The Deathhead Virgin (1974)

According to IMDb the plot of "The Deathhead Virgin" goes like that:a treasure hunter Jock Gaynor finds a sunken Spanish galleon off the coast of a Philippine island.What he doesn't know is that the ship is guarded by the spirit of an ancient Moro princess-the titular Deathhead Virgin.When Jock removes an amulet from around her bleached skeleton she returns to life.The local legend states that once the Deathhead Virgin is coming back from her watery grave seven virgins must be ritually sacrificed.The action of "The Deathhead Virgin" moves at snail's pace,the acting is amateurish and there is almost no suspense.Sunny Philippine locations are nice and there is a bit of naked flesh.Unfortunately "The Deathhead Virgin" looks cheap and tiresome.However this is perhaps the only one horror film I know that features a masked,harpoon-wielding,homicidal,aquatic and naked zombie girl.5 virgins out of 10.

With a name like The Deathhead Virgin it was pretty much inevitable that one day I would sit down to watch this one. I'm one of those people drawn irresistibly to films with cool names, regardless of their quality I can just dig the feeling of watching a movie with a good name. This one gets pretty lousy reviews all round with good reason, not good, nor dysfunctional enough to pull off many classic bad movie tricks, The Deathhead Virgin merely goes about its business in its unassuming cheapie fashion and switches out to no fanfare after some 93 minutes or so. The plotting is actually kinda interesting, there's the odd twist and an ambition to the process that really could have done with some money, or better yet more concentration on the elements that work and editing for the bits that don't. The discovery of a supposedly Spanish wreck with attendant fake skeleton (seriously, it doesn't even begin to look like its anything more than a plastic model, so pristinely white and undamaged is its look) and some treasure sparks the return to life of a cursed virgin princess, possession and a spot of murder. Made in the Philipines, I guess the Westerners of the cast all liked the sunny location as there are scenes of various merry making, dancing and characters simply hanging about, which given the inherent interest of the locality isn't as boring as it might be but still rather puts the kibosh on any actual suspense. There' brief nudity and a little smidgen of gore but the murders are poorly staged and shock value is low. On the plus side, there are some fun cheesy solarisation visuals and the appearances of the titular boogeychick (is that the feminine of bogeyman?) are good for a few laughs, surprisingly for such a film she actually looks very close to her depiction on the posters, i.e. pretty cool and heck, once or twice even a little bit creepy. Mostly this film is weak stuff, never wild enough or bad enough, interesting images and ineptly handled schlock nuggets nestled amongst the padding and attractive women in bikini's aside there isn't much good here. I found it watchable enough, but it truly ain't great, worst of all is that it isn't even that funny. Well, it does bust out a ribtickling attempt at a bona fide action showdown at one stage that raises the pulse a little, but the effort would have been better used in the service of more horror goods. Larry Ward and Jock Gaynor can be blamed for a good deal of things, since they wrote and starred in the thing and their acting is non-charismatic and the script too drawn out. Director Norman Foster appears to be some kind of veteran in the profession but I can't say as his experience was visible on screen. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone, but on the other hand I didn't dislike it nearly as much as I expected to, maybe its my love of really bad films, especially ones that sling a bit of cheapskate exotica around (fan dances for the win!). I was never quite disengaged, I smiled at times, I was even mildly entertained. But I can't really credit too much to the film, much as I'd like to. All in all this is a lowbrow matinée adventure/horror crossbreed that all but dedicated junk hunters can happily pass on by, as one of those unfortunate sorts I give it about a 4/10.

*Minor spoilers*Unrenowned U.S./Phillipines co-venture involves an ancient sunken vessel being found by divers. Inside the ship is a treasure, as well as the manacled skeleton of a princess. When the skeleton is heedlessly released from it's chains, the bones transform into a naked girl wearing an ugly witch mask over her face. As you've probably guessed, nearby island natives begin to die mysteriously, and some suspect that the ages-old curse of the Deathhead Virgin is to blame. Things aren't necessarily all that they seem, however, as the story takes some hairpin turns during the final-third.THE DEATHHEAD VIRGIN is a fairly watchable and not inefficiently formulated low-budget horror-drama(and Diane McBain is gorgeous in a slingshot bikini). Still, there's nothing of any real distinction to make this recommendable(unless your dying to see what is possibly the world's longest spread of opening credits). It's not at all a good film, but it is a wee bit better than I had anticipated. With the immense volume of worthwhile cinema to be watched, why would you make time for something like this? 4/10

As a child at summer camp, the councillors were hard pressed to find an effective way to punish our cabin for out mis-doings. Well, the day that they made us watch this film in its entirety (without letting us fall asleep), was the day that they found that effective punishment. This film is actually painful to watch. I am not exaggerating!