Macumba Sexual [Import]

I liked this. I bought it together with Franco's "Mansion of the Living Dead" and while I found the latter disappointing, this earlier work from 1981 is closer to the classic Franco that I enjoy. It is sexploitation done well and with class. Lina Romay is in her second role as the blond-wigged Candy Coster. She is fuller-bodied than in her previous films but not as chunky as in "Living Dead". Here she plays the lovely Alice Brookes who has recurrent nightmares about a black Princess and her slaves. For some reason, the trio repeatedly attack and ravish her. She takes a trip to the Princess' desert island home to find out more. Her husband also goes in search of the Princess and ends up enslaved. What does Princess "Oingo-Boingo" have in store for Alice? Well the plot's just an excuse for naked bodies and kinky sex. The black transexual, Ajita Wilson plays Princess Obongo. Kudos to her plastic surgeon. She looks perfect. Take Amazon's editorial comments with a pinch of salt. It doesn't quite amount to the "fever dream of unbridled depravity" or "erotic shocker" as advertised, but it is still fun to sit through. Highlights include the Spanish couple who are led around like dogs on leashes, Alice's libidinous welcome by the Princess and her slaves and a nice scene with the ivory phallus...

Watch for Jess Franco's extended cameo as the local "retard" at the beach resort. The film is beautifully shot on Gran Canaria on Spain's Canary Islands.

Once again, Severin impresses with its beautiful transfer of the fully restored and remastered print. It is presented in its original 2.35:1 OAR (Anamorphic) and looks simply gorgeous. The original Spanish 2.0 Mono track is provided with optional English subtitles. The only Extra is a 22-minute interview segment with Franco and his wife Lina Romay. They discuss the film, Ajita's sexuality, how they met and how they've stayed together for over 20-years. Interestingly, Franco conducts the entire interview in English while Lina Romay speaks completely in Spanish. Optional English subtitles are provided and I'd advise you to turn them on, more to understand Franco's garbled English than Romay's Spanish.

Tonight I "made it through" MACUMBA SEXUAL.

Actually, it's not the worst Franco I've seen (OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES), but in an 80 minute sex film you know your in trouble when your longing for more shots of the beauteous landscapes.

I'm open to debate about Franco's talent or maybe lack of effort at this time in his career, but Lina Romay just doesn't have whatever enigmatic allure Franco assigns to her in these roles, and this time it's all the more apparent since Ajita Wilson as the voodoo sex queen, is kind of a trip to behold. By contrast Romay is dumpy and unconvincing as she schleps about in Camel-toe shorts, writhes in endless ecstasy wearing only a thrift-store wig, or periodically shrieks in horror at a constantly reappearing voodoo fetish, which honest-to-god looks like a splayed rubber chicken with an erection. I think we're also supposed to be spooked by it too, but it's hard for me to imagine anyone not giggling at it's absurd appearance.

Scenes of the towering Wilson walking her leashed, nude sex-slaves across the desert sand-dunes are great, and I can see why they chose that image for the box cover, but that's pretty much the best of it. I guess since I heard of this outing as being one of Franco's "fever dreams" I was expecting some more visually bewildering, disorientating fun. Franco's pan-and-zoom technique doesn't bug me the way it does some, and he does swing some pretty nice compositions of desert terrain, which the quality of this transfer admirably displays.

This was a great movie. There was lots of explicit sex and the women very attractive. Did I mention that it also has a good story.