Fair enough, nunsploitation isn't my favourite horror sub-genre; but given all I'd heard about this Mexican flick, I was expecting a much better film. The film reminded me a lot of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, as we follow a young girl's odyssey into something above her head. The film fuses nuns with satanic rituals, a commentary on the church and a bucket load of blood and nudity. Alucarda comes together well in terms of style, but in terms of substance; the film has none, and since not everything makes sense; this can be a difficult film to care too much about. The film opens with the birth of a baby, and then moves on to follow an adolescent in a convent. This adolescent is Alucarda; a young lady that doesn't believe in the church and takes a vow to worship Satan instead. After corrupting one of her fellow pupils and meeting a rather odd gypsy in the woods; the pair manages to get on the wrong side of their religious leaders, and end up inspiring them to hypocritically commit evil as they attempt to exorcise the demons from the pair...which leads to a lot of blood and nudity.
Director Juan López Moctezuma clearly cared more about the style of the film than anything else, and this is the strongest element. The film looks great, and titular scenes that see such things as a naked girl covered in blood attempting to claw a nun's eyes out are major highlights. It's quite unclear as to exactly what the point is, however, and this is unfortunate as if this film had been fused with a strong plot; it could have been a true masterpiece of cult cinema. The atmosphere is good and truly surreal as we follow the girls' descent into Satanism, and the director always makes sure that the action is pitch black and memorable for that reason. The film is littered with taboo breaking scenes that include lesbianism and bizarre torture rituals; but it isn't until the end when it lets rip with a fitting bloodbath of an ending, that would have been really good if the action leading up to it was on par. I can certainly see why people like this film, as it features some great scenes and certainly delivers on it's cult movie promise; but personally I can't say I enjoyed it all that much.
