This movie is best remembered for two things, both of which made me love it before even seeing it, a) the fact it was shot in Esperanto, and b) the curse associated with it - several people who worked on the film have had tragic ends.
It's a surprise to find that it's actually a decent movie - ambitious, genuinely creepy and unsettling. I don't want to over praise it or anything but the atmosphere is very effective, heavily influenced by Ingmar Bergman. Conrad Hall was the cinematographer so it looks beautiful. And all the Esperanto does create an off-kilther, otherworldly feeling.
The story was a little confusing in places but basically effective: an evil creature (Allyson Ames) who lures men to their deaths surprises herself by falling in love. The rape and murder of Ann Atmar is genuinely unsettling and probably the movie's most powerful sequence. (At heart it's about an independent woman who turns "good" via the love of a good man, which will offend some). William Shatner is the guy Aymes falls in love with.
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