Le Marquis de la Croix (Decadent Cinema, 2012) is a feature film based on the work of the Marquis de Sade. The film was written and directed by Amy Hesketh. This movie was going to become a low budget Red Feline film, but changed to become a big scale production since they changed their style of movie production after producing Maleficarum. This movie also borrows the dungeon set and the rack from Maleficarum.
We are introduced to an American tourist (Amy Hesketh) exploring the city of Bolivia. She goes into a museum and is able to join a group touring a particular exhibit. The group consists of the guide (Eric Calancha), and a lovely young couple (Jac Avila and Mila Joya). The exhibit being shown is that of the Marquis de la Croix. As the guide tells the story of the Marquis, we are shown the story through the eyes of the American tourist.
As the story of the Marquis (Jac Avila) begins, we learn that he was a very wealthy man, but was imprisoned for his crimes. Because of his wealth, he was allowed to have many comforts and luxuries in his cell. His wealth also allowed him to buy beautiful women who were condemned to die.
The latest women brought to the Marquis is a gypsy woman named Zynga (Mila Joya). She is brought to the Marquis bound in chains with her arms bound behind her. She has a cleave gag around her mouth.
The Marquis first humiliates Zynga by dangling an apple in front of her face. He tells her to crawl to him on her knees, but when she nears the apple, he grabs her to give him oral sex (simulated of course). After all that, he shoves the apple in her face, but she instead cries in humiliation.
The Marquis then chains Zynga AOH facing against the wall. Her legs are shackled together as well. After a little interrogation of her crimes which she pleads innocent, the Marquis rips open the top of her dress to show off her lovely back and ass. He then begins to whip her back and ass. When she falls unconscious from the pain, he stops and leaves her alone for the night. He then writes some more in his journal.
The next day, the Marquis gets ready to torture Zynga some more. He binds her this time AOH with her back against the wall. He then teases her more by eating bread and drinking wine in front of her hungry mouth. She tells him that he will do anything to sooth her hunger and thirst. He then rips the front of her dress to reveal her lovely breasts and pussy. She is then whipped on her front side now as well. Eventually, he rips her dress completely off only leaving her with sleeves on her arms. He then whips her a little more.
After removing the torn dress from her body, she has her arms shackled behind her. Her legs are still shackled together. She lays her shackled on the ground in front of a bit of bread that was thrown on the ground. She was able to eat a little bit of bread off the ground.
While she is eating whatever bread she could, he then unexpectedly feel her arms being lifted in the air. She is then put in a strappado position. While in that position, he teases her with wine in her thirsty state. He does however allow her to take a few sips of the wine. He then begins to whip her with a rod in that position. I love the way she dances around the room while being caned with the rod. It makes her realize that she has nowhere to run. Her screams of pain are really well acted as well. She definitely conveys to me how helpless she is as the victim. Jac also plays his role well as the torturer. He shows a really good cold expression as he whips his victim. Mila as the victim plays off of this as well as she conveys a lot of fear on her face.
For her next torture, the Marquis places Zynga on the rack. While she is stretching her arms out from the torture, he uses the opportunity to interrogate her some more. Her cries of pain are really convincing as she is being stretched on the rack. Since she had some experience with the rack in Maleficarum, Mila was able to give a better performance on the rack. I also enjoy the sweat glistening on the front of her body as she is being stretched out. He then takes the same rod from her earlier and uses it to give a good caning on the bottoms of her feet.
He next ties her AOH in the middle of the room to whip her some more. Her body dances around some more as she is getting whipped. She eventually falls unconscious from the pain.
For her last torture, she is to be crucified. The Marquis starts by tying Zynga’s arm to a wooden cross bar. With her arms secure, he starts to nail each hand to the cross. As her hands are being struck by the nails, she screams and contorts her face and body in agony. After the cross bar is raised above her head, he places a wooden box under her feet. He then begins to nail her legs to the wooden box as well. She struggles to stay on her feet as body limps from pain as she hangs in a Y-shaped crucifixion. Her pain however causes her to move in discomfort in order to prevent her from passing out. She eventually passes out and dies from all her suffering.
As the story ends, the guide tells our group that no one knows if the stories are true about the Marquis and her torture of beautiful women. We are then left with a nice twist ending that I will not spoil here.
Summary: The imprisoned Marquis is able to afford having beautiful women brought to him so that he can torture him for his own amusement. This story tells of his torture of the gypsy woman Zynga. Her tortures include whipping, the rack, and ends with a crucifixion.
Pros:
As always, I am a fan of the acting portrayed by all the Red Feline girls. Mila is a tall, sexy, and a voluptuous girl who knows how to convey her pain and wide range of emotions as she is being tortured. A very convincing victim indeed.
Jac’s acting is much improved since his early days of Red Feline. Ever since he started working with a bigger crew, it allowed him to focus more on improving his acting. He plays the role of a great torturer and brings a lot of fear towards his victims.
The tortures were well done. Red Feline is known for their whipping and crucifixion scenes and both were done pretty well in the film. The rack scene was well done as well. The experience they had doing a rack scene in Maleficarum helped in making the rack scene here much better.
Cons:
Not enough variety in the tortures. Other than the whipping and crucifixions which are a staple in any Red Feline torture film, we only get to see one other type of torture, the rack. I can excuse the excessive whipping in the earlier RF productions, but with the high production values in the film, I expected more variety in the tortures.
For me personally, I have been spoiled by the great stories told in the more recent films by Pachamama. I know that most GIMPers don’t really care for a good story in their GIMP movies. A little more plot would have helped the story flow better.
Overall, I would give this movie a B. This is a pretty good torture movie with plenty of GIMP scenes like Maleficarum. There is however not a lot of variety in the torture scenes and a pretty weak story to carry the film. I recommend this if you are a fan of Red Feline’s earlier movies and like movies with a lot of torture.