Nigel P Uptight Marta (Aurora Bautista) is in a dilemma. Fresh faced Laura Barkley (Judy Geeson) has arrived to stay and only minutes earlier, Marta had caused the death of her sister. Marta's own sister, the much less puritanical Veronica (Esperanza Roy) has been stealing money from the safe and carrying on with young general help Eduardo (Víctor Alcázar).Despite being fairly central to the plot, Laura doesn't feature as much as you might expect. Her new friend, obnoxious Helen (Lone Fleming) is the next one to be despatched. With people dropping like flies around her, Laura's suspicions grow.Initially, I sympathised with Marta's thinking – the character of Helen for example wasn't so much sexually provocative, but a thoroughly obnoxious character. Whilst her fate was abhorrent, she was advised several times to leave the hotel and was aggressively petulant in her defiance. As time goes on, however, Marta either becomes more twisted, or the depths of her instability becomes more and more pronounced to the viewer. This is demonstrated never more pleasingly when 'the eye of a young woman' is found staring out of someone's hotel dinner. Although, considering the film's title is 'Candle for the Devil', these events are a little small-time; I expected something a little more demonic.The story ends on an uncertain note. Either the sisters' deadly exploits are about to be exposed to the mad-eyed authorities, or the whole town is in on it. Revelling in the kind of intrigue that made 'Psycho (1960)' such a huge success, 'A Candle for the Devil' seems under-developed. It would have been more satisfying had it been made clearer if the entire district condoned, or was involved in the cover-up of, Marta's blatantly murderous actions.

Leofwine_draca I was inspired to watch A CANDLE FOR THE DEVIL simply because I'm a big fan of Eugenio Martin's other Spanish terror flick, HORROR EXPRESS, so I wanted to see what he'd achieved here. I have to say I was disappointed, because I realised halfway through that this is a mood flick and I'm no big fan of mood flicks. By that I mean, it's all about (admittedly creepy) atmosphere, without a whole lot else going on. There are four or so murders but they're all spread out so thinly that I was half asleep waiting for the next one. The film itself concerns the doings of a couple of crazy sisters, whose religious repression is hinted at but never fully explored in the same way as in a movie like ALICE, SWEET ALICE.It's a shame, because these are two very interesting characters. The actors playing them, Aurora Bautista and Esperanza Roy, are both accomplished and fine in the parts, giving subtle turns despite the film's frequent descent to melodrama. Most of this film just sort of goes by out of your notice... there's a bit of talking, a sex scene, more talking, some wandering around in Spanish streets, more characters come and go... and then the movie ends exactly halfway through the climax, leaving you scratching your head and wondering how it ended (although I can appreciate that the freeze frame is effective in itself).I did want to like this film. Martin has a good sense of visual style, and some shots reminded me of Mario Bava's superior, nightmarish LISA AND THE DEVIL. The set-pieces are well-handled and the murders quite chilling, without being overly graphic. There's a strong focus on exploitation values, as Martin strives to cram in as much nudity as he possibly can, and much of it is outrageous: there are nude pre-pubescent boys, nude corpses, a nude middle-aged woman... no normal cheesecake that I can remember. Judy Geeson is quite ineffectual as the film's supposed heroine, because she doesn't seem to be in it much, and when she is on screen she's not doing anything. In the end, I have to say that A CANDLE FOR THE DEVIL is a very average film, not much we haven't seen before in this PSYCHO derivative sub-genre, and I'm mainly disappointed because it could have been so much more.

Woodyanders Stern and uptight Marta (the excellent Aurora Baustista) and her mousy sister Veronica (the equally fine Esperanza Roy) are a couple of devoutly religious spinsters who run a small inn that caters to young female tourists. However, the sisters have a nasty habit of brutally murdering any fetching lasses that they deem to be immoral. Complications ensue when the sweet Laura Barkley (a winningly sunny and personable portrayal by the pretty Judy Geeson) shows up looking for her missing sibling. Director Eugenio Martin, who also co-wrote the compact script with Antonio Fos, relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, makes good use of the remote rural setting, and effectively creates and maintains a seething atmosphere of twisted morality and deep-seated repression. The solid acting from the capable cast rates as another definite asset: Geeson makes for an appealing damsel in distress, Baustista and Roy excel in their roles, Lone Fleming is a sexy treat as cheerful nymphet Helen Miller, and Blanca Estrada makes a favorable impression as perky young mother Norma. The startling bits of grisly violence pack a pretty mean wallop, plus there are a few neat gruesome touches such as eyeballs discovered in a bowl of soup and a severed head floating in a vat of wine. Antonio Perez Olea's funky score hits the get-down groovy spot. A worthwhile fright flick.

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/