Justine and Alucarda are next shown back at the convent, interrupting another homily on demonic possession by mechanically reciting a satanic creed, rejecting the church and pledging to “do as much evil as they can.” Justine falls deathly ill, and is treated through leeching by Dr. Oszek (Claudio Brook, again), the local phy- sician. Meanwhile, Alucarda, forced to participate in the sacrament of reconciliation by confessing her sins to Father Lazaro, instead sexually at- tacks him. In response to the perceived evil in their midst, Father Lazaro and the nuns engage in an mixed-gender orgy of self flagellation (eerily similar to the witch’s sabbat) while reading from various historical accounts of clergy possessed by demons. It is important to note that the be- havior attributed to these possessed servants of Christ is identical to the powers previously dis- played by Sister Angelica, again blurring the dis- tinction between the witches and the Christians. Father Lazaro determines that an exorcism is necessary, and, despite Sister Angelica’s pro- tests, has Justine and Alucarda strapped to crosses in the chapel. There, Justine is stripped and pierced five times with needles, replicating the wounds displayed on the crucifix behind her. The ceremony is interrupted by Sister Angelica and Dr. Oszek, who are appalled by the brutality they witness. Justine, already having been bled by Oszek, expires from her wounds, and as Sis- ter Angelica cradles her body in her arms in a recreation of the Pietà, the nun condemns the Mother Superior, gesturing to the crucifix and pointedly asking “Where is the love He spoke of?” Doctor Oszek takes the unconscious Alucarda back to his home, where she recovers and seeks solace in the arms of his young blind daughter Daniela (Lili Garza). He is soon called back to the convent, however, as Justine’s body is missing. Oszek returns to the convent to find the chapel destroyed and the body of the nun attending Justine burned to death. Father Lazaro asks that the nun’s body be taken to the chapel, where he and Oszek witness it returning to life. Ironically, this reanima- tion of the dead nun is considered proof of the presence of the Devil, when the resurrection of the dead is one of the central tenants of the Christian faith—a point the director drives home by staging the reanimation of the nun in front of a giant cru- cifix. After Lazaro beheads the animated corpse, the Doctor, stunned by this manifestation of the supernatural, admits that his rejection of religion has been misguided.
Discovering that Alucarda has disappeared with his daughter, Oszek and Sister Angelica decide to
search for Justine in the abandoned castle. In an- other scene lifted from CARMILLA, Sister Angelica discovers Justine lying in a blood-filled coffin within the open grave that was Alucarda’s birthplace. Justine attacks, repeatedly slashing sister Angelica’s face. When the nun responds, however, not by praying for her own safety but rather for the deliverance of Justine, her attacker softens and appears to revert back to her former self. At this point, however, Oszek emerges and repeatedly scalds Justine with holy water. Justine attacks sis- ter Angelica once again, delivering a wound identi- cal to the one that felled the gypsy fortune teller, before dissolving into a blood-stained skeleton. In the apocalyptic conclusion, Alucarda, en- raged at the loss of Justine, unleashes her full power against the members of the convent, scalding monks, nuns and orphans with blasts of hellfire. Prayers, holy water, and even father Lazaro’s pa- thetic recitation of the exorcism incantation prove useless, and Alucarda is soon even able to set the crucifix that dominates the chapel aflame. Only when Daniela is injured by falling debris does Alucarda hesitate, and at this moment, a group of monks carry the body of sister Angelica into the convent, raising it up to replicate the pose of the crucifixion. Upon viewing Angelica’s body, Alucarda cries out, and dematerializes.
Viewers may easily be confused by the film’s intentions, as it is not clear where one’s sympathy should lie. The prologue and possession scenes elicit fear of the witches, while the exorcism and flagellation scenes evoke contempt for the Father Lazaro and the nuns. However, both sides—as rep- resented by Sister Angelica and Alucarda—are sym- pathetic to some degree, as well. Just when the viewer is led to believe that a heroic middle ground will be found through reason in the form of Dr. Oszek, the doctor is not only proven wrong about the nature of Justine’s affliction, but also adminis- ters “cures” (bleeding and later holy water) that actually hasten her demise. This ambivalence to- ward authority—both divine and demonic—appears to be precisely Moctezuma’s point. As stated pre- viously, both the witches and the Christians are simply mirror images of one another, who, utiliz- ing almost identical rituals, channel the same force to their own ends with little regard for those like Justine who get caught in the crossfire. But if both sides are, in fact, channeling the same force, then the question remains: what is the exact origin of that force?
Moctezuma’s answer to this question again demonstrates his fidelity to CARMILLA, referencing the scene in which Carmilla responds to Laura’s
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