Killer B's on DVD: Night of the Sorcerers

Director Amando de Ossorio is probably best known in horror circles for his four Blind Dead films which deal with the Knights Templar rising from their graves and preying upon the living. De Ossorio's blind dead are easily the most recognizable group of walking corpses in Euro-horror history with their rotting monk's robes and wizened faces. Night of the Sorcerers was released in the same year as Return of the Blind Dead, the second entry in that series.

Just released by BCI/Eclipse, Night of the Sorcerers eschews the European locales of the Blind Dead series for the jungles of Africa. In a pre-credits sequence set in 1910 we see a woman being whipped by a tribe of natives before she is decapitated upon a ceremonial altar. A group of white men in safari gear and pith helmets arrive and slaughter the natives. Just as the gunfire dies out, the woman's severed head turns to the camera and shrieks as she displays her new vampire fangs.
The film shifts to modern times and we meet an expedition led by Professor Jonathan Grant (Jack Taylor), whose purpose is to study local endangered wildlife. They encounter a man named Munga (or Tomunga as he is called on the English-dubbed track) who warns them that the area is dangerous. He shows them the location where years ago several voodoo practitioners were killed and buried near the same ceremonial altar we saw earlier. Supposedly the sacrifice turned its victims into leopard women, which explains the very fake looking leopard head that is watching our heroes from the bushes. During the day they are leopards, but at night they become vampire babes in leopard skin bikinis who prowl the jungle in irritating slow motion. The expedition's photographer Carol (Loli Tovar) decides to sneak back to the altar at night and soon finds herself joining the ranks of the undead swimsuit models.

De Ossorio pretty much swipes from himself here, with the plot resembling that of Tombs of the Blind Dead, the first of that series. Unfortunately, Night of the Sorcerers trades the other film's tense atmosphere for a lot of silliness. All of the women are unrealistically catty, and Tunika's purpose in the expedition seems to be to provide Rod (Simon Andreu) with an insanely insecure and jealous girlfriend. It seems odd that the process of turning someone into a leopard woman involves cutting off their head, only to see it inexplicably reattached the next time we see her. The funky euro-pop soundtrack is pretty cool and the cast members have numerous cult horror credits to their name: Andreu starred in The Blood Spattered Bride, Taylor appeared in several Jess Franco films including Succubus and Bare Breasted Countess, Tovar was also fanged in the Paul Naschy vehicle Count Dracula's Great Love, and several of the female cast members have appeared in the Blind Dead films. Aside from that, there is little to recommend about the feature.

The film is presented full frame with a decent quality print and the option of Spanish or English-dubbed audio and optional English subtitles. The original Spanish language trailer is included without subtitles and there's a still gallery featuring posters, lobby cards, photos and video box art. The most interesting of the extras is a collection of alternate footage culled from various international sources. The Spanish language version of the opening credits is included, as well as a collection of alternate clothed scenes for markets in which graphic nudity was not permitted. There's also some alternate footage in which the native ritual shifts to negative, presumably to obscure some of the gore.