n
a beautiful private island somewhere in the Caribbean, the rituals
of witchcraft and Satanism suddenly take over the lives of a group
of people, exposing and shaping their destinies.
ichard,
a millionaire who is the epitome of male beauty, is the host to
a gathering of carefully selected friends for the purpose of a bizarre
confrontationunknown to them.
hese
odd guests arrive from all corners of the globe by helicopter and
speedboat and discover that they are strangely bound together by
hate or love or an evil fascination.
mong
the guests are Richards two former wives, his present wife,
and the witchlike Malissa, who holds sway over a curious entourage
that includes the perfectly formed midget Topaze; Rev, a hood whose
body is covered with weird tattoos; and the mysterious, veiled Duquesa.
Also among the guests are Blue, a male prostitute who might be a
murderer, the radiantly beautiful Savannah, and the sadistic superstar
of underground films, Bravo. Running through the suave manipulations
of Richard and the hysterical directives of Malissa is a fierce
struggle for power, in which a young priest and Mark, Richards
precociously sinister son, are catalysts. In the guise of a search
for truth, the invited guests are by turns victims and victimizers
during a ritual ceremony of evil.
tilizing
the techniques of the filmclose-ups, long-shots, and sudden
shifts of scene, garish flashes of colors--John Rechy blends the
supernatural ingredients, violent sexuality and depraved rites with
the lush beauty of a sea island to create a world whose superficial
beauty conceals dark and violent forces close beneath its surface.