Soft core horror film about a couple who go to visit in-laws after a death and end up getting involved in a very randy bunch of witches/ Satanists. There is lots of sex (including bestiality) and I was wondering if this wasn't a cut down adult film. I don't think more than three or four minutes will pass with out some form of coupling. It's so pervasive that you'll no doubt wonder if the film was intended to be scary. Allowing for the various group activities this film isn't bad. Its suffers in the fear department because of all the bedroom activity, but it still manages to create a nice sense of dread that only dubbed Euro-horror can. Worth a look if you like that sort of thing

Along with her Latin professor beau Robert(Mauro Ribera), Carol(Vanessa Hidalgo) returns to London to visit her dead brother's wife, Fiona(Helga Liné)regarding his will. What she soon discovers is that her brother could very well have been a victim of witchcraft and that Fiona could belong to a Satanic cult. When John falls prey to Fiona's seduction, eventually joining the cult of his own free will, will Carol be able to escape? Notorious for it's displays of a Satanic cult's sordid activities, José Ramón Larraz's BLACK CANDLES seems to be about an innocent's potential danger, as she pursues the real truth about her rather athletic and active brother's heart attack. You get plenty of soft-core sex, as the three leads often engage in spirited acts of love-making(Ribera has the privilege of having sex multiple times with both Liné & Hidalgo). As mentioned, a member of the cult(..the one having sex with Fiona's husband when the voodoo doll needle action took place)willingly copulates with a goat as Carmen Carrión(..as the lusty maid Georgiana)and her stable hand grounds keeper husband and lover watch. The film also features a sinister "reverend" who serves as the leader of this clan of Devil worshipers(..and gets to have sex with Helga and Vanessa as well). The film isn't really complex with any depth involving Satanism, just the exploitive nature of a clan of wealthy British aristocrats enjoying all the debauchery that their religion provides(..it's established that these people became rich due to selling their souls, enjoying the fruits by conducting ceremonies to Lucifer). ROSEMARY'S BABY is an obvious inspiration, shades of that premise(..except for the "baby" part), the practice of Satan worship by normal-looking people, hiding their religion from the outside world(..it's also mentioned that these covens are everywhere, establishing their "threat"). Besides the infamous goat sex is an unfortunate victim's anal stabbing by a sword(..Georgiana's husband who threatened to expose the coven)..we realize that this coven will resort to whatever measures are necessary to keep their secret worship just that. The film is essentially soft-sore pornography, with the devil worship an excuse to display deviant behavior. Hidalgo fulfills the Mia Farrow role here, spending a vast amount of time either naked or in her undergarments..very little time is Hidalgo wearing a wardrobe of any kind. The real star here is Helga Liné, embracing her role with relish, easily one of her best performances displaying a middle-age seductress who peeps on Carol and Robert having sex, moves in on her sister-in-law's man(..stealing him away with her impressive feminine wiles), and converts new members to Lucifer's flock because of this overwhelming power she has at her disposal.SPOILER:The incredibly insipid conclusion, using the clichéd "it's all a nightmare" scenario with Carol awakening to find that all we have witnessed before was fictional, is an absolute cop-out that feels forced on us as if director Larraz had to include it due to outside influence.

Known in the UK as Black Candles, the original Spanish title Los Ritos Sexuales del Diablo sums it up a lot better. The characters in this 1981 film from Jose Ramon Larraz spend most of the time naked and jumping on one another. Saucy German actress Helga Line, pushing 50 when the film was made, leads the way with an erotic, knicker-shedding performance as a middle-class woman at the centre of a Satanic cult. Drawing heavily on Rosemary's Baby and set in England, this is a daft piece of soft core in which the devil's work is done largely by the genitalia.

Once more using very nice location photography (this time in England) we have another amateurish Euro porn horror movie. Horror in this case is just an excuse to show uninteresting ritualised sex. Along the way we have a touch of incest and the suggestion that it is all a premonition revealed to the heroine in a dream.There are, very very dim, echoes of Rosemary's baby - except there is no actual baby.All in all a dim film.