XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

MARIO GAUCI What I wrote about this one at the end of my review for the same director's DELIRIUM (1972) turned out to be the height of understatement: this is one insanely incomprehensible and intensely incompetent film – which I brought myself to award a higher rating than BOMB only because of its undeniable entertainment value! To begin with, the picture can't seem to make up its mind whether the titular figure is a witch or a vampire (so that we're treated to various occult rites and would-be feral attacks – if anything, both involve the consumption of fresh blood). Isabel's reincarnation seemed possible via the sacrifice of seven virgins (though when they're finally captured for this purpose, we don't get so many – maybe the production ran out of extras, or else they simply thought the audience wouldn't notice!); however, given that one of the girls is a dead ringer for the witch herself (both, in fact, are played by Rita Calderoni), why were the others even needed?! It goes without saying, then, that the various returning actors from DELIRIUM were far better served by their roles in that earlier outing (I seriously doubt how much of the script they understood this time around).Incidentally, considering that very little characterization is even attempted, I couldn't help whiling away the time in associating a number of the faces with celebrity music figures – so that Mickey Hargitay (who, unsurprisingly, would retire soon after!) resembles Mick Jagger, Raoul (the inspector from DELIRIUM is here the hostile landlord/head vampire who goes by the name of…drum roll, please…Dracula) looks like George Harrison, the hero Richard reminded me of John Entwistle, while the unhinged butler seemed like Mick Fleetwood (albeit with 'undead' make-up approximating that of Herk Harvey in CARNIVAL OF SOULS [1962])!! Having mentioned this singular musical association, there's a scene in which the hero is shown trying to break the latch of the gateway to the dungeon where Calderoni has been trapped, a scene that is unaccountably introduced by an outburst of rock music (Giovanni Reverberi's score does manage elsewhere a lovely theme befitting the generally Gothic mood) – not having had the time to realize just where Richard was and what he was doing, and coupled with the character's visible wincing and the jutting of a piece of metal at the corner of the frame, both my brother and I were deceived into thinking he was strumming on some electric guitar (by this point, we honestly were ready to expect just about anything from the film)! Ironically, Polselli was reported as saying that what he intended all along was to depict the heightened perception of events by people in the throes of hysteria – except that, in our case, this alternative visualization was more the result of sheer bewilderment!With this in mind, many scenes in the film have two or three different layers of reality to them – giving the whole an appropriately surreal vibe…but the treatment is so hopelessly clumsy (ranging from delirious editing to blatant day-for-night shooting) that it all goes for naught! At first, too, it seemed interesting that all the characters (which Polselli doesn't bother to clearly define) were 'present' at the time of the witch-burning but, while it's established that Raoul had himself been re-incarnated, there's no explanation whatsoever about the physical likeness of all the others – again, it must be that extras were hard to come by! Even more baffling is the emphasis on a ditzy girl (the actress playing her had been the first victim in DELIRIUM) – providing deliberately(?) terrible acting, unfunny comedy relief (denoting her nymphomaniac personality, Polselli even chooses to end the film with a double entendre involving her!) and, worst of all, is involved in an extended and wholly gratuitous ménage-a'-trois with another (good-looking) girl and a fattish simpleton distinguished only by his facial tick (a scene that would have been deemed tasteless in even the most vulgar of low-brow Italian comedies then also in vogue!). Yet another head-scratching moment is the fact that, in one scene, the medieval(?) citizens are seen baying for the blood of two (of the proposed seven) sacrificial victims in particular – for no discernible reason other than to provide an excuse for a chase in which the girls (wearing just capes and one of whom is well endowed to boot) are finally cornered as if they were wild animals! When all is said and done, I can only suggest the film for the unenviable position of the absolute nadir of the "Euro-Cult" style during its creative heyday – deposing, in fact, previous titleholder TRAGIC CEREMONY (1971)! This reminds me that I've got another obscure Gothic outing, Luigi Batzella's THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT (1973), to watch as part of my ongoing marathon; for the record, the same director would later make NUDE FOR Satan (1974) – also with Calderoni – and which, coincidentally, is regarded as ideal pairing (that is to say, is equally loony) for THE REINCARNATION OF ISABEL itself…

Paul Andrews Riti, Magie Nere e Segrete Orge nel Trecento (which translates into English as Rites, Black Magic and Secret Orgies in the Fourteenth Century apparently), or Black Magic Rites as it's more commonly known as along with other suggestive titles such as The Horrible Orgies of Count Dracula & The Reincarnation of Isabel, starts in the crypt of a large castle with a sacrificial offering to a Vampire/witch named Isabella (Rita Calderoni) 'the great mistress' who was burned alive in the fourteenth century. An unfortunate woman is tied to a stone slab & her heart is cut out by Isabella's husband who happens to be Count Dracula (Raoul Rossi) himself! But without any fangs. In a ritual of the twenty-fifth moon Isabella will be reincarnated, anyway another woman named Raquel is killed & her heart removed. Laureen (Rita Calderoni again) & Richard are engaged to be married & Laureens uncle Jack (Mickey Hargitay) has brought the castle for her, they are holding a big party & various guests fall victim to Isabella's reincarnation rites as she needs the heart & eyes of a virgin or something like that & that's as well as I can explain the 'story', if I've got something wrong don't bother letting me know as I don't care.This Italian production was written & directed by Renato Polselli (he directed under the pseudonym Ralph Brown) & quite frankly is one of the most incoherent, bizarre, strange, baffling & worthless films I've seen in a long time. The script probably made some sort of sense as the written word on a piece of paper but in the hands of Polselli, sorry Brown it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I'm not exaggerating when I say I seriously doubt anyone will be able to follow this thing & make any sort of sense out of it. People do things for no apparent reason, their motivations are baffling, the story is an absolute mess that's all over the place, the character's are virtually indefinable & it's hard to keep track of who's who, the dialogue is minimal & the subtitles lead me to believe it's very basic & Polselli tries his hand at a bit of comedy with a idiot bloke who has a threesome with two women complete with comedy soundtrack & a bit where he tries to remove a hair from his mouth, I'm not sure if the hair came form the women or his terrible moustache! There is also some weirdo hunchback guy named Greg(!) (Marcello Bonini Olas) & references to Count Dracula & Vampires as if things weren't strange enough already. I don't even think Riti, Magie Nere e Sergrete Orge nel Trecento should be called a 'film' & I'm sure most would agree that you need to be taking something to enjoy this, the filmmakers obviously did!Director Polselli certainly gives the film a unique look, it has very rich colours & a cool visual style throughout but bathing people & things in bright neon lights for no reason whatsoever just adds another layer of bizarreness to the proceedings. Anyway it's pretty nice to look at. The editing is atrocious as it cuts to random scenes, things & people that seem to have nothing to do with the current situation. Even simple scenes of two people talking become highly irritating as Polselli cuts, zooms & pans all over the place. The continuity is unbelievably bad, just check the scene out when the two women are chased through the village it switches between bright daytime & the dead of night seemingly at random! There's a bit when someone is buried & from the outside the coffin is a normal size but when the film cuts inside it's massive! There is plenty of naked flesh on show & a couple of ripped out hearts but nothing too explicit.Technically the film alternates between very good & extremely stylish to the most poorly made atrocity I've seen, there's a bit at the end with a 'snake pit' which has all of two rubber snakes in it! You can see the wire/string pulling them along! The awful rubber bats aren't any better either. The acting is, well not great but then look at what they had to work with. Basically nothing.Riti, Magie Nere e Segrete Orge nel Trecento is an absolute mess of a film, it's confusing, muddled, incoherent & worst of all it provides virtually zero entertainment value. It's certainly unique & I doubt there are too many film out there like this but that in itself is not recommendation. It has a few nice visually stylistic moments in it, a few babes & a couple of ripped out hearts, apart from that it's worthless.

Infofreak This movie is best known as 'The Reincarnation Of Isabel', though I watched it as 'Black Magic Rites'. It's also sometimes titled 'The Ghastly Orgies Of Count Dracula'. Anyway, whatever you call it this is one freaky movie! This kind of quasi-psychedelic Eurohorror is I admit an acquired taste, but as I'm already a big fan of this kind of thing I find it hard to be objective about it. Despite (or maybe because of!) an impossible to follow plot, plenty of lousy acting and any excuse whatsoever to get the babes topless this is one of the weirdest and most entertaining movies of this type I've ever seen! Rita Calderoni from 'Nude For Satan' co-stars with Mickey Hargitay, the former bodybuilder and husband of Jayne Mansfield, who appeared in 'The Bloody Pit Of Horror' (by the way, if you're curious you can see Arnie play Hargitay in 'The Jayne Mansfield Story'). If you've seen 'Nude For Satan', imagine it was re-edited by someone tripping on acid and you'll have some idea of what '...Isabel' is like! If I resort to cliches and say you have to see it to believe it, it's because it's true... The plot... well, who knows what the plot is about! Some guys dressed up like Satanic superheros are sacrificing virgins in an attempt to resurrect their long dead leader, the witch (or was that vampire?) Isabella, who was burned at the stake by angry villagers hundreds of years before. I think. Oh, and Dracula's in there somewhere but I can't quite recall why. There are lots of flash backs and just about everybody plays two roles, so it's quite difficult to work out what the hell is going on most of the time! But you know what? It doesn't matter. I loved every minute of it.

Mrswing Totally incomprehensible mess of a film, which mixes Satanists, reincarnated witches and vampires to no good effect - apparently the shoestring budget didn't allow for plastic vampire teeth, plus these so-called bloodsuckers (there's never any actual evidence of neckbiting) do not follow any of the usual vampire rules. The editing is extremely confusing, the score ridiculous, the acting... what acting? Hardly any gore, and what is present is very obviously fake. Lots of strictly R-rated nudity, so even on the sleaze level this is a very mild entry. Apparently this film had been lost for many years - and with good reason, too. Avoid unless you're in a masochistic mood.