The DVD transfer I had is good, but not great, transfer. Still a lot of hisses and pops from the source. But still viewable. It does seem to have some material cut from it, or I am remembering it wrong.
We start the movie with a woman giving birth in Nazi Germany near the end of WWII. The woman's father is a Nazi officer and wants to know if the child is a boy or a girl. The woman dies in childbirth but the baby survives...until the Nazi officer stabs and kills the baby.
The story follows a group of seven tourists as they become waylaid in a creepy German castle. Turns out the Baron of the castle is the same Nazi officer from the beginning.
The guests gather and we begin to learn a little about each one. As they begin to talk about the family curse the Baron is under, another guest, Lisa Müller, arrives. One known to the housekeeper, Martha. In pure succubus fashion, she is a beautiful redhead with blue eyes. I'll be honest, I watched this movie for the first time early in my D&D years so a lot of what a succubus *is* for me comes from this movie. Or. Rather, my memory of this movie.
Each guest is revealed to represent each of the seven deadly sins. The deaths are really what makes this movie fun. Seven Deadly sins deaths years before Brad Pitt screamed: "What's in the box!" Makes it worth seeing again.
As soon as six of the guests die, the remaining living guest, the seminarian, Alvin Sorelle, trades his own soul to Satan to bring the other guests back to life. There is a nice twist at the end which really makes the movie memorable.
The succubus, Lisa, was played by cult horror figure Erika Blanc. Her demonic make-up effects are both understated and extremely effective. While I know others could see them as cheap, I rather liked it. Plus regardless, Erika Blanc is great to look at. It is no shock looking back on this that I have had so many witchy characters with red hair and blue eyes.
The BluRay is so much better than the old VHS I watched back in the 80s and the DVD copy I watched just a couple of years back. Well worth getting. Mondo Macabro really puts out a great disc.
Watched: 21
New: 13