Filipino horror films don't come much worse than this unbearably dull, drawn-out stiff which boasts a decent enough plot, but precious little energy in the telling of said story. In short, what we have here is a classic case of cruddy schlock movie-making that crucially lacks the necessary trashy vitality to pass muster as a fun, worthy fright flick. Jock Gaynor, who was also one of the co-producers ("A Taste of Hell" 's John Garwood was another one) and designed the many boring underwater sequences featured herein, listlessly plays a treasure-seeking deep sea diver who discovers a fabled 1850 sunken galleon which contains the corpse of a legendary Moro tribe virgin princess. When Gaynor steals a priceless amulet from the princess' skeletal remains, the skull-faced sea siren (the gorgeous Iraida Arambulo, who's naked throughout the entire film except for a hokey monster mask that covers her cadaverous face) comes back to life and forces Gaynor to kill seven virgins in order to appease the god that the princess was sacrificed to a century earlier.Despite a goodly serving of both gratuitous nudity and bloody violence, plus the enticing sight of sexy female leads Diane McBain and Kim Ramos walking about in skimpy bikinis, "The Deathhead Virgin" proves to be a static, lifeless, sleep-inducing waste of time thanks to Norman Foster's drab direction (Foster, who started out as an actor prior to becoming a director, had a very uneven career which includes several episodes of Disney's "Davy Crockett" series), Fredy Conde's clunky, grainy cinematography, Ward Gaynor's arid, dead obvious, gab-ridden script, such excessive padding as tacky night club scenes, a horrible comic sequence in which Gaynor and his fellow diver buddy Larry Ward get drunk together on the beach, and a cock fight, the pitiful wasting of the great Vic Diaz in the nothing role of an investigating police chief who tries to piece together the whole fantastic story in a logical manner (Vic does what he can with a thankless part, but even he's let down by lousy dubbing -- some drip with a flat, hollow tenor substitutes for Diaz's wonderfully ripe and oily baritone!), cheesy solarization effects, uniformly indifferent performances from an understandably out of it cast, and Richard La Salle's slushy, overbearing score. So bad that it doesn't even qualify as enjoyable junk, this terribly lame loser of a flick should be avoided at all costs.

I really don't understand why seemingly everyone who's commented on this film finds it to be so utterly awful. Look, it's no masterpiece - we're talking Filipino horror from the mid-'70s here - but it's a lot more interesting than a LOT of other so-called 'so-bad-they're-good' movies out there.<>First off, you got '60s hottie Diane McBain in a bikini. Scratch that: several different bikinis. You also have any number of very hot Filipino women also in scanty swimwear, nude and/or wet. Also, there is (real) cockfighting, spear fu and various other forms of tropical debauchery. Not to mention Vic Diaz. Those are the film's exploitation bona fides.<>Then there's the fact that it's the final directorial credit for Norman Foster, an interesting and underrated auteur ("Journey Into Fear", anyone? And don't tell me Orson Welles directed it - even he vociferously denied this). This films is very professionally put together, well-lit, well-miked, succinctly edited - far more so than a lot of comparable junk of the same pedigree.<>And then there's it's odd, somewhat lopsided structure, what with the bulk of the first 40 minutes or so given over to a lengthy and involved flashback (I kept wondering what had happened to Diane McBain's character, if she was just a cameo or something) and then the curious denouement (did the Deathhead Virgin just wink at me?). This a highly atypical film, even for shot-in-the-Phillipines exploitation.<>Ignore the naysayers and check it out if you're inclined.

*Minor spoilers*Unrenowned U.S./Phillipines co-venture involves an ancient sunken vessel being found by divers. Inside the ship is a treasure, as well as the manacled skeleton of a princess. When the skeleton is heedlessly released from it's chains, the bones transform into a naked girl wearing an ugly witch mask over her face. As you've probably guessed, nearby island natives begin to die mysteriously, and some suspect that the ages-old curse of the Deathhead Virgin is to blame. Things aren't necessarily all that they seem, however, as the story takes some hairpin turns during the final-third.THE DEATHHEAD VIRGIN is a fairly watchable and not inefficiently formulated low-budget horror-drama(and Diane McBain is gorgeous in a slingshot bikini). Still, there's nothing of any real distinction to make this recommendable(unless your dying to see what is possibly the world's longest spread of opening credits). It's not at all a good film, but it is a wee bit better than I had anticipated. With the immense volume of worthwhile cinema to be watched, why would you make time for something like this? 4/10

As a child at summer camp, the councillors were hard pressed to find an effective way to punish our cabin for out mis-doings. Well, the day that they made us watch this film in its entirety (without letting us fall asleep), was the day that they found that effective punishment. This film is actually painful to watch. I am not exaggerating!