Eugenie...The Story of Her Journey Into Perversion

Director - Jess Franco (A Virgin Among the Living Dead)
Starring - Maria Rohm (Count Dracula), Marie Liljedahl (Dorian Gray), and Jack Taylor (Conan the Barbarian)
Release Date - 1979
Genre - Drama/Horror
Tagline - "Her body is bruised and embraced beyond her wildest dreams..."
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Jesus Franco, or Jess Franco as most of you know him as, is a brilliant filmmaker that has one of the most impressive careers that I have ever seen.  Though I have only seen a hand full of his films his filmography is legendary.  As most of you know, I took the month off from horror to focus on films sent to me that were not horror.  Blue Underground recently released two Jess Franco films on blu and I held off until now reviewing them because I felt they would fit in very well with my reviews this month.  The first film up on the chopping block is the 1970 film Eugenie...The Story of Her Journey Into Perversion.  This was the first non-horror Franco film that I saw and to be honest, I was not impressed.  

     The story follows a young women who meets a brother and sister duo on a small island.  They are overly welcome to her and invite her to stay with them.  The two have sinister and sexual plans for their supple young friend and begin drugging her before they fulfill their sexual fantasies.  After each encounter they are able to fool the innocent young thing into thinking that it was all a dream.

     Jess Franco is a very stylish filmmaker who tends to make films that focus on the sexual side of human nature regardless if he was making a horror movie or not.  His style of films are far from being the sleazy sexploitation flicks that I have been reviewing all month from Vinegar Syndrome and Impulse Pictures.  The acting in this one is actually pretty decent but nothing that stands out.  We get a small role from film legend Christopher Lee that spits out a little dialogue and then is never heard from again.  This was a tremendous waste of his talent and our expectations.  The remainder of the cast does a solid job in their roles but their characters are very one dimensional.  The story for this one is one that is very sexually charged that follows a brother and sister indulging themselves with a virgin who is drugged.  The story is not for those that are squeamish when it comes to taboo sexual encounters.  With that being said, the film is actually boring.  I caught myself not paying attention in several of the scenes.  The story has so much potential to be a sleazy good time but the scenes just drag on and on.  The film needed to be re-written and edited heavily.  Finally, the film is not one that is covered in blood and gore.  Instead, it tries to be sexy.  Sadly, it is unable to be just that.  Overall, Eugenie is not the film I was expecting from the mind of Jess Franco.  The film has a solid story but ends up being dull.  The film deserves at least one watch but will be easily forgettable.