Christina is searching for an estate somewhere in the region; it is there that her father’s last will and testament is to be read. She is plagued by nightmares and begins to suspect that she is losing her sanity. The more she investigates — and the closer she comes to the truth — the more she realizes that all her relatives at the estate are dead, and that she herself is trapped in a world of madness and satanic rituals.
The film feels clearly inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by Robert Wiene. At first, however, it presents itself as a rather dull story about a young woman traveling to a mansion so that her father’s will may be read there. As the story unfolds, it gradually becomes clearer that the entire family is dead.
Despite the title almost insinuating nudity, I noticed something rather peculiar while watching the film: not a single nude scene. This is highly unusual when Jess Franco is behind the camera. He is well known for including nudity far more often for its own sake than because it contributes anything meaningful to the narrative. Then again, his films frequently deal with themes where nudity is portrayed as a natural part of everyday life. They also tend to contain some degree of misogyny, or at least what one might call a somewhat “unconventional” view of women.
The film is not particularly well written, and Jess Franco is not exactly a remarkable director either. At best, he usually manages to maintain the viewer’s interest with the occasional pair of naked breasts or similar distractions — especially in many of his more overtly exploitative productions, such as Sadomania or Ilsa the Wicked Warden.
But not here. Instead, we are treated to a recurring dream sequence in which zombies repeatedly chase the beautiful virgin. Naturally, this was also a cheaper solution than filming several different scenes revolving around the same theme.
Yet as the film begins to approach its conclusion — at a point when one has often considered turning the whole thing off — something interesting finally begins to happen. Twist after twist emerges, and what initially appeared to be absolute truth or merely a dream sequence is suddenly overturned, or at least explained. Or is it?
One explanation contradicts the next, and eventually you no longer know what to believe. One thing, however, seems fairly certain: seeing this film once is more than enough.
