A Candle for the Devil, 1973.
Directed by Eugenio Martin.
Starring Judy Geeson, Aurora Bautista, Esperanza Roy, Vic Winner and Lone Fleming.
SYNOPSIS:
A pair of religious sisters who run a hotel start killing off the guests whom they deem to be morally and physically promiscuous.
You could be forgiven for thinking that A Candle for the Devil is some occult folk horror movie that’s all naked flesh and deranged villagers looking to appease an ancient deity with sacrifices. Why would you think that? Because of the signs are there, from the dark divinity of the title to the religious undertones that the film employs and the horror element suggested by the plot.
However, if you go into the film expecting something akin to The Wicker Man then you’ll be disappointed as A Candle for the Devil has a 1970s Euro horror aesthetic that puts it closer in tone and look to some of the gialli coming out of Italy at the time. The story centres around sisters Marta (Aurora Bautista) and Veronica (Esperanza Roy), who run a small hotel in a rural village. Both sisters are very religious and take exception to what they – especially the elder, more dominant Marta – see as sinful behaviour on the part of the female tourists who stay in the hotel, and they will not tolerate topless sunbathing, which leads to an accident involving the death of a guest. Believing it to be God’s will, Marta continues her moral crusade to clean up the clientele but very soon the sister of the missing girl shows up and begins to get suspicious.
What makes A Candle for the Devil so intriguing are the characters of Marta and Veronica. Both sisters are repressed but in different ways; Marta is scarred by a previous relationship where her husband-to-be left her for a younger woman whereas Veronica is repressed by Marta and her irrational behaviour and twisted religious views, a fact borne out by her secret affair with a man 20 years her junior. This outlet of sexual frustration isn’t entirely straightforward for Veronica and her lover as she won’t undress in front of him because she believes it is sinful and she steals money to give to him, despite him not wanting it, as a way of easing her guilt.
And guilt, Catholicism and religious corruption are the driving force behind this film. In one of the film’s most striking scenes Marta spies a group of young men frolicking naked in a pond (with a very uncomfortable and unnecessary genital shot) and gets visibly aroused. As a way of penance she walks back through a field of thorns and allows herself to be flagellated, embracing the pain and remaining aroused despite her flesh being ripped open.
The portrayal of the two sisters is also a key strength to the film, with both actresses keeping things tightly reigned in despite the underlying madness that is obviously at work within their characters. Had this film been made a decade later it would no doubt have taken a different route and gone for a Norma Bates-style show of dominance but as it is there is a remarkable amount of restraint that has gone into it, and that includes restraint within the more exploitative elements of the plot. There are brief flashes of nudity and blood but no more than you would see in an average Hammer movie from the time and director Eugenio Martin (Horror Express) doesn’t linger on any of it in the same way as Fulci or Argento would.
Overall, A Candle for the Devil is a surprisingly taut thriller with a macabre, psycho-sexual edge that marks it out from a lot of the trashy European horror movies of the early 1970s. The rushed ending lets it down a little bit after such a tense and creepy build up but otherwise it’s an enjoyably tense ride and something of an under-appreciated gem that deserves this Blu-ray release in order to get discovered by a wider audience.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
https://youtu.be/8HTiU_hrLms?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published June 3, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
