After the deaths of her parents, Justine (Susana Kamini, MANSION OF MADNESS) is sent to a convent. She quickly establishes a sexually-tinged friendship outcast roommate Alucarda (Tina Romero). When the two girls encounter a satyr-like gypsy (Claudio Brook of Bunuel's SIMON OF THE DESERT), he initiates them into a witches' sabbat but the prayers of Sister Angelica (Tina French) - whose love for Justine is more spiritual than Alucarda's - result in the death of the coven's leader. The devil takes revenge by possessing the girls and bringing chaos to the convent that requires the joint efforts of the priests (lead by David Silva) and the skeptical local doctor (Claudio Brook, again) to exorcise the convent. When Justine dies during an exorcism, Alucarda unleashes her fury on the convent with baths of blood and combustible nuns aplenty. Moctezuma (who also produced Jodorowsky's EL TOPO and FANDO Y LIS which was scripted by Fernando Arrabal) was an important intellectual figure in Mexico in the fifties, sixties, and seventies and although his filmmaking oeuvre was small, his three horror films (including this film, MANSION OF MADNESS, and the American co-production MARY, MARY, BLOODY MARY) were all distinctive works (the fact that MANSION and ALUCARDA were shot in English along with the rampant nudity and bloodshed likely assured them American exhibition despite their surrealistic elements in contrast to the underrated and equally worthy works of Carlos Enrique Taboada. The set design is even more stunning here than in MANSION and Moctezuma and cinematographer Xavier Cruz manage some simple yet effective lighting effects and 4:3 compositions. Like Brook, Tina Romero plays a dual role as Alucarda and as her mother in the pre-credits sequence. Susana Kamini had a small but prominent role in MANSION which also starred Brook in a more flamboyant role. As with MANSION, ALUCARDA's world is made up of a strange melange of literary references (Alucarda may be the offspring of Dracula and the Lucy Westenra character in the novel and Justine encounters a convent of nuns and priests who are masochistic - and possibly sadistic - but not necessarily corrupt as they are in De Sade and emerges from a bath of blood a la the popular depiction of Countess Bathory not to mention the grueling exorcisms and Alucarda's CARRIE-esque fiery attack on the convent). Although made after MANSION OF MADNESS, ALUCARDA seems like an earlier work with its reduced scale but it could also be seen as a return to form after the American co-production MARY, MARY, BLOODY MARY (whose contemporary setting and milieu of modern art are not quite as impressive as the period settings of Moctezuma's other two horror films). The ethereal electronic music and sound design are also quite impressive for a low budget Mexican horror film. ALUCARDA would also make a suiting supernatural companion piece to Mondo Macabro's release of the French film DON'T DELIVER US FROM EVIL.