User reviews

Most people that see this film use the word 'nonsense' to describe it and it's not hard to see why. The Reincarnation of Isabel utilises the age-old horror plot line of a witch being brought back to life; but unlike other films of it's ilk, this one jumps straight in at the reincarnation stage; thus forsaking any explanation as to why the witch was exterminated, and why there are people that want to bring her back. These things are explained somewhat a bit later on; and it's these scenes of 'explanation' that really highlight this film's problem. It's practically impossible to differentiate the flashback sequences from the main action, and if it wasn't for the fact that the woman about to be burnt at the stake was called Isabel, the audience would be none the wiser as to what is actually going on. The film features many scenes that appear to be completely random - some of them may be flashbacks explaining the story, I don't know! However, one thing that I do know is that this isn't a story based film - and when it comes to pure Eurotrash, this film excels!

The film features a very gritty European style, and every scene looks great. The lighting is superb, with several sequences seemingly existing only so the director can show off his impressive lighting techniques. The score is suitably creepy, and this is flanked by some excellent set design. The scenes involving the black magic rites themselves are particularly great because they seem to exist in dreamscape. These scenes look fabulous, and even though they're not making much sense, they still allow the film some credibility. No Eurotrash flick would be complete without gore and nudity, and this film features plenty of both. Beautiful girls wearing little or nothing are plentiful, and the gore tends to be of the 'realistic' kind, meaning that it's not gratuitous; but it looks real, and is all the more shocking for that. The film runs at almost 100 minutes, which is a bit on the long side considering it doesn't really have a plot to speak of. I recommend this film to anyone who likes films to look nice. If you're someone that sees a coherent plot as an essential element for a successful horror movie, then there's a good chance that The Reincarnation of Isabel is not your thing.

Renato Polselli's "Riti, Magie Nere e Segrete Orge Nel Trecento..." aka. Rites, Black Magic and Secret Orgies in the Fourteenth Century aka. "The Reincarnation of Isabel" (1973) is a clear case of style over substance that might well appeal to my fellow fans of bizarre Italian Horror / Exploitation productions whereas others are probably better advised to skip it. Polselli is probably best known for his 1972 Giallo "Delirio Caldo", whereas this film remains relatively obscure. This is understandable, since the weirdness, confusion and lack of logic presented in "The Reincarnation of Isabel" simply cannot appeal to everybody. Nonetheless, this film is recommendable to my fellow Italo-Horror buffs as a particularly bizarre and unusual production.

The plot centers around a witch burning in the 14th century, when Isabel (played by the stunning Rita Calderoni) is accused of witchcraft and burned; centuries later, people who seem to be (reincarnations of?) the accusers and the accused gather at a party in an old castle, and mysterious events begin to occur... or something.

The films wonderful visual style and elegant presentation of sleaze almost make it forgivable that the plot is utterly confusing and lacking any structure whatsoever. Visually, Polselli's film ranks only slightly below the works of masters such as Mario Bava and Antonio Margheriti - and this is a comparison I do not make frivolously. The cinematography is gorgeous, as are the ravishing actresses (Rita Calderoni above all). The film is as wonderfully sleazy as it may be expected from an Italian Occult Horror / Exploitation flick from the early 70s, and neither does it scant with the gore. However, there is simply no coherent storyline, but simply a collection of elegant, sleazy sequences attached to one another by a thin yet confusing plot. Apart from Rita Calderoni and a bunch of other beauties in the female cast, the film stars bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. Once the husband of Jayne Mansfield, Hargitay spent most of his acting career in Italian Cult productions, including director Polselli's own "Delirio Caldo", "La Figlia Di Frankenstein" ("Lady Frankenstein", 1971) and the unintentionally hilarious "Il Boia Scarlatto" ("The Crimson Executionner", 1964).

"The Reincarnation of Isabel" is, simply put, weird, weird, WEIRD, and while some people (myself included) will have a great time watching it, others will roll their eyes. Personally, I enjoyed the film; however, the film's plotlessness manifested in my drink consumption while watching it - when the film began, I opened a beer which I thought was the only one I'd drink that night, but once the film was over I was drinking my fifth.

In terms of the plot, acting, and especially the directing, it's quite difficult to know what to make of this film.

At one level, it's a familiar set of nonsense featuring a spooky castle, long-undead characters, gratuitous nudity, very cheap "special" effects and *very* variable levels of acting. However, what makes it stand out for me is the increasing apparent randomness of the scenes - just as if the director had decided to shoot "a bunch of stuff" and then assemble them in some sort of sequence while editing. (e.g. "this spooky guy in the cloak looks good on the battlements against the setting sun - let's drop that in a few times" and "we've got these girls tied up on crosses - let's keep flashing back to that to keep the audience awake", etc...)

Utterly bonkers and quite entertaining if you like this sort of thing, but not a good film!

This movie is best known as 'The Reincarnation Of Isabel', though I watched it as 'Black Magic Rites'. It's also sometimes titled 'The Ghastly Orgies Of Count Dracula'. Anyway, whatever you call it this is one freaky movie! This kind of quasi-psychedelic Eurohorror is I admit an acquired taste, but as I'm already a big fan of this kind of thing I find it hard to be objective about it. Despite (or maybe because of!) an impossible to follow plot, plenty of lousy acting and any excuse whatsoever to get the babes topless this is one of the weirdest and most entertaining movies of this type I've ever seen! Rita Calderoni from 'Nude For Satan' co-stars with Mickey Hargitay, the former bodybuilder and husband of Jayne Mansfield, who appeared in 'The Bloody Pit Of Horror' (by the way, if you're curious you can see Arnie play Hargitay in 'The Jayne Mansfield Story'). If you've seen 'Nude For Satan', imagine it was re-edited by someone tripping on acid and you'll have some idea of what '...Isabel' is like! If I resort to cliches and say you have to see it to believe it, it's because it's true... The plot... well, who knows what the plot is about! Some guys dressed up like Satanic superheros are sacrificing virgins in an attempt to resurrect their long dead leader, the witch (or was that vampire?) Isabella, who was burned at the stake by angry villagers hundreds of years before. I think. Oh, and Dracula's in there somewhere but I can't quite recall why. There are lots of flash backs and just about everybody plays two roles, so it's quite difficult to work out what the hell is going on most of the time! But you know what? It doesn't matter. I loved every minute of it.

IMDB's synopsis for The Reincarnation of Isabel makes the film sound like fairly standard '70s Italian gothic horror: a group of satanists/vampires in a creepy castle attempt to restore life to a witch burnt at the stake several centuries before. In the hands of director Renato Polselli, however, the film is far from routine. In fact, it's downright bizarre (some might say totally inept), the erratic editing, 'unusual' directorial decisions, and eccentric performances meaning that, despite my best efforts, I soon lost track of what was happening, to whom, and why.

There's evidence to suggest that Polselli was a film-maker for whom nudity and sleaze was more important than a cohesive narrative (anyone who has seen his bonkers giallo Delirium and his incomprehensible pornographic 1980 film Quando l'amore è oscenità will know what I mean), and The Reincarnation of Isabel only reinforces that notion, the film making not a lick of sense but featuring a lot of hot women in the altogether. The high totty quotient just about makes the film bearable, although for some strange reason, most of the women have really bad hair-styles.

Terrible hair-dos (or should that be hair-don'ts?) aren't the only weird thing about this film: loopy lass Steffy (Stefania Fassio) wears inexplicably large fake eyelashes and falls over a lot; her friend has strange eye make-up (even for the '70s); kaleidoscopic coloured lighting illuminates random characters; the witch's body is stored in the castle's basement, remarkably well preserved given the passing of time and the fact that she was burnt at the stake; Donald Pleasence's Italian scar-faced counterpart aimlessly wanders the castle corridors; and there's a man with facial tics. The choppy, seemingly random editing (with a series of quick cuts replacing zooms) and shots taken at extreme angles (90 degrees and upside-down) only serve to make everything that much more impenetrable.

If Polselli has made a film that actually makes sense, I'll be more than happy to watch it; until I hear of one, I think I'll give his work a wide berth.

2/10 for the gratuitous nudity, and for a smidge of gore, and that's being generous.

This movie makes no sense (like most Italian horror films I've seen), but has enough sleazy nudity, blood and weirdness going on that it doesn't really matter. What made the film work for me was the haunting, erotic soundtrack! I liked this about as much as the similarly ridiculous NUDE FOR SATAN (also from Redemption/Image). Worth a rental if you enjoy this type of nonsense, but I can't see anyone buying the disk and watching it more than once.

Past and present (and also night and day, sadly) get really confused when a witch is reborn by a sect of black magic fanatic (really ridiculously dressed and made up). Young girls get naked, (maybe) killed, used to give new life to Isabel. Perhaps they die too, but it's not too clear... What is clear is the absurd and incoherent storyline Polselli did create to show us some tits and (not that much) gore. Anyway: the actors are really bad and the sets couldn't look much poor. Luckily, there is an imaginative photography by Ugo Brunelli (who later would be working on another great title of the grade-Z Italian cinema: The Beast in Heat, 1977 by Leopoldo Savona). If you're fans of the trash you'll enjoy this one... otherwise be warned

Jack Nelson (Mickey Hargitay) arrives a gloomy looking castle with his fiancé Laureen (Rita Calderoni) and strange things start to happen immediately. Why? The hell if I know but it is somehow related to Laureen being the reincarnation of Isabella, a witch who was staked and burned alive 500 years ago. Oh, and there are some vampires wandering around too. This is my second Renato Polselli flick (after the previous year's DELIRIUM, also with Hargitay) and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It is great in spots (moody lighting and an interesting editing technique) and completely lousy in others (totally fake rubber bats and easily exposed black backdrops outside of set windows). The biggest problem is it runs way too long (1 hour and 49 minutes) and doesn't make a lick of sense. Worth seeing once just for the 70s feel and the abundance of nudity.

"Reincarnation of Isabel" is a great example of good Euro-trash. It triumphs over its obviously low budget through a combination of gore, unintentional humor, a great score, flashy camera work, and large amounts of gratuitous nudity. It is surprising that this movie has not received a cult status yet, being that it is better than many cult movies. Thanks must be given to Redemption (the company that put this out) for finding a print of this movie, which was long considered lost, and giving it its first domestic release ever.

The "plot" is as follows: A woman named Isabel is burned at the stake when the Inquisition comes to her small village. Apparently they are not too far off, either, because she actually was a witch. Her husband and another local take her body and put it in the dungeon of a castle. Flip to present day: The husband and some of the locals who were on his side have been reincarnated (no explanation is given), and through some twist of fate know it. The husband then attempts to reincarnate Isabel with the hearts of young virgins in some satanic ritual. There is actually much more to the plot (something to do with vampires, and many unnecessary characters), but it all becomes a confused mess. This lack of plot can be forgiven, though, because the plot is not what the movie is trying for.

"Reincarnation of Isabel" is one of the most enjoyable Euro-trash movies, containing everything one has come to expect from this genre. Well, not quite everything. This movie unfortunately lacks in violence and gore. After the violent opening, the movie contains no more realistic effects (it does, however, contain some unrealistic effects. For example, a few "witches" are scratched with sticks, which is fine and dandy (they were topless, after all), but the effect was so cheap it was unintentionally humorous. It was achieved through the use of rubbing a blunt club with wet paint on the end against the skin of the two "witches."). The fake violence was not the only source of unintentional humor; the subtitles were actually much funnier. On the plus side, the acting was surprisingly good and solid, the music was decent, and the direction was pretty solid. It should also be noted that "Reincarnation..." gets better with every viewing. It should be viewed at least twice to get the wanted effect.

Recommended for all fans of Eurohorror. My rating: 7 out of 10.

Well you sure can't fault director Renato Polselli for not trying to entertain us that's for sure. The Reincarnation of Isabel like his deranged giallo Delirium before it is a non-stop barrage of sleazy thrills and gore. Polselli was certainly not a director who could be accused of being understated. His films are deranged and borderline incomprehensible, and full to the brim with naked women. He was clearly an unashamed exploitation film-maker who just got down to it and served up the goods with no consideration whatsoever to good taste and decency. But you know what? His movies do have a definite style – albeit a pretty haphazard one. The Reincarnation of Isabel is a perfect example. It's about a group of vampires who keep the body of a witch in the basement of a castle, awaiting a chance to resurrect her with the blood of several virgins. Cue the arrival of a party of knuckle-heads with the requisite gaggle of – deeply unconvincing – virgins.

I suppose it's a rip off of Mario Bava's Black Sunday in a way. Not that you'll probably notice as other than the witch idea it's a pure sleaze-fest with some gory violence chucked in for good measure. Every woman who appears in it gets naked and is terrorised at some point. Its sexist stuff of the first order naturally, although not quite as misogynistic as Delirium. The story sort of makes sense some of the time but you'll be forgiven for wondering what's going on a lot of the rest of the time. Polselli's haphazard style is the reason for this, as scenes are edited together bizarrely and characters act in ways that can only be described as insane. The film stars the always entertaining Mickey Hargitay and Rita Calderoni, both of who appear in Delirium along with most of the other cast members from that film. I was also astonished at the appalling haircuts sported by most of the girls – in virtually every other Italian production from the time the women all look like they have been groomed by super-chic stylists; the chicks here look more like they have been dragged through a hedge. But what the hell, they all get naked right? Anyway, the soundtrack is pretty good - quite moody and at times psychedelic, while the camera work is sometimes inventive and the dungeon set is admittedly pretty funky.

Overall, it's a very commendable example of Euro-Trash. Senseless? Yes. Gratuitous? Of course. Laughable? At times. Entertaining? Oh yeah.

This long-lost exploitation treasure surely lists among the weirdest films I ever saw. To be quite sure, I'm still don't know how to give a rating to it… the plot is full of nonsense and illogicalness and impossible to summarize. In fact, I would have turned off this movie much earlier if it wasn't for all the beauty it features. The Reincarnation of Isabel has an amazing force on attraction! It constantly introduces barely-dressed beauty queens and photographs them in the most stylish and sensual ways you've ever seen! Although no structure whatsoever (the plot jumps back and forth in time, seeing it handles about some sort of immortal vampire cult who sacrifices virgins every twenty-fifth moon… or something), you just can't press the `stop'-button on the remote of your DVD-player. Fans of macabre cinema will regard this film as an absolute highlight…even they won't get it, neither. It purely has to be seen for its weirdness and incomprehensible style. Sleaze, violence and atmosphere like you've never seen it before. For the eccentric cinema-freaks among us!

A group of people are having a party in a castle one of them (Mickey Hargitay) has just bought. The castle is haunted by the malignant presence of a witch who was burned 500 years earlier and who, not surprisingly, looks just like one of the guests (Rita Calderoni). Yet another rip-off of Mario Bava's "Black Sunday"?--of course, but this movie is much, much more than that. All the male guests are either reincarnations of the earlier historical figures or vampires who have been living for centuries waiting for the opportunity to reincarnate the witch, Isabel. The women meanwhile are all virgins because, not only are virgins necessary for the ceremony, but as one character eloquently puts it, "Vampires need blood uncontaminated by human semen." (This leads one dumb girl in a particularly hilarious scene to give up her virginity to her nymphomaniac friend and a fat, ugly guy with a severe facial twitch).

Obviously, the main appeal of this movie is sex and nudity, but anyone watching it SOLELY for that purpose might be a little frustrated as this a Renato Polselli film, a man whose directorial style can best be described as completely deranged. While there are acres of flesh on display here, Polselli often seems more interested in the bizarro camera angles, the staccato editing sequences, and the pulse-pounding score than he is in lingering on the action like some of his hack contemporaries (or more modern-day "erotic" filmmakers) would have done. All the actors and actresses from Polselli's more famous film "Delerio Caldo" show up again here, and while the latter are even more naked than they were in "Delerio Caldo", some of them turn out to be pretty untalented as thespians(and Polselli doesn't have the good sense to kill them off quickly like he did in the other film). Meanwhile, the stronger actors like Hargitay, Calderoni, and Krysta Barrymore are pretty much wasted in the incomprehensible chaos the film quickly descends into.

Regardless of whether you like this film or not, however, I GUARANTEE you'll never see anything else like it.

Totally incomprehensible mess of a film, which mixes Satanists, reincarnated witches and vampires to no good effect - apparently the shoestring budget didn't allow for plastic vampire teeth, plus these so-called bloodsuckers (there's never any actual evidence of neckbiting) do not follow any of the usual vampire rules. The editing is extremely confusing, the score ridiculous, the acting... what acting? Hardly any gore, and what is present is very obviously fake. Lots of strictly R-rated nudity, so even on the sleaze level this is a very mild entry. Apparently this film had been lost for many years - and with good reason, too. Avoid unless you're in a masochistic mood.

Centuries ago, a gorgeous witch named Isabella (Rita Calderoni) was staked and burned alive; her lover vowed revenge. In modern times, a man named Jack Nelson (Mickey Hargitay) buys a mountaintop castle and moves there with his niece Laureen (also played by Calderoni) to celebrate her engagement. However, there are occultists on the premises who regularly sacrifice the hearts and eyes of comely female virgins to their exalted "great mistress", Isabella; they hope to restore her to life.

Writer & director Renato Polselli doesn't ever concern himself too much with telling a particularly coherent story, stuffing a lot of exposition into the final few minutes. Rather, he stresses other aspects of the presentation, to the delight of any Eurotrash-horror fan watching. It's very sexy (there's abundant nudity), very gory, and has a nonstop general feeling of weirdness and gloom. Polselli *does* have a way with atmosphere, aided in no small part by his cinematographer Ugo Brunelli. Brunellis' lighting schemes are wonderfully colourful, and are worthy of Mario Bava and Dario Argento at their most stylish. This *is* a gorgeous picture to look at, in more ways than one, with fine use of locations, and a psychedelic touch. There's even some actual intentional comedy, accompanied by a decidedly goofy variation in the otherwise subtle music.

The acting is basically tolerable, although Hargitay (former bodybuilder and husband of starlet Jayne Mansfield) is rather stiff. Also, Stefania Fassio is fatally annoying as motor mouthed airhead Steffy. This character wears out her welcome fairly quickly. William Darni is requisite hero Richard Brenton, and Italian Donald Pleasence lookalike Marcello Bonini Olas is amusing as a scar faced occultist named "Gerg".

Any viewer who adores the sleazier side of world cinema from this era is sure to take a liking to "Black Magic Rites", no matter how muddled the story is.

Six out of 10.

Bizarre softcore porn vampyric fantasy!

I completely blame myself for not finding this film more entertaining and not following the plot. Obviously I needed to drop LSD beforehand.

Nice random boobs and completely unnecessary erotic scenes.

Still it had it's charms.... Unique.

Some films are so bizarre that people couldn't replicate even if they tried.

A solid contender for the worst edited Italian horror film, Black Magic Rites is one of those works where it's jarringly obvious the people involved had an incredibly slim idea of what they were doing. It seems Renato Polselli rounded up his actor pals, a stash of dope and wine, as well as a few colored lights to ape Mario Bava, and trekked out to a castle to shoot a sexy occult picture, realising only upon his return that he did not have an actual movie in his hands. Undeterred, he stiched together 100 minutes of people sneaking about the castle grounds, casting suspicious glances at everything, the camera relentlessly zooming in on their faces in an unbelievable succession of redundant scenes.

The glue keeping the whole mess intact is an endless ritual for resurrecting a murdered witch, and a flashback section about said witch's demise. The oddball soundtrack is the only rewarding aspect here. If you're looking for something in line with 'Lisa and the Devil' or 'Shiver of the Vampires', prepare to be sorely disappointed.

Directed by Renato Polselli "Reincarnation of Isabel" has been long considered to be missing,disappearing after its failed initial showing in 1972-1973.The film is pretty confusing and badly written,so fans of bizarre Italian exploitation won't be disappointed.There is some gore and witchery plus plenty of sleaze.The women in this film take almost every opportunity to strip down-and that's not a bad thing in my book.A Satanic cult,as a part of an ancient rite to revive a witch who died 400 years earlier,must sacrifice a group of seven virgins.Trouble erupts when one of the prospective victim's lovers interrupts the rituals,and the witches turn into vampires and wreak havoc on the town.Renato Polselli managed to create a dreamlike atmosphere punctuated with many scenes of naked women attacked,raped,terrorized and murdered.Overall,I enjoyed this film and you should too,if you like Italian sleaze.

This one could have been a masterpiece wasn't it to blame on the cheap effects. The beginning of the movie starts of extreme good with a real Gothic horror atmosphere, creepy music but when the torture or black magic rites began it becomes lame. A shame, watching the stick going into the chest, pardon me, you just here her screaming but the stick is every time the same,although they are hammering it. Almost no blood in this flick too, except for ripping out the heart. The 'burn at the stake' scene is way too long. Also a pity one shot the flames are high, next shot flames are low. Typical Italian so there is a lot of nudity in this one, Gothic remember. If they only used nice effects....but the film was lost for years and is now available on DVD, watch it.