The Night of the Sorcerers (1974)

A different way of telling a story

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The Night of the Sorcerers (1974) ** (out of 4)Mildly amusing film from director Amando de Ossorio takes place in Africa where various voodoo ceremonies are taking place. As the film opens we see a woman captured and have her head cut off. From here we're introduced to a new group of people who have come to do some research and before long they are taken one by one to the voodoo grounds.THE NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS has a lot of the right ingredients for a good movie but sadly it falls well sort of putting everything together and turning it into something memorable. I say this because the story is an interesting one, there's plenty of gore to be found, the cast is attractive and there's even a kinky sex scenes. All of this should have led to a much better movie but we've got a lot of flaws that keep it from being better.I think one of the biggest flaws in the movie is the use of slow-motion. If you're familiar with the director's Blind Dead series then you know that he's a fan of using the slow-motion but it just doesn't work here and in fact it looks pretty bad. Just check out the scenes where the woman are chasing someone and the way the slow-motion has them bouncing (slowly) is just comical at times. It certainly kills any chance of suspense or tension.Another problem with the film is that the story itself is rather spotty as it basically just sets up the next victim without too much detail or anything else. A character shows up, gets captured and then killed. As I said, the film has some good qualities including the setting, which was nice and I'd also argue that the cast was a lot of fun. The film is mildly entertaining but there's no question that it should have been better.

In Bumbasa, Africa, in 1910, a jungle tribe ritualistically murders a sexy young woman. In short order, they are all massacred by a bunch of dudes in pith helmets. Over 60 years later, a team of researchers come to the area to document endangered species. They soon discover that the voodoo legends of the area are not to be ignored."The Night of the Sorcerers" finds its writer / director, Amando de Ossorio, in good form, although it's not as thickly atmospheric and utterly gloomy as his "Blind Dead" series. It may strike some viewers as slow to start, but it really delivers the goods in its second half. Certainly it ticks off some of its exploitation requirements in able fashion: sex, nudity, gore. The ladies present - Kali Hansa, Maria Kosty, Loreta Tovar, and Barbara Rey - are all powerfully attractive. Simon Andreu is a hunky leading man, and the great Jack Taylor, a very familiar face to any lover of Spanish horror, is good as always. In general, the acting is acceptable.There's some good, fun stuff in this, although this reviewer will opt not to go into too much detail. Still, there are a couple of effective decapitations, and a fair amount of the red stuff flows before all is said and done. Although shot in Spain instead of Africa (with the expected use of stock footage), the locations make an okay substitute, and help give the film a pleasing look. It's gorgeously photographed by Francisco Sanchez and nicely scored by Fernando Garcia Morcillo.There's nothing truly great here, but it's still well worth ones' time.Seven out of 10.

For proof positive that other countries can do the shlocky African safari flick just as well as we Americans, look no further than the 1973 Spanish production "The Night of the Sorcerers." But wait: This bizarre horror outing gives us not just a corny African jungle pic, but conflates the vampire, zombie and soft-core skin flicks as well, for one mind-boggling mix. Here, giallo favorite Simon Andreu plays Rod Carter, a journalist who comes to the wilds of the fictitious country of Bumbasa, along with a scientist dude and three truly dynamite-looking women, to do a little research on endangered fauna. Too bad they fetch up in the Yaru district, where the spirits of dead voodoo doctors rise at night to whip the clothes off of captured women, decapitate them, and (somehow...don't ask) turn them into bloodsucking, undead, fully noggined leopard women! Anyway, though admittedly cool sounding in synopsis, "TNOTS" is really nothing to get excited about. The picture is a pretty slow-moving affair that is never very scary, although writer/director Amando de Ossorio does manage to create some nice nocturnal atmosphere in certain segments. The jazzy, Euro-lounge background music by Fernando Garcia Morcillo, nice as it is, hardly seems appropriate for a jungle horror film, and the picture feels hopelessly padded with extraneous wildlife, native-dancing and soft-core makeout footage. On the plus side are those three aforementioned hotties (especially Kali Hansa, playing the toughest and most sympathetic of the trio, Tanika), but sadly, only the slowest witted of viewers will have trouble figuring out what fate this film dishes out for them. Truth to tell, "TNOTS" is really hopeless junk, but is such a loopy piece of junk that one part of me couldn't help but be entertained. This DVD, from the fine folks at Deimos, looks just fine, by the way, with excellent subtitling and lots of interesting extras. This prematurely defunct outfit surely did leave us too soon....

OK, this is not a good film. But I think it is somewhat underrated, while the director Amando Ossorio's more famous "blind dead" series is somewhat overrated (especially the last two). Instead of undead Teutonic knights, in this film we have a tribe of living voodoo-practicing Africans. Of course, voodoo sacrifices have been practiced historically in places on the "dark continent", but this bunch are little more than cartoon stereotypes (all they need is a big pot to cook people in). I suppose it doesn't help that the tribe exclusively captures white women, whips all their clothes off, rapes them (at least in one case), and then decapitates them--which somehow causes them to become undead "panther women", prowling half-naked through the jungle in slow motion (and WITH their heads). But is this the only film of the 1970's to portray black Africans as "primitive", or to play on the illicit thrills of interracial sexuality? Hardly. All those who call this racist and/or sexist really need to see more European exploitation films of that era. This is actually pretty weak tea.It's also a very typical low-budget Spanish horror film--short on a logic, long on atmosphere, extremely confusing but with a generous helpings of nudity and violence (at least in export prints). It's certainly more incompetent than Ossorio's best films, but I'd put it on the level of a mediocre Paul Naschy flick, and it has the same scruffy charm as a lot of those. There's also a couple of recognizable actors among the European characters who come to a bad end at the hands of the African voodoo cultists and "panther women", including Jess Franco regular Jack Taylor, as the expedition leader, and the slinky and sexy cubana Kali Hansa as the "half-breed". It's out on DVD now and is worth a rental, if maybe not a purchase, for fans of Spanish horror.