The Devil's Plaything (german: Der Fluch der schwarzen Schwestern) is a 1973

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by

Joseph W. Sarno Joseph W. Sarno (March 15, 1921 – April 26, 2010) was an American film director and screenwriter. Sarno emerged from the proto-pornographic sexploitation film genre of the 1950s & 1960s; he had written and directed approximately 75 theatric ...

. An international co-production of Sweden, Switzerland and West Germany, the film's uncut version, features more suggestively sexual scenes.

Plot

In a central European castle, two young girls are summoned to learn about a will making them heirs to the property, on condition that they stay there for a full year. They are received by the hostess, an austere-looking woman named Wanda, who organizes satanic lesbian rites at night that celebrate, in sex and sapphism, the vampire Varga. Coincidentally, on the same day an anthropologist studying local superstitions and her brother were victims of a road accident and asked for accommodation at the castle. Wanda turns out to be the descendant of a vampire baroness, Varga, burned alive centuries ago by the villagers for vampirism. Through the lesbian priestess Wanda, Varga seeks revenge by eliminating the families of her torturers.

Cast

Critical response

Nick Schager of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' gave the film two out of five stars, writing, "Neither scary nor sexy, ''The Devil’s Plaything'' at least affords ample opportunities to compare the differences between natural boobs and a set of early-generation silicon implants." Ed Hulse of the trade journal ''Video Business'' describes the film as "a key title in the history of erotic horror", and writes, "The attractive young leads aren't the surgically enhanced bottle-blondes we typically see these days in Hollywood-made offerings of this type, and their acting is more than equal to the limited demands the script makes of them." - via ''ProQuest''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Devil's Plaything, The 1973 horror films English-language German films English-language Swedish films English-language Swiss films Erotic horror films Films directed by Joseph W. Sarno Films set in castles Films set in Germany Swedish horror films Swiss horror films German supernatural horror films German vampire films 1970s English-language films 1970s German films 1970s Swedish films