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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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3
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Jess
Franco's Macumba Sexual is
representative of the period in the iconoclastic director's
career when he'd returned to his homeland after years of self-imposed
exile, free to indulge his vision. The fascist regime of Generalissimo
Francisco Franco (no relation) had ended with the dictator's
death; Spain's young democracy opened the door to important
new freedoms in the arts. Thus Jess returned to team with producers
willing to grant him creative carte blanche, limited
only by budgetary restraints. In my opinion this was usually
a prescription for cinematic disaster. For me, Franco is at
his best when his creative impulses are held in some degree
of check by a more commercially-minded producer — his arthouse
sensibilities and aesthetic quirks tend to improve what in another
director's hands would be a standard, thoroughly conventional
film. When given complete
freedom, however, Franco's work often (but not always) results
in nearly plotless, zoom shot-laden bores that drift from scene
to scene, languid to the point of lassitude. Macumba
Sexual, a mishmash of erotic dreams and voodoo spells,
is just such a film.
The
basic story is a simple reworking of Vampyros
Lesbos minus the performance art/nightclub sequences. Real
estate agent Alice Brooks (a blonde-wigged Lina Romay, billed
as "Candy Coster") is on vacation in the Canary Islands
with her novelist boyfriend ("Robert Foster", AKA
Antonio Mayans) when she starts having bizarre, erotic nightmares.
Each time the disturbing dream is the same: a statuesque black
woman, a kind of sorceress she knows is called "Tara",
frightens and dominates Alice, loosing a pair of nude sex slaves
(male and female) on her as if they were attack dogs. The sorceress
laughs eerily, but is next seen lying dead, a weird, birdlike
fetish totem placed on her crotch. Troubled, Alice doesn't understand
why she would dream such things. Later, while making love to
her boyfriend, she imagines the mysterious Tara in his place...
But was it really just a fantasy? Disconcerted
by these strange visions, Alice nonetheless tries to enjoy her
vacation. But business intrudes when her boss calls with an
assignment — a wealthy woman living in the Canaries is interested
in buying property in the United States. Alice is to meet with
the prospective client and arrange details. Leaving the boyfriend
at the hotel, Alice travels to the island of Princess Tara Obongo
(Sadomania's Ajita
Wilson), who is, of course, the mystery woman she encounters
in her dreams. The Princess explains that she'll buy the house
in America sight unseen, that her interest in it was merely
a means of bringing Alice to her private realm...
Princess Obongo is
a powerful practitioner of macumba, or voodoo, who draws
Alice into her web of sexual dominance and submission to fulfill
a special destiny. The supernatural element gives Franco license
to completely dispense with any plot or character examination
beyond this, content as he is with picturesque travelogue scenes,
camel rides, and torpid, mostly unerotic sex sessions. And give
the zoom lens a rest, will ya? Lina Romay is provided ample
opportunity to do her usual schtick, i.e., writhing buck naked
in the throes of carnal ecstasy. Wilson is quite well-suited
to her role as the exotic princess, although the scene in which
she ritualistically fellates a small, phallus-shaped statue
borders on the laughable. The Canary Islands are a unique, visually
striking location which Franco masterfully exploits (there's
some gorgeous cinematography on display); too bad he neglected
to set an interesting — or at least titillating — story there.
As either erotica or horror film,
Macumba Sexual is
deadly dull. The lean running time of 80 minutes feels much,
much longer. I'm sure Francophiles who enjoy the director's
more avant-garde fare — Doriana
Grey and Succubus, for example
— will find things to like here. I just couldn't get into it.
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Severin's
DVD edition is on a par with the company's simultaneously-released
Mansion of the Living Dead
disc — a thoroughly excellent anamorphic transfer in the original
2.35:1 aspect ratio, with a commendable mono audio track. Since
the film was never dubbed into English, well-written English subtitles
are provided (although there's not really a great deal of dialog
to begin with).
As
with the Mansion DVD, an
interview featurette with Jess Franco and Lina Romay is included
as a bonus. In the 22-minute Voodoo Jess, the Spanish maverick
(now well into his 70s) discusses the return to his native land,
his personal preference for shooting multiple films back-to-back,
production of Macumba Sexual in the
Canaries (including his supporting role in the movie as an oddball
hotel clerk), and more. Romay confirms that Ajita Wilson was indeed
a post-op transsexual, something that co-star Mayans may not have
known at the time he acted in sex scenes with her.
11/09/06 |
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