aka Vengeance with a Kiss
Spain/USA. 1992.
Crew
Director – Herve Hachuel, Screenplay – Tom Cleaver & Beverly Gray, Producers – Alida Camp & Roger Corman, Photography – Alfredo Mayo, Music – Pedro Navarrete & Richard Spellman, Special Effects – Reyes Abades, Production Design – Rafael Palermo. Production Company – Tesaurio S.A./Concorde-New Horizon/ABC Distributing Co/Television Espanola.
Cast
Maryam D’Abo (Susan De Alvarez), Cliff De Young (Mike De Alvarez), Shari Shattuck (Diana Pecheko), Tony Isbert (Gustavo), Miguel De Grandy (Padre Luis), Paloma Lorena (Manexa), Manuel Pereiro (Dr De Soto)
Plot
American Mike De Alvarez travels to Spain with his wife Susan to claim the inheritance of an ancestral castle. Once there however, he is haunted by dreams in which he is making love to a beautiful local interior decorator in the dungeon. When Susan finds scratches on Mike’s back in the morning, she begins to investigate. She discovers that Mike’s nocturnal visitor is the witch Diana Pecheko who was burnt at the stake by the De Alvarez family in the 11th Century and has claimed the life of every male of the line since.
In reality, more so than an erotic horror, Immortal Sinsis a throwback to the Continental Gothic films that emerged out of Italy of the 1960s – the likes of Black Sunday (1960), The Virgin of Nuremberg (1963), Castle of Blood (1964) and The Long Hair of Death (1964).
The plots of these usually involved a modern couple in a castle being haunted by a vengeful ghost from the past or the reincarnation of a mad aristocrat. The plot of Immortal Sins is a strictly formulaic run through the elements of the classic Italian horror cycle. Its main addition to the mix is a liberal injection of 1990s erotica.
Immortal Sins is rather slow moving, although is played with a fair degree of conviction by all involved, even if in the end result it fails to remain in the memory. Its two best qualities are its two leading ladies – Shari Shattuck and the always lovely Maryam D’Abo. Shattuck may not have much talent in films beyond the ability to frequently disrobe her spectacular body (a talent that is naturally liberally employed here) but is at least well suited to the part she has here, playing up the deadly allure for all it is worth and radiating a dangerous coldness from her striking blue eyes.
Spanish director Herve Hachuelhas only made one other film with Banter (1986) about a man haunted by prophecies of the future.
Clip from the film here