SINTHIA, THE DEVIL’S DOLL (1968)
Article 2654 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 7-16-2008
Posting Date: 11-18-2008
Directed by Ray Dennis Steckler
Featuring Shula Roan, Peter Balakoff, Bret Zeller
Country: USA

At the age of 12, Cynthia (aka Sinthia), due to her unnatural feelings towards her father, murders her parents while they are making love and then sets fire to their bedroom. She is freed by the courts due to her age. Years later, she is afraid to marry her fiance due to her nightmares about the experience. A psychiatrist tries to help her.

Don’t trust the above plot description; it makes the movie sound a lot more linear than it is. Ah, me, how do I describe this one? Well, if Jess Franco and Ed Wood read a one-paragraph summary of the teachings of Sigmund Freud and decided to apply what they learned to an arty soft-core horror movie, that might give you an idea of what this one is like. It’s directed by Ray Dennis Steckler under the Sven Christian pseudonym, and it contains lines like “How do I commit suicide without committing suicide?” The plot takes up about five minutes of the running time; the rest of the time we’re caught up in Cynthia’s nightmare, which involves lots and lots of nudity, double-exposure, and calling out for her daddy every other line (just in case you missed the part about her unnatural obsession with her father). Awful… just awful.