Review: Carlos Puerto’s Satan’s Blood on Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray

Vinegar Syndrome’s new 4K restoration presents Satan’s Blood in all its fleshy, blood-soaked glory.

Satan’s BloodPitched at the midpoint between occult horror and softcore porn, Carlos Puerto’s Satan’s Blood is a lurid and ridiculous shocker, full of flesh-eating Satanists, gruesome kills, and thickets of ’70s-era bush, but it maintains a strangely hypnotic allure that elevates it above its scuzzy sexploitation roots. Produced quickly and cheaply by legendary sleazemeister Juan Piquer Simón to capitalize on Spain’s newly introduced “S” rating, which allowed for levels of explicit sex and extreme violence in film that had been prohibited under Franco’s reign, the 1978 film even has a touch of épater le bourgeois in the gleefulness with which it depicts the complete moral degradation of a square, middle-class couple.

Satan’s Blood opens with not one but two runtime-padding prologues—the first a brief lecture on occult matters from real-life parapsychologist Fernando Jiménez del Oso, and the second a gratuitous Satanic sex ritual that bears no relationship to the rest of the film. After that, the audience is introduced to Ana (Mariana Karr) and Andrés (José María Guillén), a fairly dull pair spending a pleasant day in Madrid driving around, chilling in cafés, and checking out Star Wars at the local cinema before being accosted by a mysterious couple, Berta (Sandra Alberti) and Bruno (Ángel Aranda), who convince them to come back to their cavernous country manner for dinner and drinks. That turns into an overnight stay, during which Ana and Andrés are subjected to rape, the mysterious disappearance of their dog, a torturous Ouija session, and greased-up four-way sex on top of a rug with a giant pentagram on it.

Puerto’s preference for sensationalism over plot logic lends Satan’s Blood a peculiarly surrealistic kick. Take, for example, a bizarre, out-of-nowhere dream sequence in which a creepy, dead-eyed china doll ambles toward Ana as she lies in bed. Just as the doll is about to reach her, Berta bursts into the room clad in nothing but a sheer nightie and wielding a knife, and while she looks as if she’s going to stab Ana, Berta instead thrusts the knife into the headboard and starts making out with her. This nightmare is never referred to at any point, nor are its Freudian and sapphic implications explored in any way, but rather than diminishing it, the sheer inscrutability of the scene is what makes it so indelible.

Advertisement

That curiously compelling lack of coherence also enhances the film’s nearly nonsensical plot. Ana and Andrés’s behavior oscillates wildly between complete hysteria and an utterly blasé acceptance of the increasingly bizarre circumstances to which they’re subjected. As Puerto’s screenplay invents increasingly implausible obstacles to prevent the couple from leaving this hellish estate, the film takes on an atmosphere of almost Buñuelian absurdism, as if some combination of demonic authority and bourgeois politesse were conspiring to trap these two in a cycle of sex, violence, and occult weirdness. Indeed, in its scruffy, sordid little way, Satan’s Blood may just be the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie of Satanic sexploitation thrillers.

Image/Sound

Newly scanned from the original 35mm camera negative, Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K restoration finds Carlos Puerto’s shocker looking brighter and cleaner than ever on home video. The transfer highlights Puerto’s exceptional use of color to enhance the mood of individual scenes. The fleshy naked bodies in the signature orgy sequence have a warm glow from the black candles and fireplaces that contrasts nicely with the wintry, bluish tones in the exterior Madrid scenes. The bright red of the film’s blood effects pop off the screen with an appropriately garish punch that never looks artificially over-corrected. The disc provides the original post-synched Spanish-language soundtrack and the English dub, both presented in 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, as well as lossy Dolby Digital versions. The audio is well-balanced, with Librado Pastor’s alternately groovy and dissonant score coming through with a particular punch.

Extras

On their excellent commentary track, film historians Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger offer a joyful appreciation of the film’s lurid delights while also placing it in the context of Spain’s post-Franco exploitation boom. We also get a 45-minute documentary on the making of the film that leans heavily on interviews with Puerto and Sandra Alberti. Though a little rough around the edges, the doc delivers some intriguing insights into the film’s whirlwind production process, including Alberti’s revelation that she had no idea there’d be any nudity when she signed up for the project. A perfunctory stills gallery rounds out the set.

Advertisement

Overall

Vinegar Syndrome presents Satan’s Blood in all its fleshy, blood-soaked glory.

Score: 
 Cast: Ángel Aranda, Sandra Alberti, Mariana Karr, José María Guillén  Director: Carlos Puerto  Screenwriter: Carlos Puerto  Distributor: Vinegar Syndrome  Running Time: 82 min  Rating: NR  Year: 1978  Release Date: March 2, 2021  Buy: Video

Keith Watson

Keith Watson is the proprietor of the Arkadin Cinema and Bar in St. Louis, Missouri.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.