SATANIK (1968)
(a.k.a. SATANIC)
Article #785 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 5-9-2003
Posting Date: 10-6-2003
Directed by Piero Vivarelli
Featuring Magda Konopka, Julio Pena, Armando Calvo

An ugly scarred woman drinks a potion to make herself beautiful and becomes a criminal.

Half Italian horror movie, half Italian super-criminal movie—wait a second, let me adjust that—one-eighth Italian horror movie, seven-eighths Italian super criminal movie. Let’s face it; the ugly woman turning into a beautiful woman is largely a gimmick and isn’t really used well. The fact that the potion turns people violent doesn’t really come through in the script; she commits her first murder before she takes the potion, and most of the other murders take place when the potion wears off. Her ugly face makeup is awful; it doesn’t look like she was scarred for years but rather like she was scarred about ten minutes ago (actually, it looks like she’s wearing makeup to make her ugly), and when she drinks the potion, it not only rejuvenates her and heals her scars, it doubles the length of her hair, changes its color, gives her a great new ‘do, does a complete makover on her face (eyeshadow, mascara, fake eyelashes, lipstick, the works), and shortens the length of her skirt; pretty potent stuff. Ultimately, the movie tries to get by on three things; sex, violence and swinging-sixties style camerawork; the plot is dull and the characters are nonentities. I’ve heard it was based on a comic book, much like either BARBARELLA or DIABOLIK was, but if this movie does anything, it makes me appreciate how classy and witty those other two movies are in comparison; this one is a complete waste of time.