Day 2: Sisters of Satan

      After the death of her parents, Justine joins a convent where she meets a young girl named Alucarda. The two hit it off immediately and begin a relationship that borders on lesbianism. After meeting a mysterious band of gypsies, the two girls unwittingly release a demonic spirit that possesses them and begins to wreak havoc.

      Everything that I've just described all takes place in the first 15-20 minutes of the film. Yeah. Sisters of Satan (AKA Alucarda) is a bit of a wild ride. Complete with nudity, lesbianism, satanic rituals, blood, exorcism, anti-christian imagery, and burning nuns (Yes, burning nuns). This film doesn't hold much back after it gets going.

     Fans of possession or films with Satanic themes have plenty like here. There is a possession ritual in this film that is so insane it's hard to follow. Girls are bleeding, kissing each other! There's some weird hunchback freak guy there. Some random Satanist girl dies for no explained reason? Even Satan shows up to the festivities! At least I think it's Satan. There's no telling what is actually going on here but its definitely a highlight.

     Even though there are a ton of great scenes, the film isn't without its weaknesses. The characters are poorly developed. As stated before, it hardly takes 20 minutes before these girls are possessed. We don't really have a reason to care about them other than their ultra rushed "love story". The rest of the cast consists mainly of nameless nuns and pastors who are virtually identical in appearance and personality. There is one nun who sympathizes with the possessed girls, but you can't even really identify her. The most interesting character in the film is a doctor who mainly appears in the second half.

     Despite its lack of characterization and poor pacing, its hard to fully write off a movie that's last act features dozens of nuns being set on fire. Its not a particularly good film but it has so much sacrilege that makes it a must see. Sisters of Satan is worth checking out at least once. Depending on your tastes, you may want to revisit it several times.

     

Body Count: 8
Side Note: This film is actually Mexican. Its dialogue was still filmed in English and thus the lip movements of the actors match of very nicely with the dubbed voice actors.