Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1972)

Well, there isn't much blood and there are no orgies. There are, I suppose, she-devils. This is a coven of witches lead by Mara. She has some neat powers, like necromancy, turning into cats and bats, and giving long and boring seances. She's hired by an Indian gentleman to kill the ambassador to Rhodesia without evidence. Then he tries to have her killed instead of paying her. So she kills him. It sounds like I've ruined the plot, but actually this section has nothing to do with anything, really, except to show Mara is an evil witch. Apparently the ritual murder of the first five minutes wasn't a strong enough hint. Or maybe it was to show her powers.

At any rate, from that point on, there's still quite a bit of runtime, so something has to happen. Well, a supposedly college-aged couple (who are both in their thirties at the time) are checking out Mara's seances. The man is a skeptic and is fascinated by what Mara is able to do. So he consults his parapsychologist friend who also has psychic powers to learn the truth about Mara.

It's clear Mikels has done a lot of research for this film, because Mara mentions stuff like "the 72 demonic intelligences," "the Tetragrammaton," and "the 32 spirits of Belphegor." This may sound goofy, but it's exactly how occultists like Crowley and Mathers spoke. Oh yeah, and "so mote it be." Apparently 'mote' is a verb to witches.

It's also clear Mikels is eager to show us how much he's learned, because after the subplot with the assassinations, the film turns into Haxan. The parapsychologist gives lengthy dialogue explanations about the history of magic and witchcraft, with a salacious reenactment involving the burning of a witch. Mikels himself shows up and sticks some pins in her, then they beat her little boy in front of her while she burns. Points for gratuitous child-beating! The camera also lingers over meticulous rituals, lest we miss a move and not be able to perform our own blood orgies.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2610/4090943306_15f90ec430.jpg - Why are they shirtless?

Finally, as the new blood orgy is being conducted with the college guy as ritual sacrifice, a the ghostbusters show up to save the day! I'm only sort of kidding. Four parapsychologists do show up with the intent of exorcising the evil demons. They're just nowhere as cool as the Ghostbusters. And instead of rushing to save the college guy, Ol Doc naturally stands around talking about witchcraft for an inordinately long time. Could he be too late? If so, I wonder why?!

I can see why Mikels is the cult figure he is. He certainly has style. The music, costumes, and choreography of the she-devil sequences have this great primitivistic quality that contrasts with the glimpses of society we get. The murky lighting and gaudy colours add to the other-worldliness, like a glimpse into the deep, dark, primitive history of mankind hidden in our subconscious. There are also some cool visual effects using greenish clouds that I found set the mood quite well.
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That's not to say it's a good film. There's lots of filler in the form of historical reenactments, totally irrelevant flashbacks to past lives, and lengthy dialogue scenes. If Steckler is very visual and includes more images than he has dialogue for, Mikels has the opposite problem. The seance scene in particular manages to be both hilariously racist and difficult to get through. For about fifteen minutes, Mara reads the fortunes of people we will never see again in the film. She also does it as the spirit of a Native American man named Tokawana. Tokawana is nearly omniscient about the past and future; his one weak-spot is English grammar and vocabulary. He says cringe-inducing stuff like, "Me warn you white squaw not take giant metal bird across big water."

Mikels does find some nice-looking ladies, though. Check out these curves: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2673/4090176555_cacdd8346a.jpg

So there you have it, Blood Orgy of the She Devils, an epic of primitivism and spiritism in modern day society and the inspiration for the Ghostbusters. Who ya gonna call? http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2656/4090176385_be3db83b1e.jpg
Look out, guys, one's getting away! http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2739/4090943200_5a4a5e1d43.jpg