Alucarda (1977) is a Mexican nunsploitation movie by Juan Lopez Moctezuma, a little known horror gem with surreal storyline and dreamlike images. We start in an abandoned ruins where we see a mother (Tina Romero) giving birth to her daughter with the help of an old woman before quickly abandoning her newborn kid because she comes from something evil (presumably Satan).
Flashback to some 15 or 17 years later, we arrive in a church that looks more like a cave where the nuns dressed like mummies having their period (I'm not joking, it's gross). A newly orphaned Justine (Susana Kamini) arrives in the church and is greeted by Sister Angelica (Tina French), whose kindness quickly borders on sexual liking (no surprise there, this being a nunsploitation and all). Justine is assigned as Alucarda's roommate (the titular character also played by Tina Romero). They quickly become best friends and spend their days wandering around the village when they're not attending the church's lessons.
Ins: Susana Kamini (Justine) is the one on left, Tina Romero (Alucarda) is the one on the right.
One day, while enjoying their day out, they meet a hunchback (the legendary Claudio Brook) who gives them prophecies about their dark fate, the girls laugh it off...that is, until they stumble upon a ruin with a coffin inside it. Alucarda declares her love for Justine (which Justine reciprocates) and coerces Justine into making the same oath...in the coffin! Justine of course refuses the coffin part but Alucarda insists on opening the coffin. The next scene apparently suggest something supernatural emerges from the coffin and gets a hold of both girls (my own interpretation, I did tell u about the surrealistic bit).
Both girls were apparently injured and somehow taken back to their church where they are nursed by the sisters (especially Sister Angelica). One night, Justine is visited by Alucarda (and later the hunchback) where both are stripped naked in a ritual.
Stripping two women nude had never been quicker!! Kudos for Claudio!!!
And boys, we even have this as a part of the ritual >_< :
Following this ritual, Alucarda & Justine started showing tendencies of belittling Jesus and the teaching of the church, prompting the nuns and the priest to decide on torturing them to drive the demon out of the two girls after a self flagellation scene I will not cover cause I do not ogle over half naked old men being whipped. And I'm sure you do not too, folks.
Before the torture, Justine appears to be hit by an unknown illness, but the village doctor, Oszek (also played by Claudio Brooks) ensures the priests and nuns she's gonna be okay. They take this as a sign Justine is healthy enough to endure the punishment they will inflict upon her. Sister Angelica is, of course, the only nun to oppose to having both girls tortured, so she is locked in when the party begins. And next comes the highlight of the movie.
We first see unaware Alucarda being taken to the chamber where she sees Justine in this condition:
Bound in a Y cross, Justine watches helplessly as Alucarda realizes what's going on and tries to get away, but the priests dragged her to a similar Y cross across Justine's and bound her there. The priests start Justine's punishment by taking her clothes off:
The priests read some incantations while piercing Justine's body with a stick to find her devil mark. Alucarda yells at everybody to stop the punishment, so one priest knocks her out with a straight. Damn, priest knows how to punch!
Justine tries her best to endure the piercing as the priests tries out different spots on her chest and stomach. After a long session, Justine succumbs to her wounds and dies.
We got great shots during the entire punishment scene. Close up of Justine crying, her lovely breasts area being pierced slowly (and her whimpers). I think we also got one short shot where she tries to struggle against her restraint to no avail.
Anyway, Sister Angelica & Oszek arrive too late to stop the whole thing. Oszek condemns the church and takes Alucarda away with him to his house where he stays with his daughter while Angelica cries over Justine's dead body.
But the story does not stop here: before her funeral, Justine's dead body goes missing. The church is quick to point as Satan and his doing for the movie dead body. Angelica and Oszek go for a search on their own, arriving in the ruins with the coffin. When Oszek goes deeper, Angelica stays near the coffin where she discovers what's inside the coffin:
Zombie Justine, in all her nude and bloody glory, attacks Angelica with all her might. The struggle continues until Oszek returns with a holy water and splashes it on Justine, killing her (for the second time) in the process. Angelica, unfortunately, dies as a result from the attack.
Returning to the village, Oszek discovers that Alucarda has taken his daughter to the church as sacrifice to summon Lucifer. Long story short, in a fiery finale, the daughter is saved and Alucarda dies.
After contemplating here and there, I give this one B+, not the highest score, because of one thing: Tina Romero did not get naked enough. True, we got to see every part of the lovely Susana Kamini. But as the titular character in a nunsploitation movie, Romero had the obligation to be more nude than anybody in the movie. Instead, she was allowed to keep her clothes on for 75% of the movie (compared to Kamini who spends 2/3 of her screen times naked). I mean, why?! what's the point? She should have been stripped nude too during the punishment and stayed like that till the credit rolls over like Kamini did, right?! You guys agree with me, no?! Gaaaah, such a potential!
Anyway, this concludes the review. Thank you for reading! ^_^