Necropolis: Legion is a sequel to 1986’s punk rock witch movie, Necropolis. It was part of Charles Band’s “Deadly Ten”, a series of films (many of them sequels) crowdfunded by fans and produced by his Full Moon company. As far as low budget thirty-three-years later witch sequels go, it’s not bad at all.
An old farmer (Joseph Lopez) finds out his sexy wife Eva (Ali Chappell) is really a witch who likes holding human sacrifices at the local church. He disrupts her witchcraft ceremony and vanquishes her, but the town continues to feel her evil presence for centuries. Flash-forward to the present day when an author named Lisa (Augie Duke) comes to the down to write a book on the town. She goes to stay on the farm where Eva once lived and winds up reawakening her (in a manner cribbed from Hellraiser).
In the first movie, the witch had six boobs and let zombies suckle curdled milk from them. In this one, the witch has mouths for nipples, which she uses to munch on sexy sacrificial babes. There’s one amusing moment where the tit-mouths are slack-jawed and their long, skinny tongues dangle down. Admittedly, they are not as cool as the monster boobs from Mausoleum, but hey, monster boobs are monster boobs. We also get a scene that manages to one-up the suckling scene from the original. I won’t reveal how exactly it raises the bar, because it’s the highlight of the movie!
Even though it runs a little over an hour, Necropolis: Legion still falls victim to some serious padding. There’s a long opening credits sequence, a scene where Duke wanders around the farm that goes on forever, flashbacks to shit that just happened ten minutes ago, and the obligatory dream sequences. Since some of the padding revolves around Duke writhing around the farmhouse in a see-through tank top, I can’t really get too up in arms about it.
Besides, it’s hard to completely hate any movie that manages to rip off Hellraiser, Mausoleum, Repulsion, AND The Evil Dead. There are some moments that are reminiscent of Jean Rollin too. It’s easily one of Full Moon’s best recent offerings.
That said, you could’ve easily cut thirty minutes out of this thing and made a killer half-hour segment of a horror anthology. Still, there’s plenty to like, even if it isn’t exactly a home run. Despite the limited budget, director Chris (Female Werewolf) Alexander manages to squeeze a surprising amount of atmosphere from the material.
The ladies in the cast leave their mark on you too. Duke makes for a likeable heroine and I enjoyed seeing Lynn (I Drink Your Blood) Lowry as a local who gives Duke the strength she needs to fight the witch. The movie really belongs to Chappell as the sexy, seductive, and sinister Eva. She fills her character with a real sense of menace and makes for a formidable foe. Plus, she rocks a set of monster boobs like few in the business. I’d let her take a bite out of me any day.
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