The movie is a semi-retelling of the story of Gilles de Rais with Naschy as Barón Gilles de Lancré. His wife, Georgelle (Norma Sebre) is in cahoots with alchemist/charlatan Simon de Braqueville (Eduardo Calvo). At first, de Lancré doesn't want to participate in the killing of virgins (I feel this one is going to come up a lot this month; save yourself from demonic sacrifice, have sex early and often).
Returning war hero and friend of the Baron, Gaston de Malebranche (Guillermo Bredeston) returns to town and quickly learns of de Lancré's crimes. He joins up with a group of bandits to go after the Baron.
At this point, I am halfway through the film and I have not seen many horrors or any of the other things I normally associate with a Naschy movie. Hardly any blood, no nudity, and honestly very little in the terms of creep factor. The movie is better classified as a horror adventure. A good one (ok maybe not "good") to get some ideas on how to run a village attacking a vampire lord.
The movie is from 74 but it feels older, like from the early 60s only not in bright technicolor despite what the poster claims.
In the end it just isn't very good.
Use for War of the Witch Queens
I think one of the things that gets lost in heroic fantasy is how much the thought of the Devil terrified the common folk. They were ignorant and filled with superstitions and living in a world that was designed to keep them that way. PCs hear "the Devil" and think "that's a whole lot of XP!" and not "our immortal souls are at risk!"
Use for NIGHT SHIFT
This one is more a "Dark Age" setting, but Gilles de Rais is a perennial favorite among occultists today, so maybe this can be the history piece of a new tale. Essentially the same thing but having the descendants repeating the actions of their ancestors. Sounds like a Giallo movie to me.
October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 6
First Time Views: 5
1 comment:
I watched this recently too. I enjoyed it, gave it a 6/10 or a 'D'. A bit too slow perhaps, but definitely watchable. And a good peasant uprising, to boot.
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