Dark Waters

Dark Waters (Temnye vody) Directed Mariano Baino, starring Louise Salter (1993).

I decided to pick this Lovecraftian Nunsploit shot in the Ukraine from the catalog. No, it’s not the Japanese Dark Water by Ringu director Hideo Nakata, which was remade with Jennifer Connolly. In fact, I actually liked this one more. The Baino film, which is his debut, starts off on a blasphemous note as a priest is drowned and then impaled by a cross, while a nun is mysteriously pushed over a sea side cliff. I'm stoked to see what heavy metal wackiness will erupt forth next like the spirit of Nyarlathotep. No that’s not a typo because this one takes place in the briny terrain of an Innsmouth-like cult, minus the inbreeding and the fishy lips. This is all deliberate and Mariano was very much influenced by Lovecraft. He was also a big fan of Graham Masterton, the genius behind one of my all time favorite schlocky Indian backne midget demons The Manitou!   

A cracked Flavor Flav style Pazuzu-ish medallion is placed in a keep sake box by the nuns,

left there for some predictable foreshadowing later.

What time is it? Time to drop a shit ton of LSD

The last mainstream disparagement toward those punishment craving nuns I can think of was the “Shame” dungeon sister featured on the Game of Thrones religious cult.
The score is very Boswell sounding, which works out pretty good.

Down in the depths of a cave there’s flaming crosses and flagellant nuns, (meaning cloistered bippies whipping themselves for sexual kicks not those with bad gas)!

I'd be cautious around that open flame during pork and beans night at the convent

Louise Salter, a British actress all decked out in sexy red leather is eager to reach the island of the eyeless creepy nuns, she's there to lower the boom and cut their funding after the death of her father, who was a big supporter of their satanic shenanigans. Little does she know they have some wicked plans for her and it gets worse, considering there's devious connections between her parents and these horrid bitches.

This film is extremely wet and European, it's always raining and the characters all speak in a gruff Eastern block-ish dialect, the kind that warms the frigid cockles of the alt-right Putin lovin suck ups. One loony aboard the vessel feasts of entrails and looks as if he sorely regretted taking the 20$ for this shitty bit part acting gig!

In the catalog, Chas mentions the shopping cart Sam Raimi “shakey cam” and the atmospheric set design, I think this director is pretty talented and besides DW, he’s only put out short films.

These eerie nuns seem to never catch any ZZZZ's, they stay up all night with torches walking around from dusk till dawn. Some of them act like the blind dead, wearing robes and lunging forward to strangling the shit outta anyone within reach. Elizabeth has one tripped out freaky nightmare showing a crucified nun with a withered face and candy corn teeth who levitates forward behind two cackling bug eyed kids.

OK kids smile for school picture day!

It must be a bitch to charter a boat, (Fuck that shit, I would've fashioned a Gillian's Island one out of bamboo to escape this claustrophobic dump)! That aspect sort of reminded me of The Wickerman.

It gets worse after it turns out this little pirozhki has family connections to these island hags and her chickens all come home to roost or something, I was slightly confused there's an "unbearable lightness of being" amount of metaphorical subtext. I guess I shouldn’t keep bringing up Russian references, (that last one was Czech by the way), because this director only filmed in that location because it was the financier’s idea--Mariano is Italian. He mentions this in an interview with comingsoon.net.

FLOYYYDDDD!!!

Nuns still have no fun like the Mercyful Fate tune goes and what's worse they are pyromaniacs!

Definitely stick around for the bat shit crazy ending where the main character’s mutant naked twin makes an appearance and the Pazuzu puzzle piece grants her the fortitude to yank out nun guts and chew them up like snausages! I think I need intense therapy now! Even though this one is like a Catholic Innsmouth with a Sentinel (1977) type element, it’s more original, super weird and worth seeking out. There's a new special edition DVD with commentary and a featurette which seems cool, because I heard that they apparently filmed near radiation infected landscapes and the flaming crosses almost demolished the set. Worth a shot, check it out!

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The Devils

The Devils Directed By Ken Russell, Starring Oliver Reed (1971)

I was super stoked to find this rare gem at Amoeba records for cheap! Not only was the price right, but it's unbelievable to me that this film seems almost like it's banned in the U.S.! I mean yes, this is still sadly a cripplingly religious nation, we only find this bullshit out during election time when all the religious fascists crawl out of their loony bins. But come on, this is 2016, censorship is practically dead and it's a mystery to me as to why this film is unavailable when any kid can dial-up Cannibal Holocaust on Youtube or Hulu in pristine condition. Who cares though, I have a copy now that looks astoundingly good from the VHS version I had in the 90s. I remember lending my copy to Skunkape, which I got from Chas Balun's VHS catalog of course, when we were both in TV production school together and he didn't seem impressed. He later confided to me that this wasn't the case, it was more along the lines of what the fuck did I just watch and it took him awhile to process it. I'm not Catholic and have always enjoyed it when cinema takes the wind out of the sails of organized religion so I was onboard from the beginning. My oddball childhood in a Christian cult still makes me nervous about overly-religious people. 

Did you just beef, or is that my upper lip?

I love how immediately they establish how all of this really happened (it's based on The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley and John Whiting's adapted play). It's the bizarre tale of Urbain Grandier, who's crime of being lusted after by all the sexually oppressed nuns condemned him to a painful death of being burned alive at the stake. The film begins with Baron Munchausen looking androgynous French men in gaudy make-up and lipstick, who praise the union of Church and State. The effeminate villains are based on the real Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. Meanwhile, Father Grandier (Oliver Reed) presides over a funeral where Catholics and Protestants have stopped waring and he wants to keep the peace. The King and Loudun have an agreement that states they will not level their city and it's protected from witch-hunters waltzing in and taking over. Although once rumors of demonic possession hit the air, the security granted to the city all comes crashing down.

Lets trade funny hats, mine's hiding those delightful French macaroons

There's so many creepy crawly things to enjoy, beginning with "Dies Irea" (otherwise known as that song from The Shining). It's interesting to note that one of the most terrifying composers Krzysztof Penderecki who's music was used in the Stanley Krubrick film also based an opera on the Devils of Loudun.

Nobodeee knoowwws the trouble I seeen...

Some of the horniest nuns ever led by Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave), a psychotic hunchbacked one all seem to worship Reed's character. Just the sight of him sends this freak into a spooky sexual fantasy of flowing red hair as they show her deformed naked spine bursting at the back. Everyone seems repressed and on the verge of a psychotic breakdown--it's all so tense! Grandier (Reed) is very pompous and acts like a megalomaniac, he's just impregnated a topless mime girl and with a mouth full of flowery words basically tells her to fuck off. He lays on some freezing dialogue like "hold my hand, it's like touching the dead", translation: "don't be hitting me up for child support you clown-faced ho." There's some foreshadowing that he ends up paying for later, can this dude help it though, that he's so disgustingly charming I mean? I'm sure all those birthers and bible thumpers probably carry the same kind of infatuation for Joel Osteen.

I know I'm a Juggalette and all but treat me with respect 

Hardly a minute goes by when there isn't something ghastly that bashes you over the head, like two medieval surgeons fucking up and killing a woman by way of wasp stings, crocodile bites and who knows what else in the guise of primitive medicine. Grandier is openly defiant, hated and lusted after by most of the population.

It's time to Crocodile Rock BITCHES!

The convent looks like a mental institution, which is definitely not accidental. I like how there's always a stray dog wandering around in the background in almost every other scene. All females in this movie are nursing a boner for Reed, he's the luckiest rooster struttin around and taking advantage--that sly dog. This movie and The Brood are my favorite roles of Reed's and he's pretty incredible in both, very intense and yet also irrationally calm. 

The nuns sexualizing Christ's pain on the cross reminds me of something Mel Gibson might have wet dreams about. There are many scenes in this movie that are hysterically disturbing, but it doesn't get to that Bill Maher level of religious hatred toward everything Godly like you'd imagine. It's very blasphemous, but I found an underlying current of positivity when Reed's priest character seems to actually have faith in his own interpretation of God. Even though Grandier is really slutty and sins, he still carries a humanist approach to religion and doesn't preach at people, or threaten them if they don't fall in line. He has many flaws, but is a decent leader. The first inkling that everything is about to go down the toilet at the hands of the Catholic transgendered mimes seen in the beginning, arrives with a Flintstones style demolition machine operated by slaves with bloody raw feet in a giant hamster wheel. There's so many incredible flashes of medieval weirdness that are on a Bergman level of cryptic. The depiction of 15 Century France is pretty disturbing and seemingly accurate of the rich shooting Protestants dressed as birds on the courtyard. Who knows, maybe they did that shit, I wouldn't put it past them, it's wilding entertaining and I love almost everything from this time period of witch burning. Ken Russell's film had to be influenced by Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General, since it came out a few years earlier but he claims to have not liked the Vincent Price film for some unknown reason.           

SPRING BREAK!!!!

Gemma Jones who plays Reed's wife Madeline, later on ended up in some Harry Potter films and this is her first role. I was delighted to find out that Graham Armitage who plays Louis XIII had a cameo in the horrid Cannon flick Going Bananas with Deep Roy as a talking ape. Think of that the next time you are terrified by the imagery of this film.

King Diamond was totally wrong though, "Nuns do have fun", these sisters bite on rosaries, put on mock weddings and hump statues, he's definitely not talking about this breed of cloth. I've never seen Vanessa Redgrave in anything else but she's captivating in this film and I dunno if it's just me and even though she's out of her mind, I sort of felt sorry for her. Her lustful obsession and jealously of Grandier's secret wedding with Madeline brings a shit storm of torture down on her head when she convinces the Catholic inquisitors that she's possessed. They start off by anally probing her (her robe is bloody and Ken Russell doesn't show anything going in thankfully).

One aspect I've never seen in a witch burning film shows that the priests have a shred of rationality before they unleash the pain train, this doesn't really mean anything though because once they get going, it never stops, they even pick through her barf for "evidence".       

The two creepy surgeons are my favorite characters, one of them looks like Christopher Guest when he played the 6 fingered man in The Princes Bride. One of the most unhinged male actors in the film who wears purple John Lennon type glasses through-out is Michael Gothard. the way he spits "CONFESS" at Oliver Reed's face and waves a torch at him like the Wicked Witch of the West makes you want to slap off his hippie hair. Sadly in reality, Gothard who suffered from severe depression, committed suicide at the age of 53.

Hold the phone, I think I left an Arby's beef and cheddar on the dashboard of my car

As Grandier and his bride ride off to the edge of the lake and take a nice vacation, some of the most perverted sacrilegious shenanigans get underway. What's even crazier is that all the insanity that goes on there's even a famous deleted scene that was cut (it's on Youtube however). Grandier should've never returned to the city because it's under siege by witch hunters and exorcists who basically use it as an excuse to whip up nuns into a sexual frustrat-athon and Caligula type debauchery rears its ugly ass. There's a perfect moment of levity that always sticks out in my mind when the executioner, who's the only person on Grandier's side, attempts to give him a slice of mercy by telling him "Don't worry, before the fire is lit, I shall strangle you".

before I tie you to that burning pyre can I interest you in taking an executioner survey

Sister humpback even feels guilty enough to try and convince the inquisition that she's made it up, but it's chalked up as evilspeak. I love this film and it's a crime that it's not available, someone get on the ball and release this shit already, in a world where The Green Inferno can play mainstream multiplexes this release should be mandatory. This is the film that all other nunsploits and witch burning flicks should be measured by and it doesn't get any creepier or masterful than this one--go out of your way to see it (if you can find a copy).

Killer Nun

Killer Nun Directed by Giulio Berruti, Starring Anita Eckberg (1978).

It begins with that famous song from The Shining, which I did a little research and found that Wendy Carlos took "Dies Irae", an old Latin Hymn from the 13th century and reinterpreted it for the Stanley Kubrick masterpiece. And here I thought, why didn't they steal Jerry Goldsmith's track from The Omen (since we're in that purgatory region). Actually the Killer Nun tune sounds like a mash-up of Ave Satani and The Shining song. It turns out however that Giulio Berruti was more clever than I would imagine, because "Dies Irae" is about the day of judgement used in Roman Catholic Requiem Mass. See there's that Humanities degree being put to the test finally! 

   Skunkape warned me over and over, never to watch Killer Nun because it, to quote him "sucks balls"! Nunsploitation is a subgenre I may actually detest more than Naziploitation--at least with that, you're shocked or appalled as well as entertained. In these religious hysterical dramas I get the feeling there's some kind of underlying philosophy of oppression in league with the "Witch burning films". The fanatical hysteria is almost always driven by lust or greed, this time it's lack of medication. 

Fellini said it was cool if I steal these cookies

   This one stars Anita Ekberg, who most famously starred in Fellini films, so it gets that stink of classiness missing from other nunsploits like Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun or Flavia The Heretic. I did enjoy those two films very much and it's the main reason I'm sticking my neck out this time around. Fingers crossed it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass! 

That's it keep praying, nobody will suspect anything

   My favorite Fulci voice actor Ed Mannix is always music to my ears--here he dubs a priest in a confessional. Sister Gertrude (Anita Eckberg) is the unhinged, deranged nun who works at a mental hospital. One of the patients is Lou Castel (from A Bullet for the General and most likely Neil Patrick Harris' natural birth father, he looks uncomfortably like him). 

I knew it would all go downhill after they canceled How I Met Your Mother!

   The "Killer" Nun is afraid that if she doesn't get more medication, she will snap and start killing all of the patients. The Doctor refuses to administer the nun's morphine and her flock tries to remind her that suffering is what a nun is born to do. 

   She takes comfort in reading the most barbaric torture passages from her bible at dinner and stomps an old ladies false teeth into gummy splinters. 

   Paola Morra, a busty lesbian nun and former Miss Feb. in Italian Playboy 1978, will do anything to get in Sister Gertrude's habit. Speaking of habits, this white penguin has got a monkey on her back in the form of morphine and plans to sell a precious ring to earn enough money, outside the church.

   Skunkape kept telling me how ugly Eckberg was, and for a semi-erotic Skin-a-max style flick, Killer Nun doesn't really work. It can be enjoyed on a level of cheesiness that's missing from most other nunsploits however. Gertrude ventures out into the big bad city on the prowl for some hardcore sex. The jaunty piano song they play during her exploits is laughable, making it all more embarrassing than it should be.

Bravo, now we know how you both really feel, so what!

   Also--I don't find Eckberg attractive--so it doesn't work on an enjoyably sleazy level. 

I do feel happy that she's able to escape the self imposed Catholic prison and get some casual sex. 

These brains would taste better with some prosciutto and melon

   There's an odd psychedelic brain surgery freakout with some mild necrophilia tacked on. While that was going on in her mind, she goes into a trance and commits her first murder.

   Sister Mathieu (Morra) is there for moral support but it skeeves out Sister Gertrude.

The drug crazed psycho nun gets the other psychiatrist fired for not supplying her and guess who shows up as the new Doctor? None other then Andy Warhol's resident New Yawk street hustler/actor Joe Dallesandro. It's a shame that he's dubbed though, because in other Eurotrash films, his heavy Bronx accent sticks out like a sore thumb, here he sounds like any other schmuck!

That's right, Warhol paid me in soup cans and handjobs, big deal!

   In the rain, as the nun hangs outside, she watches a disgusting sex scene with a young girl and an elderly man in a wheelchair. Gertrude turns the tables on Sister Mathieu and can only feel aroused when she's abusing her, Morra has a nice body and its a shame they hardly ever show it.  

   Toward the end the "sister of perpetual suffering" breaks out the acupuncture needles and sticks them in a poor old woman's face! She gleefully jabs a scalpel in and out of her skin and hangs the victim upside down, it's pretty gross!

   In the catalog Chas referred to this as "nearly good as D'Amato". I've enjoyed D'Amato's work better than this film, it's not terrible, just a little too silly for its own good. It doesn't deliver the sadism all the way thru and sort of pulls its punches. I slightly recommend it, 2 out of 4 on the Cult-O-Meter. Blue Underground has this out on Blu-Ray and DVD if you wanna pick up a copy.

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School Of The Holy Beast

School Of The Holy Beast (Seiju gakuen, Convent Of The Sacred Beast) Directed By Noribumi Suzuki, starring Yumi Takagawa. (1974)

Director Noribumi (or sometimes Norifumi) comes off like a Japanese Bill Maher in this scathing retaliation against the Catholic Church. His frightening religious fire and brimstone imagery is shocking in a beautifully colorful, phantasmagoric way and it just occurred to me that this is the 3rd film I've reviewed of his, along with the ghastly Star Of David: Hunting Beautiful Girls and Sex And Fury.
   I should've known what to expect going in, but I forgot who I was dealing with. This Pinky Violence, Nikkatsu cinematic juggernaut is quickly becoming my favorite new Japanese director. All of his films have a linear theme of depravity, iconography and sadism all bathed in that 60's Batman style lighting.  

   Protagonist Maya (Yumi Takagawa) is just a metropolitan girl surrounded by invading Western motifs in 1970's Japan. I like this director's use of American culture and his demented perspective on religion, he likes to use dashes of both throughout his films.

   The credit montage of sex, drinking, bumper cars and shooting galleries is the last fling before this attractive girl decides to devote her self to God. According to Maya, she's going to where "woman are no longer women" you hear that Sally Field? That little flying act you had, led straight into eternal sanctimony with Jesus!

Jeez, put your arms down, you martyr!

   The nuns lay down the principles in the convent and all look sullen as if they now are confined to a prison (most likely because that's what a convent is). Of course, like all Nunsploits there is punishment for the wicked and even self immolation, done topless in the most gratuitous way possible. Suzuki loves to flirt with bizarre fetishism and isn't afraid to cross untouchable boundaries like Nazism, water sports on Christ or a blood drenched portrait of the Last Supper. The nuns all carry whips so that if they get the urge to sin, they beat the normality out of themselves. 

Take a sip, this is Bill Murray's favorite whiskey

   One radical nun, who carries whiskey and a switchblade, humiliates the teacher by saying there's no way Jesus could've been an immaculate conception and Mary must've had a lover. Sister Ishada (Emiko Yamauchi) is the bad apple that begins to spoil the bunch and figures the new girl must've ratted her out for sneaking in a bottle of liquor.

Yeah, brighten up our day

    When someone sins (even in minor ways like over eating), there's always a pair of prying eyes waiting to tell. The only entertainment the callous, hypocritical nuns in charge have, is to watch two topless girls in a whip fight. The girls lash each other and strip the skin, I'd imagine Ken Russell would snicker (and take notes).

Not even the Republican Party?

   There's an especially erotic lesbian sequence in a flower patch, as two girls fornicate, it incites another to obscenely licks her fingers Col Sanders style. It turns out Maya entered the Abbey by her own free will in order to solve the mystery of her parents murder. Later on a sickly old women tells the morbid tale of her strange birth, spawned from her mother's suicide. The plot starts to thicken very fast, and conspiracies start racking up as porn pictures are found and confessions are made.
   Father Kakinuma (Fumio Watanabe), a bearded wizard-like priest shows up to dole out more punishment, this time through rape and psychological torture! He's a sociopath that hides behind the cloth and uses it to (secretly) get laid. According to the essential book Tokyoscope by Patrick Macias, director Suzuki worried less about offending the Catholic church and more about criticizing the Emperor (which was off limits at the time). 

   Maya, temporarily escapes and goes back to a swanky nightclub where she involves her boyfriend and his pal (who looks like an Asian Squiggy). I was a bit confused as to why she would lock herself into this forced nunnery situation, when she's able to leave whenever she'd like! It sort of weakens the plot, if she can just go at a moment's notice.   

   The comedic device for this film is strange as the two men rape the vice abbess in her sleep and she enjoys it. I also like this white cat periodically howls, it was a nice touch.

刺のないバラはない。

   No prank this unfunny is worth what happens next, as the female perpetrator's breasts are squeezed with thorns and beaten with sharp roses in a kaleidoscopic circle (or a ring around the rosie).

You said it sister

   Sister Ishida is ejected from the convent after threatening to expose their rampant hypocrisy. It goes even further as the bearded priest has completely lost his faith and we're shown evidence through real Nagasaki footage. Almost all the nuns have been impregnated by Kakinuma, and as usual the torture barometer reaches a caustic level of blasphemy. There's a reoccurring bladder bursting moment in one of Suzuki's High School films that reaches a new level of depravity, involving a crucifix.
 It all ends on the most demented note possible during a dreadful Christmas night with the ghost of Maya's mother stabbing her incestuous husband in the back with a cross. They really pour the dread and misery on pretty thick, although nothing compares to Hunting For Beautiful Girls. Suzuki worked with the mighty Sonny Chiba in The Killing Machine and directed some of the most astounding Pinky Violence Girl Gang Flicks like Terrifying High School and Girl Boss Guerrilla, he's a serious force to be reckoned with and criminally underrated.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (For those very jaded and un-offendable)!

Color me Outta here!

Love Letters Of A Portuguese Nun

Love Letters Of A Portugese Nun  Directed By Jess Franco. Starring Susan Hemmingway (1977).

Lately here at Theater Of Guts, we've been delving into the pits of despair and misery, tackling films with subject matter like canine/female fornicating, organ stealing, scatological hijinks and now.......

DRUM ROLE PLEASE!

   Satanic pedophilia, or a Catholic monastery posing as righteous, but in secret worshiping the lord of the flies in an unholy conspiracy of extra ordinary magnitude!

   That's right, we've finally reached a new low and plunged the epicenter with this beautifully crafted Jess Franco Nunsploitation flick! If there's a hell below, we're all going to go!
   We don't cover that many films in this genre because I find them to be usually dull and in my mind, The Devils stands alone beyond the pale, as the unholy sister torturing, reprehensible masterpiece that decimates all the competition.

   There's no reason to see any others in the category, once you've witnessed a hunchback nun lick the bleeding wounds off Oliver Reed, adorned with a crown of thorns in a frenetically induced wet dream. During the 70's however, the public demanded every second rate foreign smut peddler to crank out his own nun fetish, histori-porn and hopefully scare up enough religious hysteria to furnish their lush apartments. See The Flavia The Heretic  and The Other Hell for more nun torture flicks and even more here.

Spruce up any gothic castle with a naked virgin wrapped in bramble

   Portuguese Nun has alot in its arsenal, the cinematography by Peter Baumgartner for the usually Skin-A-Max drenched soft core Franco effort is spellbinding. The film quality, lighting and pastural, gothic locations sharpen up the typical Franco signatures and distractions into something memorable.

   Susan Hemmingway (nice try, but no relation)! is all innocent and nubile, she shows full frontal and played this role at the tender age of 15, her stark naked body got this film into some scalding ultra conservative water and often her scenes of torment and a subliminal Elmer's Glue facial were deleted. I'm guessing that Hemmingway was in the same boat as Traci Lords for appearing naked at such a young age (but on a timid scale). Later on she's tied to the rack and strewn with thorns that pierce her goose pimpled flesh, I can almost hear Glen Benton or the singer from Gorgoroth smacking their lips in approval.

Oh Good, I'm still locked in a satanic convent, I thought I was in high school!

   She falls victim to the corrupt mop topped preacher Father Vicente (William Berger), who chastises her for being lustful (or taking a harmless interest in a boy in the woods). What would be seen as adolescence and maturity in a young girl is seen as inhuman and fit for punishment by the warped hypocritical religious figures in charge of her fate and Maria is soon locked in a convent for the duration of the film. The first nun to sexually abuse her is a Susan Sarandon look-a-like played by Ana Zanatti, she checks her hymen to see that its pristine and sends her off to pray. Not a few minutes goes by when poor Maria isn't prodded naked by ridged clothed lesbian nuns who pray to Satan amidst flickering candles. Mephistopheles shows up in an orgy scene that seemed to influence the "Year Zero" video by bubble gum doom metal mavens Ghost. http://vimeo.com/62694560

Get a haircut Hippie!

   Father Vicente and Mother Sarandon trick the girl into thinking she dreamt the orgy and incessant molesting and that she of course is to blame. 

   I think Jess Franco thinks of himself as an amateur gynecologist and Love Letters contains some excessively furry vestal cooters, Satan would smile and high five other demons indeed! 

Franco goes to town with the WiseBlood fire and brimstone, Hazel Motes style wrath of God punishment and why not, after all, this film is set in the 1600's or prime inquisition time, when the most harmless virginal lightweight actions forced the legion of the uptight to bring down the hammer of the gods, (to quote from the gospel of Page, Plant and Bonham).

A very stoned Susan Sarandon

   In Franco's mind, the original letters left the door open for Satan (represented in this version as a unicorn/man hybrid or the inspiration for the Dungeons & Dragons 80's cartoon villain Venger) to become involved. But in the original letters based on the writings of Mariana Alcoforado, there's no mention of devils, only supreme devotion and piety being equated with ultimate lust. Don't forget, this took place during the Conquest of Spain and rampant rape and abuse were still being practiced along with religious hysteria. This made actual love so out of the ordinary that it achieved the opposite-- taboo. Love Letters ends on such a hopeful note that its genuinely uplifting and after all the burning of innocent women scene in every sleazoid witch burning flick, its a welcome change of pace but also a complete fabrication, because as we all know, there was no real justice for the persecuted.

The next singer of Ghost, Herby Fux ladies and gentlemen

Well, Hello Man Servant Hecubus!