Seven Women for Satan Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Seven Women for Satan" or "Les week-ends maléfiques du Comte Zaroff")

Directed by Michel Lemoine
France 1976

By day a mild mannered businessman, in his dreams Boris Zaroff chases naked females on his country estates, just like his notorious father. One weekend, two visitors arrive at Boris’s castle. The young girl is fascinated by tales of the wicked Zaroffs and asks if she can see their famous torture chamber. Maybe now the Zaroff dreams can become reality once more…

Seven Women for Satan, originally titled The Wicked Weekends of Count Zaroff, is a stylish and psychedelic horror film that was actually banned in France in the 1970s. Savagely cut and more or less forgotten for decades, the film now reaches Blu-ray in a stunningly restored new version created from the original negative.

Complete with a host of extras and with many deleted and alternate scenes, this release shows the film for the first time in the form its maker intended. An extended version restores the film closer to its original running time and a nearly hour long interview with cast member and assistant director Robert de Laroche gives a hugely entertaining and insightful view into the making of the film and the life of its creator Michel Lemoine.

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Businessman Boris Zaroff (writer/director Michel Lemoine) daydreams of hunting naked women for sport (in a sexualized variation on the exploits of his ancestor the Count Zaroff in THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME). When Zaroff takes for the weekend to his ancestral castle looked after by , Zaroff puts his fantasies into practice with the assistance/encouragement of sinister servant Karl (Howard Vernon, THE BLOOD ROSE), a vicious mastiff, and the beckoning ghost of Anne (Joelle Coeur, LES DEMONIAQUES) brutally murdered by his ancestor. He hires a comely secretary Muriel (Nathalie Zeiger, Robbe-Grillet's PLAYING WITH FIRE) to do little more than get drugged and fondle herself naked before a two-way mirror before Zaroff sets the dogs after her but a stranded comic-relief motorist couple may be a hindrance or provide more fresh meat. Like the British advertising of another Mondo Macabro French rarity DON'T DELIVER US FROM EVIL, SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN has been touted as "The French film BANNED in France..." (though the liner notes point out that the French censorship record for SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN suggest they were watching another film entirely). While the erotic and violent content may seem tame now, SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN (either one of the alternate French titles is more accurate) is nevertheless great fun. It is difficult to imagine anyone else but Lemoine in the lead role voicing the filmic philosophy of the gaze while spying a nude Zeiger through a two-way mirror and Joelle Coeur is effective in a role that might have gone to Lemoine's previous muse Janine Reynaud only a couple years before. Howard Vernon seems to be parodying his own Eurocult typecasting but is always a welcome addition. Lemoine was not alone in using THE MOST DANGEROUS GAMEE as a twisted inspiration. Jess Franco (who directed Lemoine in SUCCUBUS/NECRONOMICON, KISS ME MONSTER, and TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS with his then wife Reynaud) also took an erotic (and literally cannibalistic) spin on the literary/cinematic Zaroff mythos with THE PERVERSE COUNTESS which also starred Howard Vernon (a forthcoming Mondo Macabro release) in 1973. Lemoine has the French exploitation cinema aesthetics down pat (the film looks like a Franco film directed by Jean Rollin). The comic relief couple may seem a bit out of place but do not entirely destroy the film's atmosphere as there seems to be a vein of parody running through the gothic horror proceedings that extends to the humorous variation on the rote surprise ending. Like many fantastique filmmakers, Lemoine cinematic ambitions floundered with the growing popularity of hardcore pornography (his earlier MARIANNE BOUQUET - which he also starred in - was shot softcore but augmented with hardcore inserts so it is unlikely that the softcore SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN would have sold well had it not been banned at the time).

Eric Cotenas

Posters

Theatrical Release: July 16th, 1975

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Comparison:

Mondo Macabro - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Mondo Macabro - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Mondo Macabro Region 0 - NTSC	Mondo Macabro - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:25:15	Theatrical: 1:25:25.662 Extended: 1:30:20.706
Video	1.62:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.74 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 35,480,210,832 bytes Theatrical: 21,708,285,120 bytes Extended: 22,970,492,544 bytes Video Bitrate: 29.91 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate DVD:
Bitrate Theatrical Blu-ray:
Bitrate Extended version Blu-ray:
Audio	French (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono); English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)	DTS-HD Master Audio French 1074 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1074 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio English 1103 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1103 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitles	English, None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Mondo Macabro Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.62:1 Edition Details: • Formidable! The Michel Lemoine Story (16:9; 15:36) • Theatrical Trailer (4:3; 1:36) • Cast and Crew Biographies • About the Film Text Screen Liner Notes (9 pages) • More from Mondo Macabro (text screen) DVD Release Date: November 11th, 2003 Amaray Chapters 12	Release Information: Studio: Mondo Macabro 1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 35,480,210,832 bytes Theatrical: 21,708,285,120 bytes Extended: 22,970,492,544 bytes Video Bitrate: 29.91 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Theatrical version; Extended version with some deleted scenes re-integrated; • Both versions feature French/English audio choice with optional subs • Interview with Michel Lemoine (15:38) French with English subs; • Interview with actor/assistant director Robert de Laroche – (57:33) minutes French with English subtitles; • Original Trailer (01:34) • Nearly 30 minutes of deleted, unused, or alternate scenes • Mondo trailers (13:51) Blu-ray Release Date: December 8th, 2020 Standard Blu-ray Case inside slipcase Chapters 10

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Mondo Macabro Blu-ray (January 2021): Mondo Macabro have now released "Seven Women for Satan'' on a dual-layered Blu-ray. This is a brand new 4K transfer from the original film negative, digitally restored. It's a noticeable upgrade of their previous SD DVD version of the film, only now with a slightly longer version (with some of the deleted scenes added back in, these scenes are also available in the bonus menu). This extended cut is thanks to seamless branching, which helps take up less room on the disc. The 1080p HD presentation features a relatively high bitrate for the 1.66:1 picture. Compared to Mondo's previous DVD, there is now more information on the top and right side of the frame, while showing a tad less on the left. Detail truly benefits from the 1080p transfer, as does the contrast. Colors are also much more varied and less bathed in uniform hues of yellows and reds. A few moments show some reds looking a bit pink. Some lighting can look a little overexposed as well, though this could very well be intentional on the part of the filmmakers. Either way, for fans this is a solid upgrade.

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Mondo Macabro's Blu-ray of "Seven Women for Satan" includes the original French track, in 2.0 16-bit DTS-HD Master audio. There is also the option of viewing the film with an accompanying English DUB, also 2.0 16-bit DTS-HD Master audio. The film was originally released in French so I would recommend sticking with that track, though the English DUB has it's cheesy appeal. There are optional English subtitles on this Region 'Free' Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro.

Mondo Macabro has carried over some of the bonus features that appeared on their 2003 DVD release of "Seven Women for Satan" such as the interview with Michel Lemoine and the film's trailer. What's new here is a 58-minute interview with actor/assistant director Robert de Laroche. de Laroche spends the hour discussing his life in cinema, and it is worth a watch. This is in French with optional English subtitles. As mentioned above there are nearly 30 minutes of deleted scenes (some of which are part of the 'extended cut') while some are just bits from the cutting room floor. They are typically of the softcore nature, and would probably just make the film even more confusing if added back in. There is one scene that goes way too over the top for my tastes, it involved a screwdriver and the less said about it, the better. Also here are trailers for other Mondo releases as well as a booklet featuring new writing on the film by Pete Tombs.

Mondo Macabro's new Blu-ray transfer of "Seven Women for Satan" (aka "Les week-ends maléfiques du Comte Zaroff") is worth the upgrade for fans that owned the previous SD edition. The Blu-ray benefits from a brand new 4K transfer from the original film negative, digitally restored. While a commentary would have been nice, the included extras are well worth your time. The film is a little bit Jess Franco, a little bit Jean Rollin, and a little bit Herschell Gordon Lewis - suffice to say that I quite enjoyed it in all its bonkers glory.

Colin Zavitz

ON THE DVD (2003): One of the earlier releases of Mondo Macabro's US arm, SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN is single-layer, anamorphic, and a PAL-NTSC conversion but still a nice discovery (more so with the English subtitles and optional English language track since the film was never shown in England or the United States and had not been available in English on any foreign-subtitled tape releases); it may be my favorite Mondo Macabro release. The softness is sometimes intentional and sometimes a result of the worn print source.

Lemoine is featured in an interview which may have been excerpted from one of the Mondo Macabro-produced EUROTIKA TV specials for British television. The period prop portrait of actress Joelle Coeur seen in the film can be seen hanging in Lemoine's apartment. Pete Tomb's text screen liner notes add to a greater appreciation of the film (not only discussing its Zaroff influence but also drawing links to the "Bride of Corinth" story and Luis Bunuel's THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ). The text bios are more informative than usual (including one on sound man Bob Wade who also worked on Alain-Robbe Grillet's films).