A Candle for the Devil

1974 "Spine-chilling suspense!"
A Candle for the Devil
5.8| 1h27m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 14 October 1974 Released
Producted By: Mercofilms
Country: Spain
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Two sisters running a small hotel in Spain kill female tourists whose morals do not meet their strict religious standards.

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GL84 Working at a hotel together, a pair of sisters find themselves believing that they've been divinely-bound to dispatch of the undesirable sinners who stay there and begin killing them off while the police investigate the missing people.This was quite a fun Spanish horror effort. One of the better aspects of this one is the fact that it really manages to get plenty of mileage out of its central premise ensuring that the sisters are just that off-center in their beliefs. This one accurately paints them as being so old-fashioned in their religious teachings that they've become brainwashed into the school of being the morally- sound viewpoint against the modern world and committing far more dangerous transgressions than what they're victims are accused of which makes this fall right in line with the vast majority of such films from that time period as their actions take this into a fun route. Their relentless pursuit against those that defy their viewpoint of righteousness allows for plenty of manic raving about their convictions which are put to use in several rather fun confrontations made all the better for being based on this backwards thinking, from the first encounter in the stairwell to the dealings with the town prostitute and finally the fine brawl that erupts from the battle in the basement with the single mother. The way these develop from their psychosis makes for quite a fun time overall here, and with the film picking up considerably in the action stakes for the final half with the race to bring them to justice leading to plenty of chasing around the property which gives this the kind of high-energy and enjoyable finale. Added together with some nice sleaze and a solid, engaging storyline, there's plenty to like here while there's a couple flaws holding it down. Among the films' few flaws is the fact that, despite it being quite a strong offering of their mental problems, there's just not a whole lot of action in this one. It's quite a while here before anything actually happens as the vast majority of the first half consists of the two debating about their ethical quandary killing off people and what they're doing, which makes this one really drag out and feel really endless as they're attempting to get their stories straight while also managing to feature them engaging in the same type of behavior with her boyfriend so it's not only bland but also hypocritical. That makes it hard to get into this one for quite a while due to this, and when the film spends the majority of the time not featuring many of these action scenes overall it really stands out with a dragged- out pace. The only other flaw here is the other storyline involving the missing woman's sister journeying around the town trying to find out what's happening to their utter cluelessness, which is quite strange with their desire to keep their crimes hidden and her noticeably poking around in their business being left to deal with until the very end which is quite a troubling effort. That really makes it hold itself back for the most part.Rated R: Violence, Full Nudity and Language.
arfdawg-1 Two old maid sisters are running a little family hotel in Spain. They are very religious and the moral of the foreign tourist girl is too much for them. They start to kill them.First of all, 3 minutes into this movie there is hot blonde nudity which in my mind is a great beginning.Then there is one of the shortest skirts and longest legs I've ever seen.It's not a bad movie for the genre. Sort of a cult movie.
Boba_Fett1138 You can say that this movie is bit of a lackluster but it nevertheless remains a very well made movie.It's hard to classify this movie as anything. It's not really a slasher, since there are simply not enough killings for that and for an horror/thriller it simply isn't exciting enough. But that doesn't make this movie necessarily bad really. It's just a bit of a different movie that takes its own course with its story and I must say that the movie is pretty well done.Seems like Spanish film-makers back in the '70's try to create a same sort of horror sub-genre that was so popular in Italy, around the same time. There are a bunch of Spanish genre movies like this one but none of them really ever was successful or a truly great one. They were lacking too much in originality and gore, among other things. The movie is not really anything special to watch. Although the movie got well done and creates a good atmosphere and also has a pretty good main premise, it remains a pretty tame and lackluster movie. It's still watchable all but it's easily a movie you can do without.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
BloodTheTelepathicDog ... or Tony Kendall for that matter. Here, you get a female heavy film with a female protagonist, female antagonists and female victims. There is one major male role in the film but his character isn't very high on the depth chart. This film is pure estrogen horror! Lithe-bodied Judy Geeson travels to Spain to meet her sister at the inn she is staying. However, once Judy arrives, the two spinsters that operate the inn (Bautista and Roy) inform her that her sister has since moved on. Of course, as the viewer knows from the opening scene, Judy's sister hasn't moved on to another lodging but to the afterlife. And the sisters were her escorts. The sisters kill any woman they deem of loose moral fiber since Bautista's betrothed left her for a woman, who as the Coen Brothers would say, "knew how to ply her feminine wiles." In order to get revenge, Marta (Bautista) kills very sweet young thing that comes into her inn wearing Daisy Dukes with the help of her meek sister Veronica.Judy has little to fear because she dresses conservatively and is a proper young woman, but given that her sister is missing, she takes to detective work. She befriends slutty Lone Fleming, another guest at the inn, but their friendship doesn't blossom as the sisters dispatch Lone for being a floozy. When a third young woman arrives at the inn, the beautiful Blanca Estrada, Judy keeps a close eye on her, hoping that Blanca can lead her to knowledge regarding her sister's whereabouts.This is a very interesting film with well-defined characters and enough violence to sustain the interest of modern horror fans. The anti-religion theme is a bit too heavy-handed and will indeed offend some viewers, but this is just a minor horror outing and shouldn't be treated as religious bashing literature.ACTING: Judy Geeson is okay in the lead. She is outshined by the middle aged sisters, Bautista and "Return of the Evil Dead's" Esperanza Roy. Aurora Bautista is delightfully wicked as the elder sister while Roy is equally well as her passive sister. Lone Fleming steals the show as the happy to flaunt her body hussy.STORY: The script has that eerie feel I've grown to crave from Euro-horrors: they do a much better job at building suspense than American horror directors. The revenge plot may be off-putting because of the biblical zealotry of the murderess.NUDITY: None here, which is uncommon for a 1970s Euro-horror.