"Black Candles" is a rather amusing Spanish exploitation-horror film starring the incomparable Helga Line ("Horror Express", "The Loreley's Grasp", etc.). Co-star Vanessa Hidalgo plays Carol, who travels to England after the sudden death of her brother. She and her boyfriend Robert (Pablo in the Spanish language version), played by Jeffrey Healey, find that her sister-in-law Fiona (Ms. Line) is an unusual sort; Fiona, not surprisingly, is part of a cult that practices devil worship.
Carol isn't a particularly interesting character, so it's hard to care that much about what happens to her, but you do feel somewhat bad for her given how easily Robert / Pablo is corrupted. Still, there are some entertainingly twisted characters on hand, including a "reverend" (Manuel Gomez-Alvarez) and a "doctor". Line by herself is enticing enough to carry the film on her own, still looking good at age 50 or so.
Director Jose Ramon Larraz ("Vampyres", "Symptoms") does manage to tell something resembling a story, in which it remains to be seen if Carol will get out while the getting is good. Trash fanatics need not worry, however: there's still *plenty* of nudity (male as well as female) and soft core sex to keep them interested. What helps to sell "Black Candles" are two key scenes, one involving a goat, and one involving a sword. Viewers have to wait until almost the end of the movie for the sword scene, but "Black Candles" only runs approximately 83 minutes, so they don't have to stick it out for that long.
Overall, this is nowhere near as thickly atmospheric as "Vampyres", but horror fans who love their genre films to be on the sleazy side should be pretty satisfied.
Seven out of 10.
Carol isn't a particularly interesting character, so it's hard to care that much about what happens to her, but you do feel somewhat bad for her given how easily Robert / Pablo is corrupted. Still, there are some entertainingly twisted characters on hand, including a "reverend" (Manuel Gomez-Alvarez) and a "doctor". Line by herself is enticing enough to carry the film on her own, still looking good at age 50 or so.
Director Jose Ramon Larraz ("Vampyres", "Symptoms") does manage to tell something resembling a story, in which it remains to be seen if Carol will get out while the getting is good. Trash fanatics need not worry, however: there's still *plenty* of nudity (male as well as female) and soft core sex to keep them interested. What helps to sell "Black Candles" are two key scenes, one involving a goat, and one involving a sword. Viewers have to wait until almost the end of the movie for the sword scene, but "Black Candles" only runs approximately 83 minutes, so they don't have to stick it out for that long.
Overall, this is nowhere near as thickly atmospheric as "Vampyres", but horror fans who love their genre films to be on the sleazy side should be pretty satisfied.
Seven out of 10.