The Night of the Sorcerers (1974) User Reviews

Terror movie by Amando De Ossorio , full of scary scenes , gore , guts and blood

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 25 May 2013]

Eerie and creepy film titled Night of sorcerers or Woodoo - Inferno des Grauens (1974) from our cult film director Amando De Ossorio . This chiller in minimum budget packs thrills , chills , nudism , some good action , gore , horror and few funny moments . Plenty of lots of blood and gore , including repellent images when happens beheading , biting and other gutsy moments . The picture starts in Bumbasa 1910 , there a team of scientists go to Africa to study the wildlife . The group of researchers travel into the African jungle to study the mysterious disappearance of animals in the area , however it turns out the wildlife is vampires . Meanwhile a bunch of playful natives indulging themselves in dancing and partying while engaged in one of their favorite pastimes , beheading women . As a Zombie tribe rises from underground to wreak havoc upon some beautiful Euro-babes and unfortunate victims . After that , Zombie Leopard women go on the hunt to bite some hapless .

This is pretty entertaining Zombie voodoo stuff . Atmospheric horror movie contains terrifying scenes when appears the tribe of voodoo-zombies and takes place the brutal killings . The tribe rises from the ground , take the women , whip them and slice their heads off on an altar in lousily made scenes , including primitive special effects . You will watch it and think it is either awful , hilarious, a masterpiece, or all three . It's a slight fun with passable make-up , naive special effects , acceptable set decoration and functional art direction . The fable is sometimes silly and laughable , though a few effects and action are professionally made . Some illogical parts in the argument are more than compensated for the excitement provided by the Leopard women running in slow-moving , though sometimes are a little bit cheesy . While not a hit during its original run, the film became successful when reissued nearly 30 years later . In the film appears known Spanishtrash actresses as Barbara Rey or King , Kali Hansa , Maria Kosti and Loreta Tovar . And two Eurostars as Jack Taylor and Simon Andreu ; both of them starred several exploitation films during the 60s and 70s . Creepy and frightening musical score especially when the appearance the leopard women , being composed by Fernando Garcia Morcillo . Colorful and evocative cinematography filmed on location in some African place and in Aldea Del Fresno , Madrid . And being recently mastered in high definition from the original negative .

The motion picture was professional though regularly directed by Amando De Ossorio . Amando began in films as a writer and assistant director and continued his career by making short films and industrial documentaries . He was one of the main directors of the Spanish horror boom in the 70s, specially for his quartet of films about the living dead Templars which started with his first great success and immensely popular ¨Tombs of the Blind dead¨ which to be continued by a trilogy : ¨Return of evil dead¨ , ¨Ship of Zombies or Blind dead 2¨ and ¨Blind dead 3 or The night of the sea gulls¨ . Amando owns his own studio and created and/or designed many of the simple special effects sequences you see in any of his many imaginative undertakings . Amando who recently passed away was a good craftsman who realized a lot of amusing as well as entertaining films . He displayed a varied career and specialized on all kind of genres as Western in "Rebels in Canada" and "Grave of the Gunfighter" , Monster movie as ¨Serpent of sea¨ and , of course, Terror as ¨Malenka¨ , The possessed¨ and ¨night of witches¨ . Ossorio also studied painting and photography , moreover, he also made his living as a painter of creepy images of the Knights Templar in his later years.

A Weaker Link in Amando De Ossorio's Repertoire

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 4/10 · 20 November 2009]

No Horror fan can doubt that Spanish director Amando De Ossorio deserves great praise for his absolutely awesome "Blind Dead" series, which he began in 1970 with "La Noche Del Terror Ciego" ("Tombs of the Blind Dead"). These four films enjoy an enormous (and well-deserved) cult status and the eponymous undead Blind Templars range among the creepiest creatures ever to appear on screen. "La Noche De Los Brujos" aka. "Night of the Sorcerers" (1973) is sadly a weaker film in Ossorio's repertoire, as this little trash offering makes no sense at all and furthermore tends to get quite boring.

In 1910, a tribe of savages in an African country behead a hot woman, who then turns out to be a female vampire... Decades later, two scientists (Simón Andreu and Jack Taylor) and three hot babes travel the country in order to take photos of endangered animals and happen to come to the exact same spot...

In spite of a better cast (frequent Giallo leading man Simón Andreu, Exploitation regular Jack Taylor and sexy Spanish cult-siren Bárbara Rey, who also was in "Ghost Ships of the Bind Dead") "La Noche De Los Brujos" reaches neither the creepy atmosphere nor the suspense or entertainment level of any of the 'Blind Dead' films. This is not to say that "La Noche De Los Brujos" is completely without qualities, however. It is, to a certain extent, fun to watch. The female cast members are entirely hot (especially Bárbara Rey and the maroon-haired Kali Hansa), and all take their clothes off at some point. Also, in typical Ossorio manner, the gore-effects are very well-made. That's about it though, as the film is sometimes unintentionally funny and the storyline is flawed and full of holes. A Horror film doesn't necessarily have to be 'realistic', but it should have a certain inner logic, and the story-parts should connect, which isn't really the case here. "La Noche De Los Brujos" isn't a complete disaster, but its definitely not very good, and there are far better films by Amando De Ossorio to check out. 4.5/10

Disappointing voodoo rubbish

[The_Void · 4/10 · 10 February 2008]

Amando de Ossorio will always be best remembered for his Blind Dead series of films, and that's a very good thing as the films he made outside of that trilogy aren't nearly as good - this one is a prime example. The subject of voodoo is an interesting one, but it never seems to cross over very well to movies, as just about every film I've seen on this topic has been disappointing and unfortunately, this one is no different. It's a real shame too as a film with these elements really could have been a lot better, but Amando de Ossorio isn't able to create an interesting plot around the central idea and unfortunately it falls flat. The film starts with a sequence that sees a woman have her head cut off during a voodoo ceremony. From there we focus on a team of researchers who head out into Africa in an attempt to find out why elephants are disappearing from the area. They soon discover that the locals are afraid of a legend about some voodoo witches in the area, and naturally this turns out to be true and some of the researchers get killed...etc etc.

I'm not sure if it was just a problem with the copy I saw (apparently, there's a remastered DVD out now), but this film is very dark and it's often difficult to make what - if anything - is going on. The cinematography is nothing special either and that's a shame because any film set in Africa has the potential for plenty of interesting shots but that isn't capitalised on. Amando de Ossorio does manage to pack some gore and nudity into the film, though it's scant consolation for the rest of the film. The sorcerers themselves also don't manage much in the way of intrigue as they don't appear all that often and when they do, not a lot happens. The plot surrounding the team of researchers is completely worthless and didn't generate anything that I cared for, which gives the film a rather flimsy backbone. Simón Andreu is the only name on the cast list that I recognised and he doesn't do enough to stand out. To the film's credit, the women featured are invariably very nice looking. Overall, this is not a great film and I can't recommend it; see Ossorio's Blind Dead series or The Loreley's Grasp instead!

Worth a rental for Spanish horror fans

[lazarillo · 14 January 2008]

OK, this is not a good film. But I think it is somewhat underrated, while the director Amando Ossorio's more famous "blind dead" series is somewhat overrated (especially the last two). Instead of undead Teutonic knights, in this film we have a tribe of living voodoo-practicing Africans. Of course, voodoo sacrifices have been practiced historically in places on the "dark continent", but this bunch are little more than cartoon stereotypes (all they need is a big pot to cook people in). I suppose it doesn't help that the tribe exclusively captures white women, whips all their clothes off, rapes them (at least in one case), and then decapitates them--which somehow causes them to become undead "panther women", prowling half-naked through the jungle in slow motion (and WITH their heads). But is this the only film of the 1970's to portray black Africans as "primitive", or to play on the illicit thrills of interracial sexuality? Hardly. All those who call this racist and/or sexist really need to see more European exploitation films of that era. This is actually pretty weak tea.

It's also a very typical low-budget Spanish horror film--short on a logic, long on atmosphere, extremely confusing but with a generous helpings of nudity and violence (at least in export prints). It's certainly more incompetent than Ossorio's best films, but I'd put it on the level of a mediocre Paul Naschy flick, and it has the same scruffy charm as a lot of those. There's also a couple of recognizable actors among the European characters who come to a bad end at the hands of the African voodoo cultists and "panther women", including Jess Franco regular Jack Taylor, as the expedition leader, and the slinky and sexy cubana Kali Hansa as the "half-breed". It's out on DVD now and is worth a rental, if maybe not a purchase, for fans of Spanish horror.

The opening is so good, Ossorio repeats it several times over.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 17 June 2021]

Amando de Ossorio's La Noche de los Brujos has one of the most entertainingly trashy pre-credits sequences ever...

Bumbasa, 1910: natives perform a ceremony in the jungle, tying a beautiful woman to a tree and flogging her until her blouse falls open. She is lashed some more until her underwear falls off (these guys have got some serious whip skills!). The natives dance while the chief rapes the poor woman, after which she is placed on a sacrificial altar and beheaded with a machete. As the tribe smears themselves in her blood, a squad of soldiers arrives and shoots the lot of them. Suddenly, the woman's decapitated head springs to life, baring a mean pair of fangs - she's a vampire!!!

All of this was so insanely over-the-top that I decided to watch the whole film despite discovering that my copy was in Spanish with no subtitles.

The rest of the film takes place in Bumbasa in the present day. A group of people - two men and three sexy ladies (a brunette and two blondes) - set up camp by a river; before long, the women are strutting around in varying degrees of undress, which is nice. The brunette has some sexy time with her one of the men in the river, while one of the blondes spies from the bushes and takes photographs (without using the flash, which means that the pictures would be rubbish). Meanwhile, deep in the jungle, the natives that were killed in the opening scene rise from their graves as zombies (or ghosts, or zombie ghosts)

The next day, the blonde with the camera (who looks muy tasty in a denim mini-skirt) wanders off into the jungle, where she encounters the zombies and the vampire woman, who grab her and tie her up. The vampire whips her, and blondie's top comes open. The vamp pulls the woman's skirt off, bites her on the neck, places her on the tribe's chopping block, and hacks her head off with a machete. Again, the severed noggin comes back to life with fangs. The whole whipping/decapitation/vampire thing was great the first time around, but the same routine repeated is less impressive. So when it happens for a third time, with the second blonde, I was not happy.

The film ends with the brunette almost getting the whip and machete routine, but being rescued by her lover in the nick of time, the man destroying most of the zombies and vampires by throwing his bullet belt into their fire.

Given the amazing opening, the rest of the film, with its repetitiveness, has to be deemed a bit of a disappointment.

5/10. I nearly docked a point when the roll of film in the blonde woman's camera is developed, and all the pictures come out fine, but a gratuitous naked washing scene easily made up for that.

Rather Funny Than Scary

[Tweetienator · 5/10 · 8 November 2020]

Not very creepy or scary but very sleazy - like every good director of 70s B-movie trash we get a lot of boobs to see. What else!? La noche de los brujos is sometimes involuntarily funny and - to a certain degree - entertaining. What I really miss is some real gore (we get some but it is rather tame) like we all appreciate in all those zombie and cannibal and whatever gore movies of the 70s. I won't recommend this one to you, but still, it may be worth a look, if you got really nothing else to do, and you like pulp/trash/cheese. Exact rate: 4.5.

For the easily amused only...

[poe426 · 3/10 · 11 September 2008]

If it's gratuitous nudity, sadism, or sadomasochism you're looking for, look no further: you've found it. (If you're a masochist...) I rate this one a three for three reasons: some very fluid, almost lyrical slow motion tracking shots of the leopard vampire women running through the jungle; some very effective music that, in more capable hands, could've underscored some brilliant sequences; and an fx shot of a man, now a zombie, set ablaze in a gasoline-drenched tent, who lifts his head once as he's immolated to look around before giving up (and giving up the proverbial ghost). Other than that, I can't recommend this one on the grounds that to do so might tend to incriminate me.

The "Citizen Kane" of Hot European Vampire Girls in Leopard Skin Bikinis Movies

[lovecraft231 · 7/10 · 9 October 2010]

In the world of Spanish horror, one of the directors whose most talked about is Amando De Ossorio. The reason for this is mostly due to the fact that he is the man who gave the world the "Blind Dead" films-atmospheric, exploitative and haunting films (well, except for the third one) about evil, eyeless Templar knights who come back from the grave. the films made him a renowned name in horror, even after his death. Yet people also tend to forget his other entries in the field of horror-the rather lamentable "The Sea Serpant", the largely forgotten "The Possessed", the middling vampire horror-comedy "Fangs of the Living Dead" and the enjoyable monster flick "The Lorelei's Grasp." Oh, and of course, this movie, the fun exploitation vehicle "The Night of the Sorcerers."

A group of researchers go into the heart of Africa. Thing is, the area has a dark secret: years ago, voodoo priests captured women for dark rites, whipping and decapitating them in the process. Also, for some reason or another this turns said women into leopard skin bikini wearing vampires. In a surprising turn of events, the voodoo priests are back, and s#!t's going to get real.

From the get go, some of today's audience probably will find "The Night of the Sorcerers" a bit objective. Though not exactly a member of the PC Police myself (it comes with watching this kind of thing), I can see why: the image of large black men in Africa torturing naked white women is something that puts a bit of a bad taste in one's mouth. Also, fans of the "Blind Dead" films may be let down by this venture, as it lacks much of the atmosphere and scares of those movies.

That parts just fine though, because it doesn't try to replicate the success of those movies, and it most likely isn't meant to scare anyone. This is a movie with the following

* Hot European women-all in which end up in a state of undress at one point.

* Hot vampire girls in leopard skin bikini's running in slow motion

* Occult rites

* Bloody death scenes

* A total lack of logic

And so much more. This isn't meant to be taken as serious film-making. This is dumb, sleazy exploitation garbage made for undemanding audiences, and you know what? It's good at what it does. Amando De Ossorio knows what kind of film he's making, and clearly knew what those who frequented Grindhouse theaters and Drive-In's wanted, and he delivers.

It also helps that he was a talented director too, as he films the whole thing with vivid colors, requisite fog drenched night scenes and stylish, almost artistic violence. Plus, the acting is surprising good, with genre vets Simón Andreu, Maria Kosty, and Jess Franco regular Kali Hansa doing fine work in their roles.

Is "The Night of the Sorcerers" a great movie? The short answer to that is "no." It is however, a fun slice of exploitation hokum, and makes for a fine Saturday afternoon viewing. It's the "Citizen Kane" of Hot European Vampire Girls in Leopard Skin Bikinis movies.

I just cannot believe this voodoo bull*beep*.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 19 August 2017]

In Bumbasa, Africa, in 1910, a jungle tribe ritualistically murders a sexy young woman. In short order, they are all massacred by a bunch of dudes in pith helmets. Over 60 years later, a team of researchers come to the area to document endangered species. They soon discover that the voodoo legends of the area are not to be ignored.

"The Night of the Sorcerers" finds its writer / director, Amando de Ossorio, in good form, although it's not as thickly atmospheric and utterly gloomy as his "Blind Dead" series. It may strike some viewers as slow to start, but it really delivers the goods in its second half. Certainly it ticks off some of its exploitation requirements in able fashion: sex, nudity, gore. The ladies present - Kali Hansa, Maria Kosty, Loreta Tovar, and Barbara Rey - are all powerfully attractive. Simon Andreu is a hunky leading man, and the great Jack Taylor, a very familiar face to any lover of Spanish horror, is good as always. In general, the acting is acceptable.

There's some good, fun stuff in this, although this reviewer will opt not to go into too much detail. Still, there are a couple of effective decapitations, and a fair amount of the red stuff flows before all is said and done. Although shot in Spain instead of Africa (with the expected use of stock footage), the locations make an okay substitute, and help give the film a pleasing look. It's gorgeously photographed by Francisco Sanchez and nicely scored by Fernando Garcia Morcillo.

There's nothing truly great here, but it's still well worth ones' time.

Seven out of 10.

Lighten Up! It's just (sic) JUNGAL SLEAZE!!

[Steve_Nyland · 10/10 · 26 November 2003]

Oh come on -- I think the majority of the folks posting to this comment thread are kind of missing the point: This movie is NOT "serious" cinematic art, but kitschy, kinky, perverted, immature & juvenile JUNGAL SLEAZE: A skinflick masquerading as a vampire film, in turn disguised as a torture show. A Playboy fantasy for white men circa 1974, with an emphasis on the sadistic.

Plot summaries say as much as thesis statements sometimes so here we go. THE PLOT: A group of white European photographers "documenting the extintions of the rare species" happens upon the one clearing in Africa that a tribe of leopard worshipping natives used to hold their sacrifices [before being "completely exterminated" by a group of colonial soldiers], and decide it would make a great place to set up camp for a few days and be the focus of a horror movie. One by one, the two pretty blond girls are lured off by a leopard bikini'd vampire babe leopard witch [created from a missionary woman during the last blood rite] and sacrificed by the resurrected dead bodies of the local version of Templar Knights, who put on ceremonial masks and head dresses to make them look different than THE BLIND DEAD. At the end, the great white hunter contracted to protect the group throws his belt of rifle ammunition onto a ceremonial fire and the undead zombies & witches are all "completely exterminated" in a hail of random lead.

The End.

This is the story around which director Amando de Ossorio -- great on visuals but never too strong with plotting -- hung two of the most barbarically effective set pieces in erotic 1970's Eurohorror: The initial sacrifice of the pretty missionary, and the subsequent sacrifice of one of the blond girls [the other one takes place off-camera]. The catch is, you HAVE to find the uncut version of the film to really appreciate just how off the wall these two sequences are, and if this kind of stuff makes a movie for you NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS is close to a masterpiece: Both women are dragged screaming & kicking into the ceremonial clearing, lashed to trees and then have their clothing bullwhipped from their bodies as they scream in fear or pain, or a sort of near sexual ecstasy sounding groan that could be the result of the dubbing to English. The first woman is then ceremonially raped [the second merely vampirized], both are wrapped in a leopard skin, stretched out onto a goofy looking ceremonial alter and decapitated by means of a huge, phallic machete. Their heads bounce into a sort of collection resevior where the blood all pools up, turn to look at the camera and scream with feral vampire fangs bared.

Actually, the heads kind of bounce up all on their own and THEN scream -- just how I have no idea, but the point is made that the sequence defies an adequate verbal description. It is sadomasichism depicted in a manner of which is totally unprecedented in western cinema: the whippings themselves are all too convincingly staged, as the women's clothing is whipped strip by strip from their bleeding flesh. While that may not sound arousing to most people to lovers of torture films like MARK OF THE DEVIL and it's ilk will be absolutely stuck to the ceiling at the end of both rituals. The ceremonial rape of the missionary woman doesn't do much for me, but she is a babe [Maria Kosti, I believe] and seeing her strung up like that does something ...

And what it does is fulfill THE NEED FOR SLEAZE -- I would love to find out how or why Ossorio set about making this film [contractural obligation?] because it is SO riduclous that if you see the "uncut" prints the others are almost pointless by comparison, unless you are a collector of expensively priced video tapes.

Euroman Simon Andreu [the sleazy husband from THE BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE] has an extended lovemaking scene with a mulatto woman with amazing thighs, and cult favorite Jack Taylor gets to wear a safari hat & vest and turn into a zombie before being lit on fire, but other than that nothing else really happens in the movie. The visuals in the set pieces -- especially the images of the "rock men" coming back to life with their graves spewing dry ice fog and a funky Hammond organ musical theme churning -- speak to me of perhaps a seperate production that ran out of money, or perhaps they just ended up having to shoot the outdoors stuff on the cheap. But the fact remains that the "fantasy" jungle sections filmed on soundstages carry an other-worldly feel to them that the "outdoor" footage [probably shot in Ossorio's native Portugal] never meshes: They feel like different movies.

Which leads me to the skinflick conclusion of what this movie is really about -- Like Joseph Larraz' BLACK CANDLES, NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS has no deeper meaning or considerations to it's artistic integrity beyond what is depicted onscreen. Sex, blood, and boobs, broken up by conversations, arguments, ridiculous history lessons and a lesbian sponge bath [well two women are present, even though they do not interact]. Look deeper than that and you will find a very racist, sexist, cheavnanistically Eurocentric attitude that is mocking of African culture [at one point the local trapper admonishes a group of goggle eyed natives to "go back to your people"], was shot on unconvincing indoor sets that make Hammer's PREHISTORIC WOMEN look authentic OR utilizes day for night photography that was very poorly conceived: Both of these characteristics speak for a motivation for the film that has little to do with the rich vocabulary of Ossorio's BLIND DEAD films. It looks like it was done on the cheap to satisfy the nead for quick thrills -- because the film was made by a master of the visual it amounts to more than the sum of it's parts. The two sacrifice scenes have given the film an aura of mystery and forbidden fruit, if you will, that is bigger than anything that takes place onscreen at other times.

Cut them out and the movie is BORING -- trust me, I have about five different forms of it on VHS.

The ones to score are a Dutch subtitled print popularized by cult favorites Sunrise Tapes of Holland [now out of print and fetching upwards of $75 easily from collectors who know what it is], which has the distinction of being the ONLY commercial release of the movie in an uncut form available at retail [even if it was just in Holland], and a MUCH better looking print with Japanese subtitles that is readily available from a well-known underground outlet easily found with any search engine & a few clicks of the mouse button. Hint: If you find a tape that does NOT have subtitles and is in English, it is cut. If you find one in Spanish, call me. If it is in English and no subtitles, though, it is chopped of almost 12 minutes of footage in some forms [I think SWV's is 68 minutes long, though their color is GORGEOUS] and you are NOT seeing the version the ravers like myself are raving about.

But when you do find it you will know, because six minutes into the film your jaw will be hanging open in awe of the utterly base, unredeemable sleaze you have just witnessed. The film sadly never manages to top those first six minutes, though it comes mighty close, and I give Ossorio an A for effort. Or, more precisely, for knowing that he was making 80 minutes of utter garbage that would be out of the theatres in two months and forgotten by the end of the year. Because he was making it, though, it has become the stuff of legends, and when you find it your quest will be greatly rewarded for a change.

Happy Hunting?

First seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1980

[kevinolzak · 6/10 · 24 February 2021]

1973's "The Night of the Sorcerers" (La Noche de los Brujos) emerged from writer/director Amando De Ossorio, best known for his quartet of 'Blind Dead' chillers ("Tombs of the Blind Dead," "Return of the Blind Dead," "The Ghost Galleon," "Night of the Seagulls") but first emerging in 1968 with Anita Ekberg's ultra timid "Fangs of the Living Dead." By contrast, one might view this Spanish picture as definitely full blooded, fangs sported by gorgeous young vampire women dressed in leopard skin bikinis who hop through the African jungle in slow motion like demented Easter (or is that Playboy?) bunnies, a definite improvement over his previous non scary outing. The arresting opening captures everything on full display, Barbara King's wide eyed missionary tied between two trees, her clothes whipped off her naked body before the African natives cut off her head with a machete for a blood sacrifice to the leopard god, after which the entire tribe is mowed down in a hail of bullets...while the young woman's head screams and bares her crimson fangs. Alas, nothing else comes close to topping it, the next 40-plus minutes drawn out by dialogue scenes in only two locations, outdoor shooting at Madrid's Aldea del Fresno and the indoor clearing set for the initiation rites. A tiny cast of five lunkheads arrive to research the absence of elephants in the region, learn about the voodoo worship of leopards and how their undead followers roam as cats during the day before regaining human form by night. Jack Taylor ("The Mummy's Revenge") is the lone scientist, Simon Andreu ("The Blood Spattered Bride") nothing more than a gun carrying guide, Kali Hansa ("The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloff") his spitfire girlfriend, afraid of the jungle but jealous of the bodacious blondes on safari, Lorena Tower ("It Happened at Nightmare Inn") as photographer Carol, Maria Kosti ("Night of the Seagulls") as filthy rich layabout Liz, her father financing the ill equipped expedition. The monotony of their interactions is only broken by an exact replica of the pre credits sequence, Carol the new victim with camera left on the ground, the once frightened female missionary now a snarling seductress sporting her new leopard skin adornment, cracking the whip herself before putting the bite on their helpless captive (we see how the severed head has been reattached to the body with an adhesive strip that, when removed, effectively kills the vampire). Another 20 minutes conducting a never ending search sets up poor Liz as the next victim, both vamps indulging in a little bloodletting after drowning the ineffective scientist in his own developing liquid. Andreu repeatedly lets his guard down as all this goes on, but with everyone else missing he heads out to the clearing with his rifle to await the nightly ritual, his lover the only female left to be targeted, a series of bad decisions guaranteed not to bring 'em back alive. Fortunately, the iconic imagery makes up for its numerous dull stretches, the director conjuring up slow motion reminders of his greatest triumph with sadistic relish.

Disappointing Voodoo Tale

[Michael_Elliott · 22 July 2018]

The Night of the Sorcerers (1974)

** (out of 4)

Mildly amusing film from director Amando de Ossorio takes place in Africa where various voodoo ceremonies are taking place. As the film opens we see a woman captured and have her head cut off. From here we're introduced to a new group of people who have come to do some research and before long they are taken one by one to the voodoo grounds.

THE NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS has a lot of the right ingredients for a good movie but sadly it falls well sort of putting everything together and turning it into something memorable. I say this because the story is an interesting one, there's plenty of gore to be found, the cast is attractive and there's even a kinky sex scenes. All of this should have led to a much better movie but we've got a lot of flaws that keep it from being better.

I think one of the biggest flaws in the movie is the use of slow-motion. If you're familiar with the director's Blind Dead series then you know that he's a fan of using the slow-motion but it just doesn't work here and in fact it looks pretty bad. Just check out the scenes where the woman are chasing someone and the way the slow-motion has them bouncing (slowly) is just comical at times. It certainly kills any chance of suspense or tension.

Another problem with the film is that the story itself is rather spotty as it basically just sets up the next victim without too much detail or anything else. A character shows up, gets captured and then killed. As I said, the film has some good qualities including the setting, which was nice and I'd also argue that the cast was a lot of fun. The film is mildly entertaining but there's no question that it should have been better.

Voodoo Vampire wenches whip until you lose your clothes ...and your head!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 22 October 2023]

"Night of the Sorcerers" deserves a special type of award for featuring the only pre-credits opening sequence in cinematic history that is both terribly boring and bloody exhilarating at the same time! Like many movies of its kind, it starts with a tribal voodoo ritual with monotonous hand-drum music and half-naked aboriginals oddly dancing. Just when you're about to hit the fast-forward button for the first time, because the dancing is already ongoing for a dull two-and-a-half minutes, the aboriginals drag in a beautiful young woman and tie her to a tree. The witchdoctor whips her until she bleeds severely, and he even has the skills to whip her straight out of her clothes! Then there's another several minutes of only dancing to jungle-drum sounds, and you wish to fast-forward again, but then hell breaks loose! The aboriginals are savagely massacred by white people with guns and the poor whipped girl loses her head (but promptly opens her eyes again and suddenly grew impressive fangs!) What a rollercoaster of an opener.

This is a must-see movie for euro-exploitation fanatics, for the simple fact that it was written and directed by the great Amando de Ossorio. The man wrote horror history with his "Blind Dead" tetralogy, but also delivered a handful of terrific individual classics, like "The Lorelei's Grasp", "Malenka", "Demon Witch Child", and this "Night of the Sorcerers". De Ossorio has a unique style and somehow always manages to generate suspense and morbid atmosphere despite his flicks being cheesy, sleazy, and substantially as good as void.

Sixty years after the ritual of the opening, an expedition heads out to that same African area. Some expedition, by the way... It exists of one scientist, an aspiring photographer/beauty queen, a reluctant rich girl/beauty queen, a guide, and the guide's girlfriend/beauty queen. At night, when the guide and his girl are making love in the lake, the photographer is lured into the jungle and undergoes the exact same fate as the girl of the intro. Does the rest of the group stand a chance to survive?

It's not highly sophisticated cinema, for sure, but "Night of the Sorcerers" is great and trashy exploitation fun with lots of excessive gore, shameless gratuitous nudity, and quite a bit of spooky moments. De Ossorio must have loved the whipping and decapitation sequences so much that he repeats them a couple of time, and the same goes for footage of the gorgeous brunette (Kali Hansa) washing herself.

Amazing

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 29 December 2022]

Back in 1910, native sorcerers stole a woman and attempted to sacrifice a woman under the full moon, but not before whipping her because this is Eurohorror, but soldiers stop them before they can chop her head off. However, a demon has possessed the woman, so the bad guys - are they the bad guys, this is colonialism against indigenous people? - win.

Many years later, Professor Jonathan Grant (Jack Taylor, who else) leads a safari investigating where all the elephants in West Africa have gone, bringing along two white blonde women (of course) named Elisabeth (Maria Kosti, A Dragonfly for Each Corpse) and Carol (Loli Tovar, The Legend of Blood Castle), as well as Tunika (Kali Hansa, Demon Witch Child) and the studly Rod Carter (Simón Andreu). They soon find where the natives we saw earlier conducted their occult rites and Carol decides that this would be a good place to take photos and then they all make the worse decision to camp there.

That woman that was nearly killed and possessed before, you know, Bárbara Rey from The Ghost Galleon? She's been waiting for something just like this and can bring back the old sorcerers and they all chop off Carol's head. I mean, they whip her first, but you knew that, right?

Now she goes from headless rich girl photographer to leopard skin-wearing vampire and soon, she and the original vampire woman are killing everyone, including Liz, who was dumb enough to take sleeping pills in the middle of all this insanity. Day for night slow motion leopard print insanity, mind you.

Sacrificial rites turn normal women into leopard vampires. There aren't enough kind words to say about this, one of the many wonderful movies in the Nightmare Theater package.

Entertaining Euro sleaze

[slayrrr666 · 9/10 · 4 January 2008]

"Night of the Sorcerers" is a fun and enjoyable exploitation classic.

**SPOILERS**

Moving through Africa, Liz Meredith, (Maria Kosti) Rod Carter, (Simon Andreu) Tunika, (Kali Hansa) Carol, (Loreta Tovar) and Prof. Jonathan Grant, (Jack Taylor) stumble upon an abandoned campground in the middle of the jungle. Settling in the area, they come across local trapper Tomunga, (Jose Thelman) who explains that they're in the middle of a special place where natives would hold voodoo rituals to transform women into undead vampiric leopard women. As the women soon fall under the spell of the Leopard Woman, (Barbara Rey) and become ingrained into their society, leaving the others to wonder what has happened to them. Discovering the real intentions of the group, they race to stop them before all of the expedition members are seduced by the cult.

The Good News: This here is a really impressive and interesting exploitation offering. The most notable thing that sticks out is the sleaze and nudity found in most exploitation fares. Witnessing an opening prologue where a woman is tied to a wooden archway, whipped with a bull-rope to the point that all the clothes fall off, where the male natives proceed to wrap a tarp over the body and lead to a sacrificial altar where a voodoo frenzy results in a really bloody demise is one of the greatest openings ever, getting the story laid out in a nice manner while also setting the story up. The altar itself looks really great, especially the beheading stone at the top with the clawed pit below forcing the trail of blood to flow downwards into it, making for some really fun sequences when the ceremonies are to be had. Those are full-on exploitation goodness, with the whippings, open blood flowing and the nudity coming into play and making them sleazy goodness. Mixed in along with this is all the surrealism scenes of the vampire women taking over their prey in slow-motion dressed up in leopard-skin bikinis, which is an impressive sight that is still somewhat sexy to an extent. Some of the violent kills that pop up allow for some nice gore, since this one knocks off plenty, and the free-flowing blood splatter is nice to see. The other part here is the highly impressive plot-line that this one has, which offers up plenty of good points. The inclusion of the vampire tale into the voodoo ceremonies is a new twist, and one that isn't all that expected. It's also nicely incorporated into the film, making it tie in nicely with the rest of the story without being used solely as a reason to get bare skin in the film, and to mix it in with the other twists and turns regarding the direction that it's played out in is a great point, giving it some new directions. Coupled together with a great sense of fun, this one here is a really pleasant addition.

The Bad News: This here really only has one big flaw to it. That is the slow point before the middle of the film. It starts off nicely with the prologue, but then there's the just incessant wandering around the camp and setting it up, which just take forever to get through. The rest of the movie is so good that the one rough patch sticks out, and it's simply them standing around fixing up the camp and standing around deciding on what to do. That consists of just about everything that the scenes take in, and the repetitiveness of them all just gets a little too much at times. It makes that section feel way too slow and dull, not really containing anything that would stand out and might be somewhat of a red flag for viewers. Some might not like the inherent nudity and sleaze presented, but the main gripe will be the slow beginning.

The Final Verdict: A really pleasing and fun exploitation classic that features enough good points to come recommended. This is easily essential viewing for those into the 70s exploitation scene or the European horror scene going on at the time, while those who aren't into the more outlandish aspects are advised to seek caution.

Rated UN/R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, S&M leanings and a Rape

Beyond Bumbasa

[ferbs54 · 6/10 · 16 February 2010]

For proof positive that other countries can do the shlocky African safari flick just as well as we Americans, look no further than the 1973 Spanish production "The Night of the Sorcerers." But wait: This bizarre horror outing gives us not just a corny African jungle pic, but conflates the vampire, zombie and soft-core skin flicks as well, for one mind-boggling mix. Here, giallo favorite Simon Andreu plays Rod Carter, a journalist who comes to the wilds of the fictitious country of Bumbasa, along with a scientist dude and three truly dynamite-looking women, to do a little research on endangered fauna. Too bad they fetch up in the Yaru district, where the spirits of dead voodoo doctors rise at night to whip the clothes off of captured women, decapitate them, and (somehow...don't ask) turn them into bloodsucking, undead, fully noggined leopard women! Anyway, though admittedly cool sounding in synopsis, "TNOTS" is really nothing to get excited about. The picture is a pretty slow-moving affair that is never very scary, although writer/director Amando de Ossorio does manage to create some nice nocturnal atmosphere in certain segments. The jazzy, Euro-lounge background music by Fernando Garcia Morcillo, nice as it is, hardly seems appropriate for a jungle horror film, and the picture feels hopelessly padded with extraneous wildlife, native-dancing and soft-core makeout footage. On the plus side are those three aforementioned hotties (especially Kali Hansa, playing the toughest and most sympathetic of the trio, Tanika), but sadly, only the slowest witted of viewers will have trouble figuring out what fate this film dishes out for them. Truth to tell, "TNOTS" is really hopeless junk, but is such a loopy piece of junk that one part of me couldn't help but be entertained. This DVD, from the fine folks at Deimos, looks just fine, by the way, with excellent subtitling and lots of interesting extras. This prematurely defunct outfit surely did leave us too soon....

Does that say *Nacho*?

[Tired99 · 15 March 1999]

An expedition in to the jungle stumbles across some ancient sacrificial alters, and the women become possessed leapord skin bikini-clad killing machines. Plenty of Khaki.

The Blind Dead 3.5

[richardbutch-19164 · 7/10 · 13 September 2023]

Basically, this movie is The Blind Dead 3.5. It comes out just after The Ghost Galleon which was the 3rd movie in the Blind Dead franchise and before The Night of the Seagulls which was the 4th in the series. This one starts off good like a jungle voodoo movie then veers off a little bit. Then starts to resemble a Blind Dead movie about 40 minutes into the movie. Same type of scenes of the dead digging up from under the ground, and more or less the same plot, but this time it's voodoo priests instead of medieval knights. This is also when the movie starts getting pretty good. This movie also has lots of nudity in it, more nudity than most of The Blind Dead movies that I can remember. I'm glad I was finally able to watch this movie. I don't know why it took me until 2023 to do so.

A hugely enjoyable serving of Spanish horror exploitation trash

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 28 August 2007]

This flick gets off to a rip-roaring start with a hapless lovely lass being tied to a stake and severely whipped prior to getting decapitated by a savage voodoo tribe. A motley group of explorers go to Africa to study the wildlife in the area where the ritual occurred back in 1910. Come nightfall the expedition members fall pray to deadly zombie natives and equally lethal vampire ladies wearing skimpy leopard skin bikinis. Writer/director Amando De Ossorio delivers plenty of tasty gratuitous nudity, a smattering of grisly gore, a smidgen of steamy soft-core sex, and even a reasonable amount of misty'n'spooky gloom-doom atmosphere. De Ossorio treats the silly story with utmost seriousness, which in turn adds considerably to the film's tacky charm. The cast all give acceptable performances; the ubiquitous Jack Taylor in particular does well as a stuffy professor. Better still, the women are all very hot and attractive: Kali Hansa, Maria Kosti, Loreta Tovar and Barbara Rey. Francisco Sanchez's bright, polished cinematography (the occasional use of stylized slow motion is really nifty), the endearingly crummy dubbing, and Fernando Garcia Morcillo's funky-throbbing tribal score further add to the overall trashy fun.