...if it was made without any discernible talent, plot or indeed narrative input of any variety. Now, I know that Spanish director Jose Ramon Larraz had talent - he made the atmospheric, erotic horror that was VAMPYRES, after all. But you wouldn't recognise it from watching VIOLATION OF THE BITCH which, despite the exploitative title, is a complete non-starter of a film, a sluggish softcore porn movie a la BLACK CANDLES.

The plot involves a couple of women in a remote country house who soon embark on a passionate lesbian affair. Before long, their happiness is interrupted by the arrival of a man who may or may not be the figure haunting the dreams of one of the women. There's no more story than that, just long scenes of dull dialogue interspersed with various softcore couplings.

Larraz throws in an attempted 'twist' ending in a bid to make this all seem like it's going somewhere, but I'm afraid a couple of seconds of violence in no way, shape or form makes this a decent movie. Just a badly-acted, badly-dubbed and (in the version I saw taken from the old UK Hokushin tape) heavily cut waste of time.

Contrary to popular belief, the world of 70's exploitation and trash cinema can be quite the mysterious and contradictory place. Take this rarely seen and obscure piece of Spanish awkwardness, for example! This movie is weird and confusing even BEFORE you decide to watch it. If you look it up on this marvelous website, you stumble upon the page of a seemingly stylish, artistic and somewhat psychedelic film entitled "The Coming of Sin", which showcases a cover image with a golden and transparent horse standing in a meadow. In case you know yet nothing about the film, you're tempted to think this will be an artsy and tasteful exploitation feature. However, the VHS exemplar that ended up in my dirty little hands is proudly entitled "Violation of the Bitch" with the provocative tagline "She Asked for it …" written in equally giant letters and showing the drawing of a busty woman kneeling down in front of a pair of female legs and begging for her life. Now, what type of film do you expect to see in this case? That's right, pure rancid sleaze and gratuitous violence!

The actual finished product is somewhat of a mixture between wannabe artistic and wannabe shocking. "Violation of the Bitch/The Coming of Sin" is plentiful of nudity (both male and female) but severely lacking a decent storyline and action sequences. A wealthy but lonely and sexually frustrated female takes a shy but voluptuous gypsy girl into her mansion for some company and random lesbian entertainment. The girl suffers from a recurring nightmare about a naked man on a horse stalking her. The dream actually becomes reality when one morning there's a naked horseman at their door. The gypsy girl naturally reacts reluctant, but the insatiable artist is fascinated by the appearance and a bizarrely uncomfortable triangular relationship develops itself. In spite of the reasonably short running time (little under 80 minutes),"Violation of the Bitch" is a tedious film with an unpleasantly large amount of padding footage. All the potentially intriguing plot elements (the gypsy girl's history, the horseman's background…) are ignored in favor of long and meaningless sequences containing two female lead characters staring at each other naked or posing for nude portraits. The climax is totally implausible since it contradicts with everything the script attempted to make us believe earlier on, but hey, at least the VHS cover art wasn't a lie. José Ramón Larraz has always been one of my favorite Euro-exploitation directors (the man was single-handedly responsible for "Vampyres", "Black Candles" and "Symptoms") but this is unquestionably one of his lesser efforts. Unless you're a tolerant and extremely open-minded fan of odd exploitation sleaze, avoid!

With my PS3 having played up on playing Blu-Rays for ages, (yet games still work!) I decided this week to finally buy a Blu-Ray player. Trying to decide which Blu to play first on it,I remembered a Cinema of Spain viewing challenge taking place on ICM, leading to me taking the Larraz box set off the shelf.

View on the film:

The closing title in their set, Arrow present a excellent transfer, which retains the film grain,whilst the audio and colours of the print are kept clean,all backed by fascinating extras on the title.

Returning to Spain after General Franco's death for a movie the producer hoped would jump on the Emmanuelle (1974) bandwagon thanks to censorship relaxing in Spain, co-writer/(with Monique Pastrynn) directing auteur Jose Ramon Larraz comes back to a home built on his major themes and recurring motifs, shimmering in the warm,rustic colours lining Lorna's remote chateau , deep in the rural countryside that Larraz had visited in Whirlpool (1970-also reviewed.)

Working on Comic-Books and training as a fine painter before he entered cinema,Larraz & cinematographer Fernando Arribas paint the surreal sensuality of Larraz works with a mesmerising artistry that pays tribute to sensualist Symbolist painter Julio Romero de Torres, (whose art is a central part of Lorna and Triana's relationship, who attend a galley displaying his works,and read books featuring Torres's art.)

Larraz frames Torres's sensuality in the stylised longing two-shots between Triana and Lorna, the miraged figure of Chico riding through blades of grass on a pale horse, and a strikingly chiaroscuro colour coding shaded to the stages of Lorna and Triana's relationship.

Riding in his distinctive surreal eroticism with startling dream set-pieces colouring Lorna's passions for Triana, Larraz weaves the eyeful of skin and a wonderful splash of red across the gloomy ending, with a thoughtful quality in capturing the friction between the trio, (trios being a major recurrence in Larraz's work) bonding Lorna and Triana with a switching of gender roles flamenco dance the couple watch on a date,as Lorna casually touches Triana's hand, whose dressed in a mature, masculine suit, which becomes increasingly agitated the more Chico comes closer into focus.

Later stating about the cast in his autobiography that they "Looked great on camera, but didn't know how to act", (a bit harsh!) the trio give very good turns, with Rafael Machado (who lied he could ride horses to get the part,and fell off the first day,but got lucky from the only injury being a bruised ego) charging in with a rugged brute edge, which Patricia Granada has Lorna react to by falling into a maddening jealously of love, (a regular theme of Larraz) Lidia Zuazo has Triana grate on a hard-edge dominance,as Triana looks into the whirlpool at the coming of sin.