This flick certainly has no shortage of naked chicks... er... "virgins" (seriously?) and the editing is often incomprehensible like a Hitchcockian shower scene on acid. But if you can get past all that, there's a really cool mystery at the heart of the whole story. Was wondering if anyone latched onto that, between being distracted by boobies.

500 years ago Isabel was burned for being a witch, and the story is about a weird bunch of her reincarnated murderers apparently consigned to being reborn over & over until they can bring her back through black magic. Actually a cool story, but where it gets cooler is in the mystery of whether she was really a witch in the first place. Or was she just the victim of a superstitious bloodthirsty crowd? The answer is really clever and unexpected.

And when you realize this is the core of the movie, suddenly a lot of other stuff makes sense. Each character represents a distortion of reality, as they insist theirs is the truth while conflicting with others (Rashomon, anyone?). There's the ongoing antagonism between Richard the fiancé and the nameless Priest, arguing about science vs. occult. There's also the bizarre Steffy character who keeps inventing tall tales of monsters because she's trying to get attention (interestingly, she's the only "virgin" who never gets attacked by a monster), and there's the recurring discussion between the girls about whether vampires exist or whether it's just a mentally deranged lunatic who loves the sight of blood.

So was Isabel a witch in a world ruled by black magic, or was she just a regular person in a world of superstitious weirdos? There's a not-too-thinly veiled metaphor for religion here. Who invented religion, gods or men?

Won't spoil the ending for those who haven't seen it, but it was pretty unexpected and adds a great symbolic twist that might be the writer's explanation of how & why black magic--and religion--came to exist. All wrapped up in the weirdest, Eurotrashiest, psychedelicest flick you've ever seen about reincarnated vampire virgin witch Italians with too much free time in an old castle.