Black Candles (1982)

The original title of this Spanish film is LOS RITOS SEXUALES DEL DIABLO, which translates to THE SEXUAL RITES OF THE DEVIL. That is a more fitting title for this sleazy satanic tale. It was directed by Jose Ramon Larraz who also directed the much better VAMPYRES (1974). There are men and women having sex and orgies because they love Satan and apparently the cardinal rule is FUCK ANYTHING THAT MOVES! This is a soft-core porn flick with no real horror elements. There are twelve sex scenes and barely a drop of blood is shed.

 Drew is married to Fiona and they are both devil worshippers - part of a larger group residing outside of London. His lover (not Fiona) comes over and they fuck cowgirl style (woman on top). Fiona knows that her man is planning on ditching the witch scene so she kills him by sticking a pin into a voodoo doll. He croaks right on his bed. After the opening credits roll we are introduced to Carol and her boyfriend Robert. Carol is going to visit the manor, around which the diabolical sect is rooted. She’s there to clear up legal issues regarding her brother’s death, Drew. Her sister-in-law Fiona, picks them up at the airport and drives them to the estate. On the car-ride Carol falls asleep in the back seat. When they get to the large home the power is down and Carol finds it strange that Fiona has a lot of black candles on hand. There are also plenty of demonic lithographs on the walls and Fiona explains that she is interested in demonology.

 Once the couple is shown to their room they immediately start to fuck, missionary style (guy on top). Since this film is riddled with sex, I figured I’d describe the sexual positions to you…humor me. Robert fingers Carol’s vagina and fondles her boobs. Unbeknownst to them, Fiona is watching through a peep hole while pleasuring herself. It looks like she had an orgasm too! After sex comes more sex! Carol has a dream in which she is fucking Drew, her brother! The fucking this time is rougher, missionary style again, and ol’ Drew pounds it into her good, holding her legs over his shoulders. Then Fiona pops into the scene and starts tongue kissing Carol while Drew eats his sister’s pussy out. When she wakes up Carol goes downstairs and sees a bearded man peeking in through the window. He vanishes in a second and then Fiona is there to calm her down and make her drink this awful black herb tea. We later find out it’s mandrake tea, and Fiona insists she drink that crap every time she gets a chance. I believe it’s somehow part of the witchery.

The next day, while Carol is out, an older dark haired woman (we’ll call her witch A) goes through her stuff and steals a necklace. We then follow her outside, to the barn, where she is masturbating a black billy goat. She is talking to a farm hand and tells him that tonight he’s going to see the goat mount a woman and cum inside her! Witch A then goes to her room to have sex with a much prettier blonde (we’ll call her witch B). There is enthusiastic pussy groping and breast fondling. What comes after sex? The answer is more sex! The fucking goat mounts witch B and they start fucking! The bearded man from before is there. He is a devil priest and he’s witnessing the event while uttering demonic prayers. Once the goat has blown his load the priest pricks the witch’s finger and collects a little blood in a chalice.

While Carol settles the legal business with the lawyer, Fiona seduces Robert and they have sex. He eats her out and then she mounts him, reverse cowgirl style (woman on top, with back towards her partner). When Carol returns she suspect’s her brother did not die of natural causes and that there is in fact a group of devil worshipers among them. She then goes to her room, lays down on her bed and has an out-of-body experience. During this, she witnesses ritual sex in an altar room. The devil priest reads some crap from his devil book and fucks Fiona on the altar, missionary style. He also eats her out. The naked cult members gathered around the scene become aroused and start making-out. During the session, Robert is present. He renounces God and embraces Satan, and is inducted into the coven. Naturally he fucks Fiona, and henceforth begins to hang out with the other cult members. When Carol wakes up she tries to find the ritual room in the house and tracks it to the cellar because she sees sulfur on the ground and horned animal skulls on the walls. The door is locked though. Later that night Robert forcefully fucks Carol doggy style (we all know this position). A few minutes later we find Fiona fucking Robert again!!! They do it reverse cowgirl style AND doggy style.

The next day Carol knows that Robert is a Satanist because he had never fucked her that hard before! Oh, and because she saw his initiation during her out-of-body experience. Listen up readers! This review has gotten way too long and I’m tired of describing sexual positions. There are THREE more sex scenes which I really don’t want to explore. I’m going to sum things up now because if not, this review could run another page. Some more witches fuck, a cult member is sodomized with a sword for wanting to leave the cult, and Carol is caught while trying to escape. She is put naked on the altar, fucked several times and initiated into the diabolical group. Oddly, she offers no resistance…go figure? Ok, so now everyone is a child of Satan. But you know what? The film starts over again. Remember when I mentioned Carol feel asleep in the back seat of the car on their way to the manor? The whole thing was a dream. Carol, Robert and Fiona, enter the dark house and light black candles and that’s the end of the movie! 

Too much sex that leads nowhere makes this movie fail. Maybe three or even four good hardcore fuck scenes would have sufficed. Instead we get TWELVE! We get it already! The hedonistic fucks love to fornicate. Since I’m a sucker for good boobs and bushy pussy groping I gave this movie two stars. There is also that unheard of bestiality scene! Instead of a dynamic horror movie plot we get successive sex scenes barely held together by the thin horror story thread. There is also nobody being killed! Drew’s murder at the beginning was just a fluke to pave the way for new characters to enter the film to have more sex. I saw this movie twice to see if I missed any subtle erotic undertones that would carefully evolve into a good erotic film. I found nothing like that. This is pure grindhouse sleaze which I know many of you might enjoy.

2 / 5 STARS