might expect is in here: fire, blood, whips, screams, blasphemies, and an orgy supervised by a guy with horns (well, a cheap rubber mask). However, this Mexican flick does not actually transgress the borders of Catholicism. There is a doctor, modern and progressive, who doesn't believe in the exorcist, but he has to give in and confess to the clergyman that there is something supernatural he can't explain as a scientist. A slice of the usual rubbish, unfortunately.Composer Anthony Guefen delivers a weird soundtrack, almost entirely consisting of organ sounds, rising and fading, rather "spaced out". If I can trust the biog here, his first work for a movie. More recently, he released happy danceable world music tunes, quite a long way to go. Director Moctezuma was one of the producers for Alejandro Jodorowsky's "El Topo" a couple of years earlier which explains why "Alucarda" is quite bizarre. Tina Romero, starring as Alucarda, looks good in black and practices her maniacal stare until perfection. The role doesn't really offer a variety of expressions, to be fair. My verdict: got a real low budget gem here!