With Halloween just around the corner it seems appropriate that another horror themed 8mm sex film has resurfaced, courtesy of ‘Sgt. Rock’. Sharing its name with both a Mario Bava film and Ozzy’s old band BLACK SABBATH is yet another effort by the East London company ‘Collector’s Corner’ who were also responsible for Miss Frankenstein (aka Lady Frankenstein) which shares this film’s horror touches and its frequently undressed star Lisa Brent. By day Collector’s Corner’s bread and butter came from supplying the British public with 8mm copies of old movies, and the company was considered a serious rival to the likes of Mountain films and Derann. Presumably seeing the success of glamour and sex films in the 8mm market led Collector’s Corner towards making their own ‘in house’ productions like this and Miss Frankenstein (a third horror themed 8mm sex film of theirs ‘Taste of Dracula’ is proving to be elusive). So while providing the home viewer with 8mm copies of Battleship Potemkin and the works of W.C. Fields, Chaplin and Keaton was what Collector’s Corner did to entertain others, Black Sabbath suggests that filming naked women and dressing up as apes, goats and satan was what Collector’s Corner did to entertain themselves.
The occult theme to Black Sabbath would date the film to about the very late sixties or early seventies. That being the period when witchcraft was the flavour of the month with sexploitation people, and would see Legend of the Witches playing for months and months in the West End, the publication of Witchcraft magazine “the monthly chronicle of horror, Satanism and the occult”, the clandestine release of the blue movie Satan’s Children, and the likes of Virgin Witch and Secret Rites being just around the corner. Black Sabbath further strengthens my belief that Collector’s Corner were cineastes and horror buffs first and foremost who were dabbling in the sexploitation realm for commercial reasons. The Collector’s Corner output tends to play like amateur horror films of the period whose makers decided to hire a nude model and film some full frontal shots in order to give their films wider appeal and exposure outside of amateur filmmaking societies.
In an about turn from playing the titular villainess in Miss Frankenstein, Lisa Brent here plays victim to a cult of sinister robed figures. One member of this coven resembles an Ape, another a Goat (its up for debate whether we’re meant to take these character as simply men with animal masks on or actual man/animal creatures). Amidst bongo music playing by another member of the coven, the Ape and the Goat torment Brent by ermm spinning around in circles (presumably making themselves quite dizzy in the process) in what seem less like a black mass and more like the type of horror themed dance routine that TOTP might have asked Pan’s People to perform. This is enough however to conjure up Satan who arrives in a puff of smoke and really gets the kinky party started by whipping Brent, forcing her to drink his blood and violating her with a dildo.
Severe as it sounds Black Sabbath tends to shy away from the explicitness of the slightly similar Satan’s Children (and if you’ve ever suffered through the limp dicked antics of that film you’ll be grateful we don’t get a retread of that here) and the ludicrousness of the ape and goat costumes, plus their dance routine and Brent’s very hammy acting do lighten the mood a tiny bit. Overall Black Sabbath has the feel of a mischief making lark designed to wind up and put the frighteners on squares who ‘d have read about ‘this sort of thing happening’ in the News of the World, but strikes up a sufficiently nightmarish atmosphere to warrant to attention of British horror film aficionados .
Above: Black Sabbath on Youtube
Sgt. Rock has kindly uploaded Black Sabbath in its entirely to Youtube as an example of his 8mm film to DVD transferring service. After an unfortunate career setback, Sgt. Rock is now offering to transfer to DVD (for free) any of your old 8mm sex or glamour films that take his fancy, in the hope that this might motivate others to search their dusty attics and basements for long forgotten 8mm erotica that Sgt. Rock can breathe second life into by transferring to DVD. Who knows maybe ‘Taste of Dracula’ might even resurface. Anyone interested in taking the Sarge up on his offer can
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