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Alucarda -aka "Alucarda: Daughter of Darkness" (1975)

Dir: Juan Lopez Moctezuma

Alucarda (despite the name, this has only a small amount of Vampire content) as a baby is given to an orphanage as her possessed Mother dies.
Here she grows up to be a haunted girl in the care of the local Nuns (who wear strange tie-dyed, bandage type Habits) who fill her and the other girls with visions of burning in Hell for Sin and the all round wrath of God.
When her Parents die, a girl, Justine, (the oldest looking '15' year old you have ever seen!) is sent to the Convent orphanage and is roomed with Alucarda.

They become close (with hinted at Lesbian feelings) and while out in the country they come upon a strange hunchback gypsy who invites them to 'see his charms' (and who wouldn't!). Justine is scared but Alucarda, already showing an obvious feel for dark naughtiness, persuades her to go.

The Gypsies are all very mysterious (as Gypsies always are in Horror films) and one women 'sees shadows' in Justine's palm.
The hunchback gives Alucarda a dagger. Fear grips Alucarda as 'evil' overcomes her and she runs off, dropping the dagger and followed by Justine, to an old, massive tomb/building.
Here they come across a coffin. Alucarda makes Justine swear that they will always be together, even in death, and opens the coffin.
A howling wind and a grating voice rips around the girls (time for the first of many long and loud screaming sessions!!), they flee back to the Convent.

That night, in their room, Alucarda calls up Satan, (poor sod gets no rest in this flick) and the frightened Justine screams for her to stop. But with the Satanic Dwarf popping up again they are soon...as one with Satan!!!
The Nuns will NOT be pleased...

 

"Alucarda" is a very explicit entry into the Nun Exploitation/Devil possession sub genres. That delivers the groceries, we all love so much, in truckloads!
We have massive amounts of nudity, including full frontal male nudity in a superb scene where the girls are taken to a black mass orgy with the Gypsies and a goat headed Devil Priest. This scene is intercut with one of the Nuns, (Sister Angelica) who is friendly with Justine, praying for her soul as she sweats blood and hovers above the floor!!

We have a great exploitation scene where Justine is tied to an X shaped cross, striped and pricked with a big pin (ala "Witchfinder General").
There is a very graphic and nasty beheading, as a Nun who has been fried to a crispy critter, twitches back to life on an altar. It takes three strikes to severe her head (In a big spurt of blood) which is then picked up, pouring blood, and placed next to her body for a grisly close up. There is gallons of the crimson stuff in this flick!
A spurting throat wound also results in one of the best 'blood drenched nudity' sequences ever.

We have massive amounts of frenzied screaming, with the scene where Alucarda first calls up Satan, in the girls room, a special favourite.
She spins round and round, waving her arms and screeches "SATAN! SAAATAAN! SAAAATAAAAN!!"

The set design is wonderful, with some really bizarre looking buildings. The Convent chapel has a back wall made from loads of 'Christ on the Cross' carvings, hewn from the stone, with a huge Christ statue in front of it. And the Tomb building looks wonderful, all overgrown marble, draped in rotting, red shrouds.

There are some explicit swipes at the hypocrisy and corruption of organised religion in general in Alexis Arroyo's screenplay as well as just atatcks on the films specific Nuns. And the fact that the closest, most personally satisfying relationship these girls find is with a bunch of Satanic Gypsies says a lot about the way they are cared for and treated by the ever judging, ever condemning, Church.

Overall "Alucarda" delivers plenty of exploitation thrills within its short running time and revels in the sinful activities of the girls and the Satanic Gypsies but it also takes time to deliver two well-rounded lead characters in the girls as well as showing that The Church needs to sort it's own shortcomings out if it is truly going to 'save' anybody.
A must see film for fans of Horror and well made, professional, Exploitation Cinema.

It has recently been given a lovely, uncut DVD release on the new Mondo Macabre label, complete with a documentary on Mexican horror cinema.