The Satanist (1968)

The Satanist: Directed by Zoltan G. Spencer. With Pat Barrington, Mary Bauer. A young couple’s marriage becomes threatened when an attractive female occultist enters their lives, enticing them into a strange world of drugs, sex, and satanic rites.

“This very low-budget but well-shot and -scored (with mixed jazz and psych-rock instrumentals) nudie offers what the genre usually did at the time: Provide a lot of bodacious women excuses to take their shirts off and writhe in various forms of non-explicit ecstasy. Itu0026#39;s also true to the norm in having almost no synch dialogue at all, just the protagonist (a writer on his honeymoon) narrating the goings-on. He and his wife move in next door to a mysterious lady who invites them to u0026quot;meet the neighborsu0026quot; at a climactic party that naturally turns out to be ritualistic orgy meeting for her coven.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe get topless exotic dancing (exotic as in quasi-Middle/Far Eastern, not the twirling-tassles type), and that kind of softcore lovemaking in which the players get nearly-naked and act almost as if they were actually having sex, though not close enough to risk police raiding the theater. The women are duly attractive and top-heavy (no doubt with some silicone help). Thereu0026#39;s male semi-nudity too, particularly by the hero, who is in good shape for the era but is really, really hairy. (I.e. Not just his chest, but his back and shoulders.)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe pace is soporific, but then suspense is hardly the point–the u0026quot;horroru0026quot; elements are just a novel pretext here for the usual hubba-hubba stuff. So, an above-average adult movie of the period for its decent photography and soundtrack, but if youu0026#39;re watching this because itu0026#39;s u0026quot;horror,u0026quot; be warned it is like watching paint dry. Sexy paint, that is. If you like this sort of thing, itu0026#39;s a pretty good one…which is to say itu0026#39;s fun in a sorta dullish-yet-pleasantly-campy way.”