Available from Mondo Macabro | Buy at Amazon.com | Review by Crites
You can tell this one’s gonna be good, because not only is it called SATAN'S BLOOD (aka ESCALOFRIO; fucking Satan’s Blood, man!) but you see bush within the first five minutes. After that the balding Satanic monk who’s been nuzzling the victim’s bare breasts sacrifices her to the dark lord, making SATAN'S BLOOD a most promising piece of exploitation horror indeed.
Once the credits play out we find pregnant couple Ana and Andres Baker tooling around town trying to decide how to spend the holiday. On the street they meet up with Bruno and Mary, ‘old friends’ of Andres’ that he doesn’t remember at all. Inviting the expectant couple back to their place for wine and cheese, the old friends lead Ana and Andres to a remote chateau far out in the middle of the country.
And that’s when the strangeness starts; Mary locks up the visitors’ dog Blackie and eats face-first from what looks like a sterling silver doggie bowl of raw meat; Andres can’t recognize himself in the class photograph Bruno shows him, even though his name and address are penciled in on the back amongst a series of strange symbols; and the only parlor game they seem to have in the house is Ouija. A morbid round of questioning the Mystifying Oracle follows, with unpleasant intimations made all around until Ana is driven to collapse.
By now of course it’s after dark and a severe storm has set in, leading the hosts to insist that their guests stay overnight. In the middle of the night Ana, looking for her dog, is attacked and nearly raped by the bearded bum who’s been skulking about the grounds since they arrived. She fights him off and runs back upstairs to Andres, and as they seek out their hosts to find out just what the hell is going on they find Bruno and Mary in front of the fireplace in the midst of some nude Satanic ritual. For some reason the visitors are easily enchanted into joining them; there’s some chanting and the rubbing on of oil, and before you know it there’s a full-on (softcore) Satanic orgy taking place.
Afterward the couples retire to their respective bedrooms for more sex, however Ana’s evening is disturbed by the sound of the derelict who nearly raped her getting murdered by another shadowy figure. And a bloody-mouthed antique doll walking into the room toward her. And Mary coming into her room with a knife; but instead of stabbing Ana, Mary assaults her sexually, and when a panicky Ana stabs Mary in the back she wakes up from her nightmare in a cold sweat.
Ana somehow manages to get back to sleep, but the next day she and Andres find that they’ve slept well into the afternoon. Not only that, but the house is deserted and their car and dog are missing. Looking for something to eat the couple finds a room filled with witchy objects, including a photograph of them that they don’t ever remember having taken.
The hosts return with their new friends’ car, and despite the offer of lunch the guests are by now more than ready to say goodbye. Unfortunately their car won’t start for them. As the men tinker with it, under Andres’ growing suspicions, Ana finds Blackie hung up on a meathook in the kitchen.
As the guests try once more to leave they’re called back inside by a gunshot and a scream – Bruno has apparently shot himself. He dies even as Mary goes to fetch a doctor, and all the physician can do is pronounce him dead, utter a Satanic sacrament over his body and leave.
Puzzling over all of the rather strange things they’ve witnessed over the past two days Ana and Andres suddenly notice that they haven’t seen Mary around for a while, and breaking into a bathroom upstairs they find her in the tub with her wrists slit. They bandage her up as best as they can and put her to bed, but when Mary wakes up and starts demanding death in a demonic voice Andres loses it and strangles her.
As the panicked couple hurries to erase all trace of their presence at the house a very pale Mary comes downstairs with a revolver, and in the ensuing struggle Andres is shot in the arm and Mary is killed, again. They carry her up and put her back in the tub, only to find that Bruno’s body has disappeared when they return to the first floor.
Racing outside the couple finds that their car finally starts for them but… Ana has left her bag inside. As Andres goes back to retrieve it a revenant Bruno approaches; Andres is saved from Bruno’s obvious bad intentions only by Ana’s rushing in and shooting the zombie in the face.
The creepy walking doll appears again, and Andres blasts its head into shards of porcelain and blood. With this the entire house seems to scream, as shutters slam and doors lock. Running through the damned house Ana and Andres manage to escape through the kitchen, but before leaving they can’t resist opening up the large refrigerator that’s been secretively locked throughout the entire film: it’s filled with blood, meat and a human head.
The couple flees in their car, running down another sinister figure that’s been lurking around the grounds, this one a Satanic-looking monk. Somehow they manage to find their way back to the city through miles of darkened country road, arriving at their apartment only to find it empty – stripped clean. Seeing the young couple’s distress their neighbors kindly invite them into their apartment… an offer which just might close the Satanic circle Ana and Andres have been traveling through this entire time.
Not a perfect film perhaps, but as a haunted house picture loaded with Satanic symbolism it does manage to satisfy on numerous levels. After all, it’s hard to go wrong with violent murder and Satanic orgies. And the ending only reinforces the whole ‘villa of the damned’ theme that’s been building throughout the entire film.
In the process the film treats viewers to some great cinematography, capturing medieval gargoyles and statuary in a city park and providing most atmospheric shots of the unwelcoming country home in windy weather. This DVD features a crystal clear “Brand new Hi Def digital master” of the 1977 uncut European version of the film in both English and the original Spanish.
Bonus features include an informative essay by Pete Tombs about the Spanish “S” rating for sexually provocative and often violent films such as this one, including the reminder that the producer of SATAN'S BLOOD was Juan Piquer Simon, director of the wonderfully infamous PIECES. Another extra is an alternate opening in the form of an uptight ‘informative’ lecture, there’s a stills gallery, and a documentary entitled “The Devil’s Disciples: Gavin Baddeley on 20th Century Satanism” which I skipped over once I realized it was a narrative by a CoS member.
