SUCCUBUS (1968)

aka NECRONOMICON

We see Lorna on a stage, sexually teasing a tied-up and skimpily dressed man and woman. She eventually starts running a knife along their bodies as an audience watches, and then plunges the knife into the man. Then, applause, and all three take their bows; it's just an act in a decadent nightclub. Two men seem to be related in some way to her, as lovers (?) or therapists (?) or pimps (?). Light-haired Bill may be her agent, and claims that he is making Lorna into a disciple of evil; the dark-haired guy just hangs around looking menacing, but the two do seem to be in cahoots over becoming Svengali-like influences on Lorna, who eventually loses herself in a strange dream world of half-alive mannequins, orgies with people crawling on the floor wearing animal masks, seducing women, and stabbing her lovers in the eye or neck. And that's about it for a coherent narrative. At the end, we see Lorna with the two performers from the beginning, only this time she actually does kill them...or does she?

I don't typically review artsy-porny movies like this on my blog, but I was fascinated to come across this because I remember this film from my past. Not the film itself, but an ad for it that ran in our daily paper when I was 13. The movie was rated X (it would be an "R" today) and there was a phone number to call to find out the "full meaning" of the title. Instead of calling, I asked my mom what the word meant. She looked it up and said, "Well, I guess it means a female demon, dear!" There was a little more to it than that, I would discover later, as in, a demon who had sex with men. That's not really what seems to be happening here, but then again, who knows. There are dozens of online reviews of this movie out there; most give up on presenting a logical summary but go on to praise the film for its obliqueness and ambiguity. I have less praise for it. The director, Jess Franco, went on to become a cult figure in horror and sex B-films. At times, a David Lynchian surrealism seems to take hold but nothing comes of it. As far as acting goes, Janine Reynaud, as Lorna, is attractive. I enjoyed seeing a poster for Doctor Zhivago (in German as Doktor Schiwago) in the background of a scene. There is also a fun shot of some Aurora movie-monster models, the kind I put together when I first saw the ad for this film. Sex movie fans will be disappointed in the small amount of sexual activity—the opening (pictured above) is actually as sexy as the movie gets—and horror movie fans will wish for a better narrative. [Amazon Prime]