My review was written in October 1982 after a Times Square screening.
"Satan's Mistress", lensed in 1980 under the title "Dark Eyes", is a supernatural sexploitation picture sporting name talent but cheap production values. Weak story and direction hurt its theatrical chances but plentiful nude footage of buxom lead Lana Wood should create mucho vidcassette interest. Film went through interim title change, "Demon Rage" and "Fury of the Succubus" before its present moniker.
Silly premise is that dead spirits wander in limbo awaiting their final judgment, and in this lonely state are drawn to similarly lonely living folks whom the devil uses as bait to "catch" these spirits or souls. Lisa (Lana Wood) is just such a lonely woman, pining away at her beach house while being neglected by her busy with work husband Burt (Tom Hallick).
In a cheap effect imitating Al Adamson's 1977 "Nurse SherrI" film, a purple animated squiggle enters Lisa's bedroom one night and she is raped by some invisible entity. Next time, instead of invisible the spirit is personified by a dark, romantic man clad in black (Kabir Bedi). While both husband and daughter Michelle (Sherry Scott) are disturbed by Lisa's reclusiveness, she's getting it on almost constantly with the mysterious intruder.
With corny paranormal phenomena and hallucinations accelerating, plus the appearance of a black cat familiar, friend and mystic Anne-Marie (Britt Ekland)( tries to help, and local California priest Father Stratten (John Carradine) offers his advice. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman Belline (Elsie-Anne) tries to recruit Michelle to the devil's work.
Payoff is a gory death for Anne-Marie's husband (Don Galloway), very improbably killed by a guillotine that just happens to be stored in Lisa's basement. Fiey basement climax has Bedi the spirit nobly leaving Lisa and going to Hell.
With poor special effects (a monster that looks like a big pulsating eye and dream sequences which are blurry and eye-straining), filmmaker James Polakof is in big trouble. Problem is exacerbated by photography or printing which makes the interior scenes look too dark. A good cast is the film's drawing card, with Wood impressive in her frequent simulations of sexual passion and Bedi, currently costarring in "Octopussy", perfectly cast as the silent, Valentino-esque romantic stranger. Other roles, including top-billed Britt Ekland, are strictly functional.
"Satan's Mistress", lensed in 1980 under the title "Dark Eyes", is a supernatural sexploitation picture sporting name talent but cheap production values. Weak story and direction hurt its theatrical chances but plentiful nude footage of buxom lead Lana Wood should create mucho vidcassette interest. Film went through interim title change, "Demon Rage" and "Fury of the Succubus" before its present moniker.
Silly premise is that dead spirits wander in limbo awaiting their final judgment, and in this lonely state are drawn to similarly lonely living folks whom the devil uses as bait to "catch" these spirits or souls. Lisa (Lana Wood) is just such a lonely woman, pining away at her beach house while being neglected by her busy with work husband Burt (Tom Hallick).
In a cheap effect imitating Al Adamson's 1977 "Nurse SherrI" film, a purple animated squiggle enters Lisa's bedroom one night and she is raped by some invisible entity. Next time, instead of invisible the spirit is personified by a dark, romantic man clad in black (Kabir Bedi). While both husband and daughter Michelle (Sherry Scott) are disturbed by Lisa's reclusiveness, she's getting it on almost constantly with the mysterious intruder.
With corny paranormal phenomena and hallucinations accelerating, plus the appearance of a black cat familiar, friend and mystic Anne-Marie (Britt Ekland)( tries to help, and local California priest Father Stratten (John Carradine) offers his advice. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman Belline (Elsie-Anne) tries to recruit Michelle to the devil's work.
Payoff is a gory death for Anne-Marie's husband (Don Galloway), very improbably killed by a guillotine that just happens to be stored in Lisa's basement. Fiey basement climax has Bedi the spirit nobly leaving Lisa and going to Hell.
With poor special effects (a monster that looks like a big pulsating eye and dream sequences which are blurry and eye-straining), filmmaker James Polakof is in big trouble. Problem is exacerbated by photography or printing which makes the interior scenes look too dark. A good cast is the film's drawing card, with Wood impressive in her frequent simulations of sexual passion and Bedi, currently costarring in "Octopussy", perfectly cast as the silent, Valentino-esque romantic stranger. Other roles, including top-billed Britt Ekland, are strictly functional.