Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel trecento

Superficially, Italian exploitation filmmaker Renato Polselli's Black Magic Rites (Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel tracento, 1973) appears to represent a quantum leap forward from his earlier The Vampire and the Ballerina (L'amante del vampire, 1960). The substitution of monochrome for fully saturated color and of chaste bosom heaving for full frontal female nudity seems to mark the features as polar opposites, yet the latter continues to work through themes and motifs introduced in the earlier. The contradictory nature of Italy at the midpoint of the 20th Century led to a dynamic, challenging, and often confounding national cinema, in which antiquity was juxtaposed with swank modernity, gilded tradition with contemporary high fashion, and deeply-rooted Catholic values with distrust for authority backed by a galloping hedonism. While The Vampire and the Ballerina was set at the dawn of la dolce vita, as Hollywood values began to insinuate themselves into the Italian boot, Black Magic Rites picks up the cultural narrative half a generation later, as the children of the reconstruction stand poised to assume the mantle of adulthood and all the terrible secrets bundled into their collective legacy. Black Magic Rites is based around a fabulous party - a staple of Italian cinema since at least 1959 - during which Lauren (Rita Calderoni) celebrates her engagement to Richard (William Darni) in a castle purchased for them by her guardian, Jack Nelson (Mickey Hargitay). Little do the revelers know, but Nelson is really the immortal Count Dracula, whose blood curse was born on the day he swore allegiance to Satan in a failed attempt to spare his lover Isabella (Calderoni), an accused witch, from her date at the stake. Strange things began to happen, not the least of which is the death of Christa (Krista Barrymore), just one of a series of recent murders in the village that the more superstitious locals believe to be the work of a vampire. Buried in undeath, Christa rises from her grave as profane rites are performed to indoctrinate Lauren as the final sacrifice in an attempt to reincarnate Isabella, who idles in a damned halfway state between life and death, with a ghastly pallor and an unattractive hole where her heart used to be. Scrambling to rescue his bride-to-be, Richard finds an unexpected ally in a reincarnated Satanist (Raul Lovecchio) turned vampire hunter, who has waited centuries for the chance to send Isabella back to Hell. Linear it ain't but Black Magic Rites remains an entertaining (and, at times, irritating) putanesca of provocative set-ups pointed towards a big finish finale. It would be unforgivably glib to call the film a deconstruction of the horror genre, and yet by leapfrogging from one patch of familiar gothic territory to another (Polselli stages Christa's graveyard reawakening as an echo of a similar scene of undead rebirth in The Vampire and the Ballerina), the filmmakers sidestep exposition in favor of spectacle, shooting for a pure cinema approach that supplants the oral tradition. Too out-of-the-box for its time, Black Magic Rites languished in Italian film vaults until it was rediscovered during the VHS boom. This anamorphic, high definition, all-region DVD from Redemption Films/Kino Lorber replaces an earlier 16x9 Redemption disc and a flat letterboxed transfer released in partnership with Image Entertainment. This latest go at the materials has resulted in a gorgeous presentation disc, with vivid chromatics and a disconcertingly sharp image (which does some cast members no favors). The original Italian mono track has been preserved, with optional English subtitles. A theatrical trailer is included, along with previews for other films in the Redemption-Kino Lorber catalog. For more information about Black Magic Rites, visit Kino Lorber. To order Black Magic Rites, go to TCM Shopping. by Richard Harland Smith