Tweet
Released by: One 7 Movies
Released on: 3/8/2011
Director: Joe D'Amato
Cast: Richard Harrison, Nieves Navarro, Lucia Ramirez
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
One of a few sex films that D'Amato show in the tropics that mixed sex film standards with genre conventions (other examples being Porno Holocaust, Emmanuelle And The Last Cannibals, Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead and Papaya: Love Goddess Of The Cannibals), 1982's Sex And Black Magic (alternately known as Orgasmo Nero) stars an unlikely Richard Harrison plays an author named Paul who is visiting a remote tropical island while working on his latest project. His wife, Helen (Nieves Navarra, a.k.a. Susan Scott), shows up to visit him but winds up becoming far more interested in a native girl she meets, Haini (Lucia Ramirez).
Haini and Helen begin to have a torrid lesbian affair and Helen decides that she's going to bring Haini back with her to the mainland. Things get even weirder when Haini tries to kill a guy she picked up at a bar with a machete conveniently left around and then she and Helen join Paul in a three way. When they tire of their new plaything and try to return her to the island village she originally came from, however, Haini's jealousy begins to cause all manner of problems.
More of a twisted romance than the horror film it is sometimes made out to be, Sex And Black Magic is short on black magic but definitely delivers in the sex department. The plot, courtesy of D'Amato's script, is rudimentary at best and plays up on European 'fears' of natives and islanders, at times edging creepily into racist territory, but then, I'm probably reading too much into it. This is an exploitation film meant to arouse and entertain and not one with much of a legitimate political message. Regardless, the moral here is that the white's get what's coming to them when they bring an island native into their bedroom - watch out for those crazy natives, they'll take a machete to you! It's a dopey plotline and one that isn't really all that well executed - but with that said, D'Amato sleazes it up enough (hey look, a blowjob! Oooo…. Cannibalism?) that if nothing else it is entertaining.
As far as the casting goes, Harrison basically sleepwalks through this one. He's in reasonably good shape here but surprisingly shows very little enthusiasm for the material. This isn't the fault of Nieves Navarro, however, as even here in her early forties she manages to vamp it up and ooze sex appeal. Her character may not act logically or be particularly believable, but she's good in the part and she's definitely got the look down pat. Lucia Ramirez is essentially just crazy lady eye candy here. She doesn't have much dialogue and looks more like a hip young lady than an actual tribeswoman, but hey, at least she's cute which is really probably all that the filmmakers cared about in the first place. Mark 'warty balls' Shannon has a small role here, playing the man in Haini's sex fantasy though he's not credited in the opening or closing credits.
Stelvio Cipriani delivers a fun score and his work here is top notch, while the cinematography does a great job of capturing the exotic island locations used for various parts of the movie. The picture is well put together from a technical standpoint. D'Amato fans will be pleased.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The anamorphic widescreen transfer won't take home any awards but it's not bad - not great, mind you, but not bad. Presented in its original aspect ratio, it shows some minor print damage and moderate to heavy grain throughout but none of this is particularly distracting. Colors are usually pretty decent if occasionally faded while skin tones look fine. Some shots are noticeably softer than others. Frequent, though minor, compression artifacts can be spotted in the darker scenes but otherwise it looks okay, just not amazing.
The Italian language Dolby Digital Mono mix on this disc, which comes with optional English subtitles, doesn't sound half bad. The score has some nice disco-ish bounce to it and things are generally well balanced. There's a bit of minor background hiss if you listen for it, but no serious problems to report.
There are actually a few extras here, starting with some alternate scenes that for reasons not explained were altered for the finished version of the film. There are also some deleted scenes here too, which we can probably assume were cut for pacing reasons and which don't add much to the picture. The most surprising extras is the seven minutes of additional hardcore insert shots that were made with different actors and which were spliced into the film by D'Amato the export market. This is really little more than a few minutes of hairy gynecological close ups, but they're rightfully included here. A static menu and a still gallery of behind the scenes photos are also included.
The Final Word:
The video quality could have been better, but so too could it have been worse - but the inclusion of the alternate and deleted scenes is a plus. As to the movie itself? Those who enjoy D'Amato's twisted tropical sex films will get a kick out of this one. It's an odd film to be sure but thanks to some top notch camerawork and a few interesting performances, it's also a completely watchable one.
