The Night of the Sorcerers(1974)

This is a rare and bizarre offering from the static but lovable Amando De Ossorio, displaying his familiar penchant for breasts, sadomasochistic whippings, and giggle-inducing special effects.

Here we have a group of typically unaware individuals (archaeologists? photographers? I wasn't paying attention) who carelessly venture into a region of Africa haunted by the spirits of...well, I'm not really sure. A prologue shows us natives involved in a weird ritual, and a white woman who gets whipped and decapitated and then grows vampire fangs (on her disembodied head, which screams in damnation). A group of men dressed as typical safari clones arrive moments too late, which isn't surprising seeing as they take their sweet time while ignoring the woman's delirious screaming (which usually indicates an emergency). Anyway, the safari rejects blast the natives with their guns, then the story flashes forward to our beloved group of nincompoops who set up their homey little tents, presumably many years later.

The women are dressed like fashion models from the 1960s, as if roughing it in the jungle was a lot like strolling down a runway, and the men have a distinct unwashed Euro-trash look going on. They soon discover that lurking around the campground are the members of the evil tribe. Well, they don't really discover it, in fact it takes them 90% of the movie to figure it out, but we as the audience are well aware of it. The tribe members are reanimated in a Blind Dead-esque resurrection scene (which drags on for about ten minutes too long). Our beheaded mistress is also there, mysteriously intact, although during the day she is a leopard. At night she is simply a model dressed in a scant leopard bikini. She is also a vampire (are you getting all of this?).

Meanwhile, the silly European intruders behave as if they are not in the jungles of Africa (well actually it looks a lot like a small clearing in the woods of Spain). They wander around in the middle of the night without flashlights (which is fine because it's really daylight filmed through a blue lens anyway) and they even go off into the brush all alone and unarmed (never mind those vicious jungle cats or deadly snakes typical in the wilds of Africa). Heck, they don't even bring any protection from the mosquitoes! They also roll around in the water and make love, until the leopard girl/vampire starts doing her thing and turning the women into vampires. They run in slow motion, dressed in leopard bikinis and ham it up by hissing a lot.

There is a surprising amount of nudity and sexual violence in this one, so I guess it sort of qualifies as softcore vampire porn, although the mood is way too giddy to be erotic. There are scary skulls on posts, dry ice that oozes out of the ground, and spooky native costumes, not to mention those far-out Halloween vampire fangs. What's not to like about something like this? Hunt it down if you must. It should be required viewing for anyone planning a nonchalant venture into the African jungles.

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