Alucarda (1978)

Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas, an absolutely fascinating and erotic film by Juan López Moctezuma. It is to this day my very Favorite film of all time. What can I say? I'm a damn suckerfucker for romantic vampire stories. So let's get this sparkling Halloween party started!:



I feel as if somebody has been watching me sleep!

The torrid story of desire and an emotionally eruptive friendship between two fifteen year old girls in a convent is intensified not only by the true love expressed between the two, but also by a mystical mindscape and series of spiraling events which lead the two down a destructive path.



My parents are dead. Mine too. Lesbi friends?

A path mind you, which is worth every second of agony if you are lucky enough to experience what these two had. Alucarda's uncontrollable ambition and Justine's somewhat reluctiveness to accept and delve into what she doesn't know, yet desires, takes their relationship as well as the film to heavy extremes. Satanism and death included. ;)

But death is something Alucarda is more than willing to accept since her lustful ambition will not be subdued, and as proven when you see Justine rise nude from a blood filled coffin, it becomes clear that their love transcends death. These moments of insanity as well as the pain of love expressed emotionally and very apparently, are made that much stronger by the more gentle scenes.

When Alucarda speaks to Justine about secrets and holds two small insects in her hand, or when the two frolic about the fields; There's an aura of innocence, yet as it would come to be, curiosity holds profound answers. When Alucarda stares into the double edged knife blade you can see by the look in her eyes that she is fueled by an unholy passion. Being very passionate, and not to mention evil, she clings heavily to her lovely Justine. But whether or not she's a predator is left for the viewer to decide.

The daughter of Lucy Westenra and Lord Dracula, Alucarda comes from a unrelentingly passionate and quite romantic bloodline. Such as in the case of her father, with her dark nature and morbid state of being, she can easily be seen as a villain who's deeds corrupt the innocent. Though these things are initially shadowed by her mother's passed down beauty and charm, she much like her father becomes the target of suspicious thoughts. Being both young and extremely rebellious, while in a convent run by a maniacal tyrant along with his horde of mummified nuns, her quest for happiness through true love is doomed from the start!

This knife... it sparkles!

Oh fuck! She's corrupted!

Do you believe in love? Do you believe in destiny? True love may come, only once in a thousand lifetimes. I too have loved. They took her from me. I prayed for her soul. I prayed for her peace. I believe that Alucarda truly loves and loved Justine, and I do believe that she fell instantly in love with her. Despite knowing her for all of no seconds, and at first only admiring her from the corner of a room before approaching. She is true to her nature and follows the whims of her soul. I've been prone to fall madly in love with a beautiful woman that I've done nothing more than simply lay eyes upon. Not a crime, but a curse, and yet, a fundamentally beautiful one at that.

"I know what you are."  "Say it." ... "Satan Worshipper!"

Alucarda brought the doe eyed and soft faced Justine into her dark world of pain and loneliness, not against her will, but because they were kindred souls. Alucarda is more in tune with the environment of these things, so she knows this far before Justine would have ever imagined the thought. Justine, even though at times utterly terrified of the idea of undying love, still was in need of it. Alucarda did not trick Justine into loving her as the female burrito wrapped women of god believe! Nor did she intend to move on after Justine's final death by making a rainbow connection with El Doctor's blind and easily influential daughter. Alucarda simply falls in love too easily. There are far worse things awaiting man than death, come taste what I have seen!

For the sake of argument, there are always two sides to a story. Some believe that Dracula is a fiend who enters windows as mist and rapes innocent blond sluts. Others say that Dracula once had a true love whom he adored above all else and would suffer through the ravages of time to meet once again. To love once again. I say, what is true love? I have loved a few select amount of the long haired gothic girls in my time. Does loving one tremendously mean you cannot love another? I too believe in Lust, but I know what love is. In the case of Alucarda and the doctor's daughter, or Dracula and Lucy even, can lust become love?

 

These are the unanswered questions, since as we all know, circumstances beyond their control got in their way. Shortly after the blind daughter took a nasty spill down several flights of clay stairs unto skeletal remains, Alucarda's heart simply couldn't take losing another love while avenging the previous. And she died. Lucy was restrained against her will and beheaded, presumably after giving birth to Alucarda. And she died. Everyone that Dracula loves dies, but they die with love in their hearts. Evil fucking love. Is it any wonder they are tortured souls? I am the dragon of blood... the relentless Prince of Pain.

Carrie. Eat your period out!


I first knew Alucarda back in 1995 when I rented the film on VHS under the title of "Mark of the Devil Part 3". I actually rented it along with MotD Part 4 which is really Tombs of the Blind Dead. Tina Romero scrambled my brain when I was fifteen and just messed up all my shit. When I saw this she became the Goddess of my dreams and I never looked back. In every woman since then I have looked for a bit of her in all of them. Hard as it is when half of the young gothic Satan worshiping chicks are lesbians, I still got my fill of the darkness, and therefore I regret nothing!

For two really great Alucarda blog reviews check out:

Killer Kittens From Beyond The Grave

Reverend Phantom: Overfiend Of The Underworld 

I seriously cannot watch that Rev Phantom video without grinning from ear to ear. "A love for.... sssSATAN!? Check." Very good show. Also, check out this nicely done video of Alucarda set to the music of London After Midnight: Spider & The Fly.