A Candle for the Devil (1974)

Simply Perfect

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Working at a hotel together, a pair of sisters find themselves believing that they've been divinely-bound to dispatch of the undesirable sinners who stay there and begin killing them off while the police investigate the missing people.This was quite a fun Spanish horror effort. One of the better aspects of this one is the fact that it really manages to get plenty of mileage out of its central premise ensuring that the sisters are just that off-center in their beliefs. This one accurately paints them as being so old-fashioned in their religious teachings that they've become brainwashed into the school of being the morally- sound viewpoint against the modern world and committing far more dangerous transgressions than what they're victims are accused of which makes this fall right in line with the vast majority of such films from that time period as their actions take this into a fun route. Their relentless pursuit against those that defy their viewpoint of righteousness allows for plenty of manic raving about their convictions which are put to use in several rather fun confrontations made all the better for being based on this backwards thinking, from the first encounter in the stairwell to the dealings with the town prostitute and finally the fine brawl that erupts from the battle in the basement with the single mother. The way these develop from their psychosis makes for quite a fun time overall here, and with the film picking up considerably in the action stakes for the final half with the race to bring them to justice leading to plenty of chasing around the property which gives this the kind of high-energy and enjoyable finale. Added together with some nice sleaze and a solid, engaging storyline, there's plenty to like here while there's a couple flaws holding it down. Among the films' few flaws is the fact that, despite it being quite a strong offering of their mental problems, there's just not a whole lot of action in this one. It's quite a while here before anything actually happens as the vast majority of the first half consists of the two debating about their ethical quandary killing off people and what they're doing, which makes this one really drag out and feel really endless as they're attempting to get their stories straight while also managing to feature them engaging in the same type of behavior with her boyfriend so it's not only bland but also hypocritical. That makes it hard to get into this one for quite a while due to this, and when the film spends the majority of the time not featuring many of these action scenes overall it really stands out with a dragged- out pace. The only other flaw here is the other storyline involving the missing woman's sister journeying around the town trying to find out what's happening to their utter cluelessness, which is quite strange with their desire to keep their crimes hidden and her noticeably poking around in their business being left to deal with until the very end which is quite a troubling effort. That really makes it hold itself back for the most part.Rated R: Violence, Full Nudity and Language.

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).

Two middle-aged and extremely conservative sisters Martha and Veronique run an inn in a tiny Spanish village.Both women are mentally unbalanced as they murder sexually active feminist-type young women who are their guests.When Laura Barkley arrives at the inn to meet her sister Loreta she is told by the two women that she checked out.It's time for Laura's private investigation...Very interesting and vastly entertaining psycho slasher set in rural Spain(El Paular near Madrid).It's also unsettling and anti-religious with some pretty vicious knife and axe killings.Aurora Bautista and Esperanza Roy who play Marta and Veronica are perfect as is adorable Judy Geeson.There is plenty of nudity but the kill scenes are not very graphic.8 psycho sisters out of 10.Recommended.

... or Tony Kendall for that matter. Here, you get a female heavy film with a female protagonist, female antagonists and female victims. There is one major male role in the film but his character isn't very high on the depth chart. This film is pure estrogen horror! Lithe-bodied Judy Geeson travels to Spain to meet her sister at the inn she is staying. However, once Judy arrives, the two spinsters that operate the inn (Bautista and Roy) inform her that her sister has since moved on. Of course, as the viewer knows from the opening scene, Judy's sister hasn't moved on to another lodging but to the afterlife. And the sisters were her escorts. The sisters kill any woman they deem of loose moral fiber since Bautista's betrothed left her for a woman, who as the Coen Brothers would say, "knew how to ply her feminine wiles." In order to get revenge, Marta (Bautista) kills very sweet young thing that comes into her inn wearing Daisy Dukes with the help of her meek sister Veronica.Judy has little to fear because she dresses conservatively and is a proper young woman, but given that her sister is missing, she takes to detective work. She befriends slutty Lone Fleming, another guest at the inn, but their friendship doesn't blossom as the sisters dispatch Lone for being a floozy. When a third young woman arrives at the inn, the beautiful Blanca Estrada, Judy keeps a close eye on her, hoping that Blanca can lead her to knowledge regarding her sister's whereabouts.This is a very interesting film with well-defined characters and enough violence to sustain the interest of modern horror fans. The anti-religion theme is a bit too heavy-handed and will indeed offend some viewers, but this is just a minor horror outing and shouldn't be treated as religious bashing literature.ACTING: Judy Geeson is okay in the lead. She is outshined by the middle aged sisters, Bautista and "Return of the Evil Dead's" Esperanza Roy. Aurora Bautista is delightfully wicked as the elder sister while Roy is equally well as her passive sister. Lone Fleming steals the show as the happy to flaunt her body hussy.STORY: The script has that eerie feel I've grown to crave from Euro-horrors: they do a much better job at building suspense than American horror directors. The revenge plot may be off-putting because of the biblical zealotry of the murderess.NUDITY: None here, which is uncommon for a 1970s Euro-horror.