Jesús Franco Movies

Cult cinema legend Jess Franco takes the helm for a film he claims is, "among the most sincere and creative films of my career," an erotic tale of vampirism that offers a bizarre twist on the familiar mythos. A publicist's agent seeking to secure the rights to a 20th Century cult movie icon's life story travels to meet the actresses' surviving relatives. Upon making their acquaintance, the agent discovers that they live a life of unbridled hedonism. This is a family with some sizable skeletons in their collective closet, and as the agent delves ever deeper into their mysterious background, she slowly begins to succumb to their dark and seductive charm. Fata Morgana, Christine Levin, and Lina Romay star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Jess Franco directs the low-budget erotic thriller Incubus. Artist Johan Harker (Carsten Frank) meets a woman (Fata Morgana) who possesses the power to grant wishes. After he becomes rich and famous, the woman demands the soul of his daughter Lucy (Carina Palmer). Also starring Lina Romay and Zeke Cohen. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

A man's got to do what a man's got to do, the saying goes, and in the case of Spanish cult filmmaker Jesus Franco, that means making exploitation movies. He's made about two hundred of them since the late 1950s, and a few (particularly Vampyros Lesbos) have actually been worthy of notice. Other times, he's just paying the rent, as is the case with this American-made snoozer starring pretty Rachel Sheppard. The videography isn't bad, and takes advantage of its Caribbean settings and Sheppard's extremely photogenic frame as much as possible despite its limitations. Sometimes, those limitations curtail some of Franco's customary stylistic touches so much as to make the film unrecognizable as his work, at least until Lina Romay straps an electric cord to Maria's head and starts administering unconvincing jolts while cackling sadistically. Romay steals the show, squeezing lemon juice into the nude Maria's wounds and showing her a cut-out eyeball in a wineglass while sneering "The less you say, the more we'll play" with vicious glee. Blind Target was apparently filmed in English, but the dialogue is matched to the video very poorly at times, reminiscent of certain 1970s Asian action films (there are even some dreadful martial arts scenes). Still, it has some nice campy moments, and if one has to sit through yet another bad shot-on-video action movie, at least it's nice to see one made by a director who has some idea of what he's doing. And Sheppard being naked for much of the film doesn't hurt either. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Euro-horror master Jesús Franco directed this oddball blend of terror, comedy, and music video. The Killer Barbys are a flashy and trashy hard rock band out on the road. En route to their next show, they find themselves hopelessly lost and are forced to take shelter at the estate of Countess Von Fledermaus (Mariangela Giordano). While the Countess seems like a pleasant enough host, the band discovers she has a deadly secret -- she feeds on the blood of strapping young men to stay young and vital, and lead singer Silvia Superstar is soon forced to save her male bandmates from the clutches of the Countess. The Killer Barbys also features Carlos Subterfuge and Pepa Lopez. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Euro-horror cult figure Jesús Franco directed this erotic re-telling of Mary Shelley's classic tale of terror. Moira Frankenstein (Lina Romay), the grand-daughter of noted mad scientist Dr. Frankenstein (Carlos Subterfuge), has become obsessed with the work of her ancestor and she decides to pick up the family business where he left off. Moira stitches together a female creature (Michelle Bauer) and soon discovers that her creation's sexual appetites are just as strong -- and just as wide ranging -- as her own. However, Moira's lustful relationship with the monster is tarnished when she discovers the creature has been slipping out at night for assignations with a variety of men and women. The supporting cast includes Alex Cox and Amber Newman. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this kinky variation on The Most Dangerous Game, Paula, an actress and exotic dancer, is invited to spend the weekend with a decadent Baroness and her wealthy lover on a private island in the tropics. The offer seems to good to be true, and Paula and her boyfriend decide to take the plunge, but after the sexual escapades turn increasingly dark and threatening, Paula and her man learn the real reason they're on the island -- to be hunted for sport by the Baroness and her party. Directed by legendary sexploitation auteur Jess Franco, Tender Flesh stars Lina Romay, Monique Parent, and Amber Newman. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Over the course of his lifetime, the legendary director Orson Welles (1915-1985) was forced to leave many of his grander movie-making projects unfinished, generally for want of sustained financial backing. Each successive unfinished effort generated buzz throughout the worshipful film community that only served to brighten the luster of his legend. Thus it was only a matter of time before one of his many admirers bought the rights to the fairly extensive footage he shot for his film Don Quixote (begun in 1955) and attempted to edit it into some semblance of a finished film, based on research into Welles' stated intentions and notes. A fuzzy, out-of-focus print of the resulting film was shown at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, and it was immediately deemed as a hashed-up job, a travesty bordering on the sacrilegious, by the assembled deeply interested and knowledgeable viewers. Their criticism focused mainly on issues that ordinary viewers would deem excessively technical, but the gist of it was that this was a very un-Wellesian use of Welles' footage. However, the film does offer viewers a unique opportunity to see some of the master's mature story ideas onscreen. In addition to footage from the film, the movie is also a kind of semi-documentary homage to Welles, showing footage of the famed director at work. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Spanish exploitation king Jésus "Jess" Franco helmed this gothic horror outing, as a very loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The House of Usher." As it opens, Dr. Alan Harker (Antonio Mayans) receives a distressed letter from his former university professor-cum-mentor, Dr. Eric Usher (Howard Vernon), that prompts him to travel to Usher's castle. Once there, Dr. Harker discovers, to his utter horror, that Usher is trapped in the jaws of madness, obsessively attempting to resurrect his comatose daughter Melissa with the blood of abducted young girls. As death looms near, Usher enters a terrifying netherworld that finds him continually tormented by malevolent otherworldly forces including the spirit of his dead wife, that of his wayward housekeeper, and those of the many young women who have fallen prey to his abductions and homicides. As this occurs, Usher's castle itself begins to crumble in response to him, and Harker realizes that he must flee for his life. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi