Die Nonnen von Clichy (OT: Les Démons) (Wicked Vision Collector's Edition #41) (2xBlu-ray/DVD Mediabook) [Germany]

[pygospa]

Release: 06.11.2020

Link (Wicked Shop): Cover A, Cover B, Cover C

Price: €32,99

Limited: 444, 333, 222

 

 

Number 41 in their "Wicked Collector's Edition" was announced today and it will be the movie Les Démons, by spanish director Jésus Franco Manera, better known as Jesse Franco, who according to wikipedia is a "prolific director of stylish exploitation and b-movies". This specific movie from 1973 can be counted into the "nunsploitation" sub-genre, i.e. (s)exploitation movies featuring nuns, and tells the story of nuns in a closter becoming possessed after the curse of a witch, making them sexually active. It's set in the 17th century and supposed to take place in England, but was actually shot in Portugal and is a French production. The official title is the french "Les Démons" (the Demons) but it actually got quite a bunch of alternative and international titles, including "The She-Demons", "The Nuns of Clichy", "Les Demons du Sexe" / "The Demons of Sex" and "Les Infants du Demon" / "Children of the Demons".

"Die Nonnen von Clichy" (the German title, that Wicked Vision chose), is going to be a 2 Bluray Disc-set - instead of a DVD copy, we actually get 4 different cuts of the same movie:

 

• French longcut (118 Min)
• Export cut (88 Min) [in German and English dubbing]
• German cinema cut (85 Min)
• Director's Cut (101 Min) -- only in SD quality(!)

 

Interesting for all the German buyers: The French longcut was never released in Germany, and therefore there wasn't any German dubbing for it, so Wicked Vision created new dubbings totalling to 30 Minutes just for this release. Interesting for the international buyers: The details list the languages German, French and English, but as the Extras only explicitly name the Export cut with English dubbing, I guess, that all other cuts will probably only feature German dubbing and French original language. However, the details also list German AND English subtitles - so I guess those are vaild for all the cuts. Regarding the extras however, only German subtitles are listed. So either polish up your French or German, or you have to live without them, unfortunately.

 

As for the Extras, these are listed:

 

• Audio commentary [German] by Dr. Rolf Giesen and Dr. Gerd Naumann [French longcut]
• "Exorcising Demons" - movie historian Stephen Thrower about the movie (I guess this could be English?)
• Outtakes
• Trailer
• Picture Gallery

 

Nothing much on this side, but given how hard it is to find information on this movie at all (I had to switch to the French Wikipedia, to finally have some background text about the story), I guess this lies in the nature of this movie. We get three artworks from unmentioned Artists, the first one looks like the German movie poster that was similar to the English/International one, and in different variation also used in an alternative poster. The second artwork looks like an Italian movieposter I found. The third one I couldn't find at all, and according to the style, my guess is, that it is once more an artwork by Timo Würz, but that has not been officially confirmed (I asked ).

So, that's all I could find out and can tell you. I'll close with a trailer, as usual - which was also rather hard to find:
 

 

[pygospa]

To be quite honest, this is one of this really few times that I am absolutely unimpressed by the choice of the movie. It looks like one of these "Jean Rollin" type of movies (well not that awful, but it goes in the direction), and I am also not a fan of movies that focus too much on erotic scenes - which regarding the trailer this movie seems to do. So one of the few that I would probably leave out. However, I finally somehow ended up getting all the releases by Wicked Vision in their Collector's series (as well as the Full Moon and Pete Walker collections), so there is this stupid voice in my head nagging me that I still would have to get this one as well, as otherwise my whole collecting effort would be in vain ( Stupid voice in my head! 🙄 ).

But also, I don't know the movie, and maybe it isn't as bad as I thought it was (I thought the same, btw. with Wickeds "Revenge of the Living Dead Girls" - and that was also one of these strange French sex-horror-movies, that I ended up rather disliking).

Anyhow, what covers would you chose? I tend towards Cover B, as it's not that racy as the other two, and has a complete artwork. Regarding the title, however, I'd prefer Cover C.

What do you think about this release, the movie, the covers? Do you know the film, or would you want to watch it? Are you considering getting this, or are you not?