Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973)

Lorraine and Mark enter the world of witchcraft where Mara foretells the future and helps them remember their past lives. When a series of mysterious murders begin to occur, they turn to Dr. Helsford fort advice.Written, directed and produced by Ted V. Mikels, who is one of the more bizarre of the independent, cult directors. This is a guy who was known for his home life, as he once lived with groups of women in a Glendale, California castle. And judging from this film, some of those ladies may have made an appearance.This movie is a bit odd, and definitely low budget, but not necessarily bad. People give it a bad rap, a hard time, and say it is awful. No. Any film that entertains is not awful ,and this entertains.

I spent $5 on a VHS copy of this film. I want that $5 back. I mean, think of all the gumballs I could have bought instead!There's no orgy, there's little blood and Leslie McCrae hasn't learned to dance any better since her terrible turn in "The Girl in Gold Boots." Everyone in this film looks like they swallowed a quart of Nyquil before filming began. The plot...was there one? I saw this film less than six months ago and I can't remember much about its central storyline. Maybe it's a subconscious defense mechanism that caused me to block it from my memory. It's AWFUL! It tried too hard to be arty, and fails because nobody's art is going to be taken seriously when you have scantily clad go-go dancers wiggling around with long spears. Big yawn.

Ted V. Mikels is sometimes lumped together with Ed Wood, Ray Dennis Steckler and Herschell Gordon Lewis as a director of good "bad" movies. This is incorrect. He makes BAD "bad" movies! They stink! Mikels is probably the only director who can take a trashtastic title like 'Blood Orgy of the She-Devils' and make it boring. In fact I sometimes think Mikels is responsible for the most boring movies ever made. Not arthouse Warhol/Antonioni/Tarkovsky "boring" (which I can appreciate), but looking-at-your-watch-every-ten-minutes boring. Now this is quite an achievement when you're dealing with potentially sensational material concerning witchcraft and political assassinations! I found this movie a chore to sit through. And no, there is no "blood orgy" and the "she-devils" dance a lot but keep their clothes on. Awful on every level.

Let's get the basics down first. I grew up in a white-bread, almost totally homogenized town. I am only 19. And, so, I haven't seen too many exploitation films. However, due to a recommendation from "Cult Flicks and Trash Picks," I bought this piece of trash a few years ago. I have watched it twice. The movie is good, and better than most.*SPOILERS* The movie is almost incoherent, and shall be for most films. A group of sacrificing witches do rituals. Their head witch is hired to kill a politician, and then is killed, but reincarnates herself. She also does seances. She decides to extract her vengence on the two who attempted to kill her. We also have flashbacks of torture scenes from history's witches (some of the more disturbing images on screen). And, it ends with a bunch of witch hunters coming to kill her. The movie is funny in parts, sometimes downright hilarious. However, it does have moments of disturbing images, much worse that Last House on the Left, if you need a comparison. The movie somehow got away with a 'PG' rating, probably because it does not show anything. So, I found it kind of entertaining, even if it was a little tedious.7/10