"Let The Exorcist beware, The Demons are here!"

One can only imagine that Jess Franco sat in a theater as Ken Russell's The Devils ended and thought to himself, "But where's the sex? I want more of it. I demand more of it!:

After watching a witch burn, we meet two nuns in a convent, the virginal Margaret (Britt Nichols AKA Carmen Yazalde, who appears in The Erotic Rights of Frankenstein, A Virgin Among the Living Dead and is sacrificed in Tombs of the Blind Dead) and her more sex-obsessed sister Kathleen (Anne Libert, House of 1000 Pleasures and Sins of the Flesh).

A rich woman named Lady De Winter (Karin Field, Target Frankie and Return of Shanghai Joe) believes that Kathleen is possessed by Satan and that the two are the daughters of that blackened witch, so she puts her top man, Thomas Renfield (Alberto Dalbés, A Quiet Place to Kill and Espionage In Tangiers) after her. Of course, he falls in love and lets her escape. And even when Inquisitor Lord Justice Jeffreys (Cihangir Gaffari, Dick Turpin and Bloodsport) gives him another chance, Renfield runs back to her and the two are soon tortured into near oblivion.

Meanwhile, Satan himself appears in the convent and assaults Margaret, replacing her innocence with an overwhelming desire to punish anyone who harmed her mother or sister, starting with Lady De Winter, often by kissing them into skeletons. You know, no one loves female revenge more than Jess Franco and he's going all out here, with Margaret seducing her Mother Superior right into suicide and then leaving no man or woman safe from her vengeance.

This is one of the more gorgeous films Franco would make - it was shot by Raul Artigot (The Ghost Galleon, The Cannibal Man, The Pyjama Girl Case) - and he makes great use of his budget. And he lives up to those dreams of a movie that somehow answers, "What if Witchfinder General was more about lesbians?"

A typically inane jumble of sex and horror from prolific pervo Jess Franco – here masquerading under the name 'Clifford Brown'. Obviously inspired by the similarly-titled Ken Russell epic THE DEVILS, Franco is happy to throw in as many ingredients as he likes into the heady brew. Yep, here we have it, a combination of lesbian nuns, sadistic torture, swashbuckling, black magic, court intrigue, romance, and a witch who can turn people into skeletons via a deadly kiss. However, I'm afraid that the film isn't as eclectic as it sounds; indeed the most exciting thing about it is the music, which ranges from vaguely-appropriate guitar/folk noise mixed with outlandish rock during the frequent sex scenes. Franco's blurry camera typically zooms into the private parts of various women as they undress; there's lots of frolicking and moaning, and it's a complete turn-off for sensible viewers.

The English-dubbed version of the film is pretty poor and the camera-work as shoddy as ever. Lots of jump cuts make little sense and result in a sometimes headache-inducing movie. The nubile Libert and Nichols are happy to strip often for the camera, whilst Alberto Dalbes is a spitting image of our own Tony Blackburn – and whose idea was it to call him Renfield (a la Dracula?). Franco regular Howard Vernon is on hand as a star-gazing nobleman. Franco spices up the sex with some distinctly unappealing torture sequences, such as the opening when an old woman has a needle driven into her arm and then has boiling water poured over her. Mmmm, nice. Anyway, the combination for ingredients makes for typical Spanish fare; certainly bad but fast-paced with it.

Jesus Franco Nunploitation film about two nuns who are sisters causing a convent to be turned upside down by lesbianism, demonic possession and other fun things.

Its a well acted and we shot film that didn't seem to make a hell of a lot of sense. It was interesting to watch the twisted and lustful goings on for a while but after a while my interest drifted and I found myself no paying attention which made following the minimal story even more difficult. As these things go its actually not bad but not the sort of thing I want to be watching after midnight.

6 out of 10.