Skunkyrate
Gripping story with well-crafted characters
Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Siflutter
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Stevieboy666
This film centres around the exploits of witch/medium Mara, who is happy to perform curses if the price is right, and her coven who like to sacrifice men - which is a kind of gender reversal as it's usually good looking, naked women who normally end up on the alter in such movies. Films concerning black magic were quite popular around this period & this certainly has a stand out title. Sadly it does not deliver on the promise of either orgies or blood. I'm surprised that it's rated 18 here in the UK, it really is quite tame. It's also pretty boring & repetitive, suffers from bad acting & poor production values, though it's low budget obviously has to be taken into account.
quridley
This is not a scary or polished horror film, but a very personal and knowledgeable morality play about the supernatural evils of our world. Ted V Mikels has made so many fluffy and shallow movies that works like this get overlooked. He has some genuine experience with the occult and its dangers and his best stories reflect this. The characters and action in "Blood Orgy" are his most realistic and disturbing. Mikels pays more attention to his art direction and soundtrack here to produce an appropriately dark and creepy atmosphere and mood. This isn't as commercial and fun as HG Lewis or other schlock from the period, but its more sincere and effective. This film shows Mikels was probably the least cynical of that genre of filmmakers even if he wasn't the most polished.
Witchfinder General 666
"Blood Orgy Of The She Devils" - an awesome title, that raises hopes for an ultra-sleazy and gory 70s Explotitation effort full of gratuitous female nudity, chopped off limbs etc. Unfortunately Ted V. Mikels' film, which is nonetheless slightly entertaining for its trashiness, is a very tame, and often boring yawner, that does not nearly come up to what the title promises. As it often was the case with films with an extremely low budget, this was given a title that has little to nothing to do with the actual film in order to lure viewers into theaters. The film itself is an absolutely ridiculous mess, but even though often too boring, it has its amusing moments. The film has a ridiculous and confused plot dealing with witchcraft, which revolves around an occult voodoo circle lead by a witch named Mara. Mara has supernatural powers which she can use to communicate with the dead as well as for other black magic purposes. When she includes a pretty young woman in her unholy circle, the girl's boyfriend and best friend consider a doctor who is an expert for the occult. The doctor, basically the hero of the film, is constantly talking in 'sophisticated' nonsensical phrases about witchcraft. The performances are terrible, but terrible performances are something I can forgive in low-budget cinema. What I missed were the exploitative factors, namely the expected gore and sleaze. The popularity of Michael Reeves' British Horror masterpiece "Witchfinder General" starring the great Vincent Price spawned a number of violent 'Hexploitation' films about witch-hunts, most prominently the notorious (and great) "Mark Of The Devil". Director Mikels also tried to jump on the bandwagon here, and "Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils" therefore includes two flashbacks to the time of witch-hunts, which are incredibly corny, but probably even so the best scenes in the film. Mikels is probably best known for "The Corpse Grinders" of 1972, which has a certain cult status, and which I have yet to see. "Blood Orgy Of The She Devils" is certainly not the nasty Exploitation film the title suggests, but merely a quite tame, and very very silly little film that mildly amuses but bores even more. It somehow reminded me of "Snake People", an extremely odd low budget-production which happened to be one of the last films starring the great Horror icon Boris Karloff. The difference is that this one doesn't star Karloff. "Blood Orgy Of The She Devils" has its amusing moments, and fans of (awful) cult cinema can consider watching it. Others should avoid it. I personally don't regret watching it, as I was somehow entertained by it, however, I made sure to write this review the day after watching it, since I will probably have forgotten it entirely in a week.
InzyWimzy
I have to admit, this movie was not as bad as I thought it would've been. Now, it's no Dario Argento, but there is this underlying dark theme of witchcraft, occult, the black arts and the low budget quality is apparent. Plus, considering I've seen "Girl in Gold Boots" first, I thought this one scored higher (although Gold Boots has become a favorite laffer for me). The music and visual effects helped add a creepiness to the film. Mara as the head witch does scream a lot especially during the seance scene. The Indian guy reminded me of Tomy Chong. Tom Pace did not make as many goofy faces as usual and Leslie McRae (ROWR, yum yum!!) was just great to look at despite her so so acting (I think Ted agrees). Some flaws included the witch trial flashbacks with the men donning modern dress slacks (poor kid got whipped) and the fake bat. Good late night fodder.