Product Description

An ultra rare example of deluxe sleaze by one of Italy's grand masters of the satanic knee-trembler. Packed full of whippings, impalings, torture, sadistic couplings and a series of mind-blowing worshipping bunk ups, "The Reincarnation of Isabel" is a masterpiece.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55076 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-11-03
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, HiFi Sound, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.com
This rather incoherent film stars bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay as an American businessman who buys a castle conveniently located near a girls' school. Naturally, plenty of nubile young women come to his housewarming party and are systematically abducted by a quartet of devil worshippers dressed in capes and matching red tights, looking like superhero wannabes at a cheap masquerade party. It's hard to tell who exactly is having all those flashbacks to witch-burning in the 15th century with Renato Polselli's (a.k.a. "Ralph Brown") willy-nilly editing. Actually, it's hard to tell what's going on most of the time, but Polselli doesn't let that stop him from packing the picture with nudity, torture, crucifixions, vampirism, impalings, whippings, and the sick gothic sadism that makes Italian shockers so great. No bosom is left unexposed, no young maiden left unmolested. The gore effects are sometimes amusingly slapdash, the acting is often appallingly bad, and the music is a wild mix of conflicting styles, all of which gives the film a surprisingly fascinating texture. Included are trailers for this and three other Italian exploitation films and an extended introduction by British horror hostess Eileen Daly (which was actually recorded for a different film!), a black-leather Elvira with a whip and a penchant for kink that may not be to the tastes of all audiences. -Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Huh?
I can only recommend this psychedelic italian-horror film to diehard euro-trash fans. It has ALL the standard elements of euro-trash and more...wide-eyed damsels screaming, neon colors (blue,red, green lighting), lots of wild close-ups, TONS of NUDITY, some gore (fake), lots of bondage and torture (scenes go on endlessly!), sex and lesbianism, satanic rituals, a pasty naked woman (Isabella) with a hole in her chest, and even Mickey Hargitay (who gets to wear red tights again...did he have them left over from "Bloody Pit of Horror"? ). On the negative side, the plot is nonsensical, the continuity is primitive, some of the sets are cheap and fake, and at 98 minutes, it does all get a little tiresome. BUT, it's great if you just have it on as background and don't put too much energy into following the plot or lack thereof. It can truly be a very hallucinogenic experience! A worthy purchase for euro-fans needing a fix... just don't expect anything more than a flamboyant parade of style, screams and sex. DVD has the original Italian trailer with no english subtitles.

Warped horror nasty will mess with your head
That's what The Reincarnation of Isabel, or Rites, Black Magic, and Secret Orgies in the 14th Century, as the original Italian title reads, will do. However, as the title character is referred to as Isabella and not Isabel, why wasn't the English title The Reincarnation of Isabella?

The opening scene sets the stage, as a cute blonde in miniskirt and go-go boots is captured by satanists and sacrificed to Isabella, the Great Mistress who will come back to life on the 25th moon. The satanists do some coronary extraction sans anaesthetic--i.e. they pull out her heart, squeeze the blood from it, and drink it. And this a full decade before Mola Ram did his bit in the second Indiana Jones movie!

Who is Isabella, though? During the Inquisition five hundred years ago, in the village of Ariel, Isabella Drupel, a vampire and witch, was bound to a stake, impaled by a wooden stave, and barbecued live, while her lover screamed out "murderers!" amid the villagers who wanted her fried.

In the present day, the young and beautiful Laureen is getting married to Richard Brenton, a local. Her stepfather, Jack Martin, buys a castle that is supposedly cursed. There is a reception there celebrating the upcoming marriage, with lovely girls and shady characters. For example, what's the story behind the creepy butler who bears a close resemblance to Donald Pleasance? Or the mustached guy in black whose nephew sold the castle to Jack?

Along the way, girls end up dead, missing, or fall prey to vampires. They look nice in skirts, shorts, or lingerie, and also in the nude. However, what really makes this film weird is the incoherent cuts and maddening brief flashes from the castle to the scene where Isabella is being burned. What may also blow the viewer's mind is that the guests in the castle are also present at Isabella's roasting. Somehow, they all played a part in Isabella's death. In the latter quarter of the movie, there are also weird cuts back and forth from day to night scenes, and back, which I still haven't figured out. The line "Nobody knows for sure what is real" is very appropriate here. But the incoherence also serves to mess with the viewer's head in a weird and wonderful way.

Dracula comes into play here, as he is revealed to have been Isabella's lover, and invoking the powers of darknes, became the first vampire, but at the cost of living off blood. However, Vlad the Impaler existed in the 15th century, so there is clearly a continuity error here.

Another goof in the movie are the flames surrounding Isabella. Up close, they look like tall individual flames, as from a gas burner. Farther away, they turn into a real blaze, the next moment, the fire seems to have died, and then back again.

The only well known actor here is Mickey Hargitay, (Jack) a former husband of blonde sexpot Jayne Mansfield.

Viewers may or may not find the introduction by a leatherbound demonic vampire who looks like a fugitive from a Cradle of Filth video, complete with headdress, white irises, fangs, long fingernails, and ridiculously large wings, cheesy and intrusive.
After scenes of biting into nude and nubile women and blood dripping into a pan, she goes into a brief history of Nazi exploitation flicks, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the feature presentation.

It may take the average viewer two to three times to fully understand what is going on in this movie. Once that's accomplished, this twisted, sleazy video nasty may burn itself into one's psyche and do squirm deep inside.

Strange, but it has its interesting moments . . .
At first, I thought this movie was a joke, especially the opening scenes with the swirling, psychedelic colours and then the "ritual" with a young woman wearing thigh-high boots being accosted by a group of men with day-glo coloured faces and red leotard suits.

Now, again, I find most of the film ridiculous, but the ridiculous aspect of it somehow works out for it in the end, considering the entire theme of nothing really being "real" in the entire castle, and other semi-philosophic musings that abound within the psychedelic atmospheres.

There are some scenes which are interesting. Some of the scenes which I found to be haunting include those in which Christa and Lenda are present. The scenes of Lenda playing the piano in a dream-like state are eerie and arresting. The scenes of Christa wandering down the corridors and then calling to Lenda are sinister too. Christa Barrymore (Christa) is possibly the most talented actress in the group, and her presence is rather sinister. Most of the other actors are rather mediocre, and Rita Calderoni (who plays Isabel) wasn't that great as the focal character. Her acting even made my husband grimace a bit.

Something I noticed was that the soundtrack for the scene where Christa is with Lenda (on the top of the castle) sounds exactly the same as some of Thomas Dolby's music for "Gothic"; even the descent into the underworld of the castle is somehow reminiscent of Russell's film, and I wouldn't doubt it both were inspired by some of the more surreal scenes in this movie, as "Gothic" itself is a rather surreal movie.