Excellent film by Paul Naschy, who in turn debuted as director.
Set in the sixteenth century, in full reign of terror of the Inquisition, Naschy tells the story of a brutal French Inquisitor who arrives in a modest town plagued by the plague and superstitions that witches are to blame for all the evils that whip
As such, beautiful young women are accused by an evil and perfidious one-eyed servant who buries a deep hatred towards women who according to him they despise him.
These girls are brutally tortured until, of course, they confess, because with such inhuman pain, anyone confesses anything. The girls are savagely burned by the inquisitor who will nevertheless begin to build his own fall from grace by laying eyes on a beautiful young woman who is in turn very much in love with her partner, but this dies at the hands of some bandits without it being clear if the inquisitor had a hand in this event. The inquisitor will get away with having managed to possess the young woman but this secretly will initiate a pact with the devil to destroy the inquisitor causing his pain and unhappiness
Certainly the film is not as strong as it might seem at first, but it has some harsh scenes that can damage the sensibility of more than one, although the tortures pass to the background in the middle of the film.
The film has a very good script and history, with good dialogues and more than correct performances. Correctly shows the fear of that time raise your voice before the implacable fist of the church, the terrible and unjust methods used by the Inquisition to remove their tortures and the trickery, often meaningless that occurred in those times, but obviously we can not judge that time, or any, with our current mentality.
All this also supported by a good work in the sets, locations and a superb photography and soundtrack.
Everything looks really good in this film in which Naschy showed I believe, a great will and effort to show a product of quality and faith that got it, without doubt achieving one of his best films and performances.
Highly recommended
Set in the sixteenth century, in full reign of terror of the Inquisition, Naschy tells the story of a brutal French Inquisitor who arrives in a modest town plagued by the plague and superstitions that witches are to blame for all the evils that whip
As such, beautiful young women are accused by an evil and perfidious one-eyed servant who buries a deep hatred towards women who according to him they despise him.
These girls are brutally tortured until, of course, they confess, because with such inhuman pain, anyone confesses anything. The girls are savagely burned by the inquisitor who will nevertheless begin to build his own fall from grace by laying eyes on a beautiful young woman who is in turn very much in love with her partner, but this dies at the hands of some bandits without it being clear if the inquisitor had a hand in this event. The inquisitor will get away with having managed to possess the young woman but this secretly will initiate a pact with the devil to destroy the inquisitor causing his pain and unhappiness
Certainly the film is not as strong as it might seem at first, but it has some harsh scenes that can damage the sensibility of more than one, although the tortures pass to the background in the middle of the film.
The film has a very good script and history, with good dialogues and more than correct performances. Correctly shows the fear of that time raise your voice before the implacable fist of the church, the terrible and unjust methods used by the Inquisition to remove their tortures and the trickery, often meaningless that occurred in those times, but obviously we can not judge that time, or any, with our current mentality.
All this also supported by a good work in the sets, locations and a superb photography and soundtrack.
Everything looks really good in this film in which Naschy showed I believe, a great will and effort to show a product of quality and faith that got it, without doubt achieving one of his best films and performances.
Highly recommended