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THE SATANIC SCREEN
Taste Tbe Blood OfDracula.
mold. Inspired by the diabolical rumours swirling around the Manson case, Quarry co-produced this dismally conceived production in hopes of commingling his vampiric screen persona with freshly minted fears of black magical youth cults. Here, in the role of Satanic guru Khorda, the actor's distinguished features are hidden beneath a laughable long-haired wig and beard. The film begins with a striking image of Khorda washing up on a California beach in his coffin, but swiftly degenerates from there. The failure of the film must largely be attributed to d irector Ray Danton, who disp lays absolutely no sense of style. Quarry does his best, performing a n undead Mass with his usual flair, but his efforts are in vain. THE DEATHMASTER only retains interest today as a document of its occult obsessed times. An interesting Latin American mutation of the Manson-as-Satanist subgenre is GURU DAS SIETE CIDADES (1 972) by Carlos Bini. Otavio Terceiro p lays the diabolical guru of a black-robed hippy cult that amuses itself with Lucifer ian games and orgies. Rejane Medeiros, paralleling the rich celebrities who got their kicks by slumming with the Manson fami ly, is a Brazilian mill ionaire's jaded wife. She finds the thrills she's lacking in her marriage in the sect's Satanic rites. Losing all sense of moral propriety under the guru's spell, Medeiros suggests that her unsuspecting husband should be sacrificed to the Devil. Learning too late that her initiation into evil has gone too far to turn back, the guru decides that she will be sacrificed next. A heavy-handed warning against dabbling with diabolism, G U R U DAS SIETE CIDADES is just as sensationalistic as any of the North American films inspired by the Manson murders. It offers its viewers the excitement of a voyeuristic peek at sexually depraved Satanic youth at the same time as it clucks its tongue.