Novice actress Shula Roan plays the title character, who as a 12 year old had butchered her parents while they were having sex, and then set a fire to try to cover up the crime. Because of her age, and the "crime of passion" nature of her misdeed, she's declared not guilty. But now, at age 20, she's in the care of a psychiatrist, who urges her to purge herself of her nightmares in a symbolic way. Along the way, she encounters Lucifer (played by screenwriter Herb Robins) and artistic types such as painter Lennie (Ted Roter) and actor Mark (Gary Kent).One of cult filmmaker Ray Dennis Stecklers' ventures into adult cinema, "Sinthia the Devil's Doll" is not the kind of thing that this viewer can easily write off. It is true that it's going to bore some people, despite the expected plethora of skin. In fact, this plays like a bizarro mix of skin flick and arthouse picture. It has just enough weirdness and atmosphere to make it passably interesting, plus it has a "performance art" aspect to it, with characters spouting dialogue as if they're always on stage, acting in a play. Definite credit should go to Steckler, who served as his own cinematographer, and lights props, sets, and actors in colourful ways, as well as Andre Brummer, who composed the original music.Ms. Roan acts her little heart out. Even if she wasn't a professional, it's hard to deny the deep commitment of her performance (Sinthias' main character flaw is severe daddy issues). The rest of the cast, including B picture mainstay Kent ("The Thrill Killers", "Satan's Sadists") and the sexy Diane Webber ("Mermaids of Tiburon", "The Witchmaker"), are fine.Even at 77 minutes, this is pretty slow-paced, and it won't maintain the interest of all audience members. Still, it's not just the typical trash movie, and that's worth noting.Six out of 10.

Another 'masterpiece' by the infamous Ray Dennis Steckler, who also was the man behind the incredibly crappy but highly amusing film with the greatest title ever, "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?" (1964), "Sinthia, the Devil's Doll" (1970) is an abysmally bad and virtually plot-less Trash gem that is highly recommendable to fans of 'so-bad-it's-good', but should be avoided by anyone else. The eponymous Sinthia (kudos for the clever wordplay) is a girl with certain... err... issues, who is so madly in love with her daddy that she kills both of her parents when she catches them having intercourse. Years later, Sinthia, who has blossomed into a beautiful young woman, is still tormented by guilt (the poor thing). Her psychiatrist gives her a somewhat unusual advice to make her guilt go away... Or something; the plot really is way too confused to even call it that. There are three reasons to watch "Sinthia", one being the film's extreme weirdness, another the absolute lack of logic or coherence, which, in such a uniquely outrageous extent makes it worth watching. The most convincing reason to watch "Sinthia" is the lovely Shula Roan in the eponymous role. Roan, who never appeared in any other film, is sexy and very cute, and while she certainly isn't the best actress ever, I still wish we could admire her 'talents' in a few other films. The film furthermore includes several (unintentionally?) hilarious sequences, and breasts are shown every other minute. In spite of that, it is overall very boring, and only recommendable to my fellow Trash-fans who are willing to endure periods of pure boredom for some bits of enjoyable weirdness.

I have to take some exception with some of the other reviews. I don't think this is really any worse than any of Ray Dennis Steckler's other movies. True, it has far less of a plot, but given how stupid the plots of some of Steckler's other films are, that's not necessarily a liability. It also doesn't work very well as an erotic sex film, but that's not necessarily a liability either. Sex films are generally worthless and boring and usually little more than masturbation fodder. Even the ones from the 60's that are somewhat "erotic" can hardly hope to compete with the ones today, which are much more graphic and have better looking women (at least, if silicone breasts and anorexic-looking bodies really turn you on). But it's the weird, disturbing ones like this that are a lot more fun or interesting today--if not always necessarily for the reasons originally intended.This film is about a disturbed young girl who at twelve murdered her parents while they were having sex due to incestuous longings for her father. She burned down the house afterwards, but was rescued by the neighbors and was committed to an asylum where six years later she recounts the incident to her psychologist. Of course, it's also possible she was killed in the fire and consigned to hell. But whether she's crazy, or in fact actually in hell, the imagery is pretty much the same—psychedelic scenes of infernal orgies with lots of droning voice-over narration. It does get a little repetitive and sleep-inducing, but that's true of pretty much all sex films isn't it? Making the protagonist twelve years old at the beginning is definitely in pretty bad taste, but given that the voluptuous actress playing "Sinthia" isn't believable even as the eighteen-year-old she plays in the "present day" scenes, I'd just let that one go.This movie is currently available on a Something Weird DVD along with the Anton LaVey/Church of Satan "documentary" "Satanis", and I have to say I much prefer the psychedelic-styled fake satanic orgies of this film to the documentary-style "real" satanic orgies of LaVey and his followers in the co-feature (not to mention, having to put up with LaVey himself, an egotistical charlatan who spent thirty years laughing all the way to the bank with his "satanic" nonsense). This is not a great film by a long shot, but relative to Steckler's other films, to sex flicks in general, and to its co-feature "Satanis", it's not THAT bad.

I recently had the opportunity to view the second feature on the Satanis DVD entitled "Sinthia: The Devil's Doll", which is easily probably the worst movie I have ever seen, even with the nudity included! Adding more skin and sex would perhaps have been its saving grace, but alas...A young girl with a serious father-fixation comes upon her father and mother engaged in marital affairs, and proceeds to stab them both, burning the house down afterwards, subsequently being committed to an asylum until an evaluation can be held upon reaching legal age to determine whether or not she should be released into society. At the evaluation, a psychotherapist regresses her, launching her into a Jungian dream-world of orgies, a "Luciferian sex cult's" Bachannal, various mother-father projections, as well as a lesbian scene. The Lucifer character proclaims that "no matter where she goes, the servants of Lucifer will always follow." That she would eventually return and join the cult. Her "initiation" consists of a flogging while all present laugh at her pain, torment, and misery. It seems that she squeals "mommy, daddy!" at least once or twice every ten minutes, which does become rather tedious, thus losing its professed fetishistic appeal. On a couple of occasions, she materializes upon a beach where she must choose her path, is pursued by a red-faced mime, losing her clothing in the process.The Psychotherapist eventually snaps her out of her hypnogogic trance as her self-projection is on the verge of a breakdown, informing her that the only way to be rid of all frustration, confusion, and guilt, is to essentially relive the event of origin but change the outcome - that she would have to kill herself instead of her parents. So she enters the dark subconscious once again, committing suicide in that crucial moment, thus altering her memories. She awakens relieved and seemingly balanced. She thanks the Doctor and proceeds to step outside by an automobile driven by none other than her father! As she plants a deep kiss on him. {I presume this was done for shock effect, for he of course was murdered}.Rating: 1/5. Despite the pretty nude girl frolicking in the forest. Overall, this way out the street for mine! __________________In a section entitled "The Altar":* Supernatural TrailersThe Devil's Hand, House of Exorcism, Mark of The Devil: Part II, Meat Cleaver Massacre, Witchcraft '70.With the obvious exception of Witchcraft '70, which contains actual Satanic Rites conducted at The Black House along with an interview segment with Dr. LaVey, these consist of various previews of horror-themed presentations. * Satanic ShortsBritish Black Mass: In Britain, a film crew is supposedly "allowed" to witness a "Black Magic ceremony" through the window, because the "evil forces" conjured therein would strike the crew dead were they to set foot within the unhallowed grounds. Ring around the rosy commences, coupled with a supposed slaughtered chicken whose 'blood' is dripped upon the naked flesh of a nubile acolyte. Obviously, this is completely staged made for grimly piquant entertainment.My Tale Is Hot: A fella gets paid a visit from Old Scratch as he sits down in his living room easy chair to watch some innocuous program, which is "interrupted" by a salacious performance from a sexy young stripper, which is much more preferable in this writer's estimation! Sex Ritual of The Occult: Beginning as a three-part documentary-style film about "Witchcraft", a troupe of play actors "re-create" various traditions:1. Lapsing into ceremonial orgiastic practices under the guise of a "Black Mass", including a girl in a coffin with surrounding undulating naked bodies.2. Two homosexuals encounter each other in a misty dream-like setting {apparently on a park bench} - what this has to do with the Occult is rather unclear except that at the time this was released, homosexuality was still relatively "taboo" in mainstream society - probably included here for shock value.3. A supposed "Voodoo fertility rite" to regain the fecundity of a young warrior, which predictably erupts into an orgy. The most gratuitously amusing part of it all is probably "The End"...* Gallery of Sexploitation Ad Art with Exploitation AudioAn extensive and priceless slideshow of magazine covers and stills from various multimedia sinemaerotic productions. Quite an amusing perusal overall.