The movie opens with a Caucasian tourist (Amy Hesketh) following a tour book to a small museum, where she arrives just in time to hear the tour guide begin his speech to an older man (Jac Avila) and a young woman (Mila Joya). As the tour guide describes the history of the building, the tourist imagines the man, the woman, and the tour guide as characters in the story.

A wealthy nobleman was imprisoned for crimes (against morality? The Church?) but because he was wealthy, he could buy female convicts that were delivered to him from time to time so that he could a) exact the women’s punishments, and b) satisfy the nobleman’s darkest desires of pain and torture. We see the curly-haired prostitute (Joya) who the nobleman (Avila) taunts with an apple. If she wants it, she has to beg for it on her hands and knees. As she crawls towards him, her hands and ankles locked securely in heavy shackles, he grabs her head and forces her to perform fellatio on him. When she is finished, he throws her onto the floor and shoves the apple into her mouth as she weeps.

Next, he drags her over to a pillar, where she is made to face it and her arms are locked above her head. He then rips her dress down to her ass and whips her. Then, he turns her around, rips the dress off of her front, and whips her some more. Eventually her entire dress is whipped off of her body and she is then forced to suffer the strappado position (hands behind back and then her arms are cranked upwards painfully behind her). She is then whipped some more. When she is about to pass out, he drags her over to the rack, where she is stretched until her body shuts down and she is left unconscious on the bench. He goes to his desk and writes his thoughts and feelings, and we are treated to his innermost thoughts via narration. Sometimes it’s good to be a wealthy nobleman.

After she regains consciousness, a rope is tied around her wrists and her ankles, still locked in heavy iron shackles, are untied from the rack’s bench. She is then pulled to the middle of the room where she is hoisted up, arms overhead, and whipped again. During the whipping, he pauses and taunts her, “Perhaps you would prefer the guillotine?” and she shakes her head “no”. She would prefer to be whipped, so she is.

After an extended whipping, she’s taken down and nailed to the crosspiece, which is then hoisted up via rope, taking her with it. She’s made to stand on a block of wood, to which her feet are nailed. The nobleman caresses her face tenderly as she begins to slip into unconsciousness, her eyes telling a tale of pain and exhaustion as she struggles in her modified crucifixion position. The nobleman then goes to his book and records his thoughts and feelings about how great it is to make her suffer and how noble she was to endure it all. As she’s about to expire, he goes over to her and, finally, gives her some wine squeezed from his handkerchief. Symbolically, this is her accepting the blood of Christ, which is great since she’s being crucified.

She dies.

We then return to the tour guide concluding his tour. The man and woman move off, but the tourist girl returns to examine the artifacts in detail. The tour guide, seeing he still has a customer, returns with a tray and offers her some tea. She asks some questions, he explains that everything is real, and she has her “Oh, really?” moment. Then, she feels dizzy. The closing scene is her, stretched out on the rack naked, screaming in terror. Is the tour guide a maniac or is she just dreaming? We are left to wonder.

Time for some criticisms and comments.

First, the whipping sound effect is ill-timed with the thump of the whip and the action on-screen. What we see, what we hear, and then what we hear again are so far off that it’s almost comical. Whoever did the sound editing should be put through the whipping and the rack! Again!

Second, Mila in Maleficarum had more material to work with than she does here, which is a shame because, although she makes a great Damsel-in-Distress, it would have been nice to see first how she came to be under arrest. In other words, more character development would have been nice. Was she a good girl caught in a conspiracy? Did she catch the eye of a wicked duke? Or was she truly someone to spit on? As an actress, Mila can say more with her expressions and vocalizations than most people can with words. It’s a shame she’s limited to the two-dimensional character in this film. That aside, she has little to work with, but does a fantastic job of expressing, fear, pain, and acceptance of her inevitable fate.

Third, why is the nobleman speaking English but the victim only speaks Spanish, yet understands the nobleman’s English perfectly? Why doesn't he just speak in Spanish so she can understand his taunts easier?

Fourth, the lighting in this film is very good. The camera work is good as well. Also, there’s not nearly as much blood as in some of the other Red Feline productions (other than when Mila’s character is being nailed to the crossbar and the block of wood). Viewers of Maleficarum will recognize the set location (which is great), sans the smokey haze (which was not so great).

Fifth, Mila has a body built for abuse. She looks good dry, she looks good covered in sweat. She moans well, she trembles well, she emotes well. Certainly, she has breasts and nipples worthy of an Oscar in their own right, if “Best Body for a Racking” were to be a category. If you like women with dark, exotic eyes and thick ringlets of dark hair, she’s your girl. And did I mention she’s hot?

Sixth, I'm not an Amy Hesketh - Actress, fan. Her best work is behind the camera, in production assistance, as prop master, or as a victim. As long as she doesn't have to speak, she’s fine. There’s just something about her vocal intonation that’s about as dynamic as Bob Newhart, except he could tell a joke and, no matter how bad it was, make it funny. I think her real strength is in movie-making, not in movie-acting. In Maleficarum, she was great as the handmaid/foreign noblewoman because she could play a mousy character. So, it’s good in this film that she plays the foreign tourist and leaves the acting to Mila.