Black Candles

To be honest, I can’t imagine, besides the director who helmed it (Larraz; Vampyres), that Black Candles (1982) would be of much consequence if it weren’t for the involvement of cult actress Helga Liné as the “hostess” for a couple who happen across her, receiving a place to stay and soon learning of her ties to Satanists. Helga Liné is primarily known for earlier films such as The Blancheville Monster, Nightmare Castle, Horror Express (perhaps her most famous), and Lorelei’s Grasp (my favorite of hers; from Blind Dead series director Ossorio). She’s been in everything…a giallo here, a kremi there, with some haunted house and a loosened curse; there wasn’t a genre Ms. Helga Liné hasn’t starred in. The peblum and spaghetti western both have starred Ms. Helga Liné. Well, erotica is no mystery to her, either.

Warning: Nudity

My Imdb Review from 2009

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.

Black Candles doesn’t cover new or fresh ground. Larraz loves plentiful sex in his cult movies. Vampyres is notorious for its female vampire lesbian lovers and their bloodthirsty preying on men who happen upon them, and in Black Candles, there’s a possible Satanist coven in an area of England that a couple might soon find themselves. Like Vampyres, there’s lots of softcore sex (even a scene where a nympho fucks a goat) and a little violence (a sword anally killing a guy who rubs them the wrong way), but while Helga Liné is the headliner (yep, pun intended), the film is viewed through the troubled perspective of her female guest. Liné was at 50 when she got naked in Black Candles, and while I feel now after revisiting it (I’ve watched this twice since my initial viewing (I will include my imdb review on the blog here)) that she wasn’t the woman in full nude body riding men in the film (notice how the “double” hides her face, with Larraz carefully shooting Liné’s face and breasts only while her character was in the throes of ecstasy with her female guest’s beau). Whoever it was, their body isn’t bad to look at. Neither was Liné, for that matter. I was thinking about the whole MILF and Stacey’s Mom Cougar uprising thanks to American Pie in 1999 and how porn took a noticeably direction towards older women and younger men, while watching Black Candles. While Liné was at 50, it wasn’t unreasonable to think younger men couldn’t be seduced by her. It wasn’t far-fetched. A couple running afoul of Satanists was nothing new by ’82, especially coming out of the 70s where that had been the norm. That and multiple partners shagging each other. Larraz just added to all of that with his film. The “twist” at the end (it’s all a dream) was already tired by ’82, and I’m not sure why it was needed here. I did grin when the “roles are reversed” and the head Satanist actually turns out to be a priest (that’s irony for you) in reality, but besides the one murder by the group, the sole reason behind any sort of villainy is that the coven embraces the Devil as their deity of worship. Liné as seductress and influential in her indoctrination of the outsiders into her coven is probably the main attraction for cult movie buffs. If she weren’t involved, I figure Black Candles would be just another run-of-the-mill Satan-and-sex genre film. It really still is, but Liné adds spice to it all. She sure wears her age well and it wasn’t unconvincing to me that she’d still be able to draw younger men (and women, for that matter) into her web. Can one resist Madame Liné? Not in this movie. She loses herself in the part and seems to be enjoying the role, too. Maybe that’s part of the film’s seductive appeal…her. The film has other characters, for sure, and the lead female guest gets full body nude all throughout, but Liné is always front and center when she appears on screen. The eyes are on her. Larraz knows this and occupies his attentions on her aplenty.