Butcher Block is a monthly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, we will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
Catholicism and religion saturated horror in the ’70s, with The Exorcist leading the pack as the most popular of the decade. Yet the controversy it inspired couldn’t hold a candle to Ken Russell’s 1971 film, The Devils, a film so provocative and notorious that it was banned in many countries and released with an X-rating stateside. While nowhere near as polished or as coded in its imagery, Alucarda exists in the same realm of boundary-pushing religious horror, even sharing similar themes with The Devils. Satanism and possession are pushed to their absolute extremes, unleashing shocking nunsploitation drenched in blood, violence, and sex.
Directed and co-written by Juan López Moctezuma, this English-language Mexican horror film stars Tina Romero as the eponymous Alucarda. Since infancy, the orphaned Alucarda was raised by nuns at a repressive Catholic convent. Now a teen, Alucarda finally has a friend her age with the arrival of newly orphaned Justine (Susana Kamini). They become inseparable, perhaps even more so when they stumble upon a crypt and release a Satanic force that seduces the best friends and uses them as a conduit to destroy everything in their path.
Straight away, Alucarda sets itself apart from most horror films of the decade. The convent is cavernous and ancient, and its nuns wrapped in blood-soaked, gauze-like dresses. It’s an interesting visual juxtaposition against the budding romance between Alucarda and Justine, a clash between modernity and the harsh repression of Dark Ages. Sermons are held in an eerie stone room adorned with horrific religious iconography that would be enough to scare any susceptible youth into being a believer. All of which to say, that while Satan seduces Alucarda and Justine through blood rituals and debauched orgies, the convent offers an equally antagonistic and punitive life for the teens. Moctezuma exploits just about every religious symbol and icon he can, furthering the shock value.
As the girls demonstrate traits associated with possession, the head priest and his subordinate nuns take action. Though not with your typical exorcism; here they inflict Medieval torture. The results prove disastrous. The possession itself varies, and Alucarda seems destined at birth for Satan. As the nuns’ hysteria increases, so too does the violence, escalating into an insane finale full of literal blood baths, decapitations, and hellfire.
Its arthouse meets exploitation grindhouse, and the low budget does little to hinder the director’s style. Moctezuma plunges an almost fairy-tale coming of age story into sacrilegious nunsploitation. Released under titles Sisters of Satan, Innocents from Hell, and Mark of the Devil 3, Alucarda wasn’t received well upon its initial release. Especially in native Mexico. But like many films of this ilk, it has developed a cult following over the years. And for good reason. Even when you think this particular subset of horror has covered all grounds, films like Alucarda prove there’s still plenty left to say.
There’s possession, Satanic vows and rituals, and religious hysteria to be found in Alucarda. It’s also an exciting examination of the antagonistic relationship between dated religion and modern science, explored through the arrival of Dr. Oszek (Claudio Brook). Oszek is often horrified by the treatment of Justine late in the film, and it’s made all the more effective in that Brook also plays the role of the Hunchback Gypsy that lures the girls into darkness.
Young girls getting seduced by the devil in films that exploit all religious iconography tend to make for disturbing, controversial horror that ruffles many feathers in the process. Moctezuma takes it ten steps further with explicit sexuality, extreme imagery, and an explosive finale that brings shocking violence and bloodshed. Horror movies tend to break taboos, but Moctezuma shatters them with style.
You can pick up Alucarda on DVD from Mondo Macabro.
