No Horror fan can doubt that Spanish director Amando De Ossorio deserves great praise for his absolutely awesome "Blind Dead" series, which he began in 1970 with "La Noche Del Terror Ciego" ("Tombs of the Blind Dead"). These four films enjoy an enormous (and well-deserved) cult status and the eponymous undead Blind Templars range among the creepiest creatures ever to appear on screen. "La Noche De Los Brujos" aka. "Night of the Sorcerers" (1973) is sadly a weaker film in Ossorio's repertoire, as this little trash offering makes no sense at all and furthermore tends to get quite boring.

In 1910, a tribe of savages in an African country behead a hot woman, who then turns out to be a female vampire... Decades later, two scientists (Simón Andreu and Jack Taylor) and three hot babes travel the country in order to take photos of endangered animals and happen to come to the exact same spot...

In spite of a better cast (frequent Giallo leading man Simón Andreu, Exploitation regular Jack Taylor and sexy Spanish cult-siren Bárbara Rey, who also was in "Ghost Ships of the Bind Dead") "La Noche De Los Brujos" reaches neither the creepy atmosphere nor the suspense or entertainment level of any of the 'Blind Dead' films. This is not to say that "La Noche De Los Brujos" is completely without qualities, however. It is, to a certain extent, fun to watch. The female cast members are entirely hot (especially Bárbara Rey and the maroon-haired Kali Hansa), and all take their clothes off at some point. Also, in typical Ossorio manner, the gore-effects are very well-made. That's about it though, as the film is sometimes unintentionally funny and the storyline is flawed and full of holes. A Horror film doesn't necessarily have to be 'realistic', but it should have a certain inner logic, and the story-parts should connect, which isn't really the case here. "La Noche De Los Brujos" isn't a complete disaster, but its definitely not very good, and there are far better films by Amando De Ossorio to check out. 4.5/10

Amando de Ossorio will always be best remembered for his Blind Dead series of films, and that's a very good thing as the films he made outside of that trilogy aren't nearly as good - this one is a prime example. The subject of voodoo is an interesting one, but it never seems to cross over very well to movies, as just about every film I've seen on this topic has been disappointing and unfortunately, this one is no different. It's a real shame too as a film with these elements really could have been a lot better, but Amando de Ossorio isn't able to create an interesting plot around the central idea and unfortunately it falls flat. The film starts with a sequence that sees a woman have her head cut off during a voodoo ceremony. From there we focus on a team of researchers who head out into Africa in an attempt to find out why elephants are disappearing from the area. They soon discover that the locals are afraid of a legend about some voodoo witches in the area, and naturally this turns out to be true and some of the researchers get killed...etc etc.

I'm not sure if it was just a problem with the copy I saw (apparently, there's a remastered DVD out now), but this film is very dark and it's often difficult to make what - if anything - is going on. The cinematography is nothing special either and that's a shame because any film set in Africa has the potential for plenty of interesting shots but that isn't capitalised on. Amando de Ossorio does manage to pack some gore and nudity into the film, though it's scant consolation for the rest of the film. The sorcerers themselves also don't manage much in the way of intrigue as they don't appear all that often and when they do, not a lot happens. The plot surrounding the team of researchers is completely worthless and didn't generate anything that I cared for, which gives the film a rather flimsy backbone. Simón Andreu is the only name on the cast list that I recognised and he doesn't do enough to stand out. To the film's credit, the women featured are invariably very nice looking. Overall, this is not a great film and I can't recommend it; see Ossorio's Blind Dead series or The Loreley's Grasp instead!

This flick gets off to a rip-roaring start with a hapless lovely lass being tied to a stake and severely whipped prior to getting decapitated by a savage voodoo tribe. A motley group of explorers go to Africa to study the wildlife in the area where the ritual occurred back in 1910. Come nightfall the expedition members fall pray to deadly zombie natives and equally lethal vampire ladies wearing skimpy leopard skin bikinis. Writer/director Amando De Ossorio delivers plenty of tasty gratuitous nudity, a smattering of grisly gore, a smidgen of steamy soft-core sex, and even a reasonable amount of misty'n'spooky gloom-doom atmosphere. De Ossorio treats the silly story with utmost seriousness, which in turn adds considerably to the film's tacky charm. The cast all give acceptable performances; the ubiquitous Jack Taylor in particular does well as a stuffy professor. Better still, the women are all very hot and attractive: Kali Hansa, Maria Kosti, Loreta Tovar and Barbara Rey. Francisco Sanchez's bright, polished cinematography (the occasional use of stylized slow motion is really nifty), the endearingly crummy dubbing, and Fernando Garcia Morcillo's funky-throbbing tribal score further add to the overall trashy fun.