Summary:
The inquisition is in full swing, routing out witches from the countryside and publicly executing them by burning them at the stake. A witch condemned to death uses her dying breath to curse her inquisitors -- Lady De Winter (Karin Field), Thomas Renfield (Alberto Dalbes) and Lord Justice Jeffries (John Foster). The curse, she boasts, will be carried out by her daughters!

Fear of the prospect of more witches seeking revenge prompts the inquisitors to scour the countryside and find these daughters of the damned. Their search leads them to a convent and two orphaned nuns -- the chaste and devout Margaret and the wicked and willful Kathleen.

Although attached to the girls, in more ways than one, the Mother Superior (Doris Thomas) admits that Kathleen may indeed be a witch. The inquisitors take her away, but leave the pure Margaret with the convent.

However, Margaret receives a visit from Satan himself who makes passionate love to her, despite her resistance and protests. The next morning, Margaret is overcome with arousal and euphoria and spends the day fondling herself. When Mother Rosalinda comes to find out why she missed morning prayers, Margaret seduces her.

Meanwhile, Kathleen is tortured and sentenced to death, but one of the inquisitors, Thomas Renfield, is taken with her and sets her free. This only incurs the wrath of Lady De Winter and Lord Jeffries, so Renfield must hunt down Kathleen to prove his loyalty.

However, when Renfield finds Kathleen, he confesses his infatuation with her and tries to take her with him to Holland. They end up being captured and tortured. While in Lord Jeffries' custody, Kathleen is taken to his chambers where he offers mercy for Renfield if she becomes his sex slave.

Margaret, manages to infiltrate the De Winter household, posing as a Spanish princess. She seduces Lady De Winter and the two make love. Lady De Winter discovers that Margaret is the true witch and anyone who partakes pleasure from her lips becomes cursed with death. She promptly turns into a skeleton (insert extremely CHEESY effects here).

With the help of Lord De Winter, Kathleen frees Margaret and Renfield. When they get to safety, Kathleen kisses Renfield, killing him too. Margaret, apalled at the murder of her lover, flees from Kathleen declaring her to be a witch. Kathleen is promptly arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake.

As her dying wish, she begs Lord Jeffries for a kiss of pardon. Being a slave to his horomones and a sucker for a pretty face, he grants her wish and immediately becomes another cheesy special effect.

Reviewer's Thoughts:
I was pleasantly surprised that the story actually had a modicum of depth and complexity to it. I was really fooled into thinking Margaret was a pawn of the devil. She masturbated constantly and always spoke of passionate dreams of lovemaking with Satan.

Doris Thomas was wonderful as the tortured Mother Rosalinda. She was torn between her devotion to her faith and the temptation of her flesh -- classic nunsploitation.

Karin Field was also excellent as the perverse Lady De Winter. I was especially amused at the incredibly perverted love-making scene between her and Renfield (Dalbes) in which they "play inquisitor". He whips her with beads while she writhes on the bed denying that she's a witch.

I absolutely hated the sword fights. I thought the sword fighting in the Sinful Nuns of St. Valentine were cheesy! This movie takes the cake. If there's an award for terrible sword fights, this film is a shoe in. I suppose people don't watch nunsploitation for the fight scenes, but if they were done well, this would have been an all around better film.

The special effects were especially awful. Whenever Kathleen killed someone they would just replace the person with a fake, plastic skeleton. It was just so bad. It would have been better, and probably no more costly, to just do the death effect with smoke and make up. Have the actors start to smoke around the collar, have them cough up blood, then scream and writhe in agony and fall on the floor, bleeding all over the place.

The only thing that requires is acting (which may be asking too much) and a little make up and fake blood.

The ending would have been much more dramatic if Lord Jeffries kisses Kathleen, the walks back up to his balcony, occasionally coughing. The coughing more. Then spit up blood and gradually worsen from there.

Still, if you're looking for corruption, seduction and gratuitous sex and nudity, Jess Franco delivers with The Demons.