Sennentuntschi (4 Stars)

This is my Halloween Challenge film #31. It's an excellent film to watch on Halloween, a perfect mix of mystery, suspense and terror.

The story is based on an old Swiss folk tale. Three shepherds sit drinking in their mountain hut, Erwin, his son Albert and Martin. Erwin and Albert have lived all their lives in the mountains, but Martin is a new arrival. Erwin tells Martin the legend of the Sennentuntschi. When men are in the mountains they can make a woman out of a broom, straw and a rag. If they pray to the Devil he will make the woman come to life. The woman will cook and do the housework, but if the men have sex with her she will kill them. It's just a story that men tell one another when they're drunk. Albert stitches straw and a rag to a broom and dances round the room with it. Erwin speaks an incarnation and the straw doll turns into a beautiful woman. They all dance with her. Eventually they collapse in a drunken stupor.

The next morning the shepherds wake up and assume that they imagined things while they were drunk, but the woman is still there. They try to talk to her but she's mute. She's not just mute, she acts like a new born baby, not understanding anything around her. As soon as Erwin is left alone with her he rapes the woman. Martin sees what has happened and decides to take her into the village, but on the way down the mountain he changes his mind and rapes her. It's what men do, especially lonely men who live on a mountain without women.

As is to be expected, the woman takes revenge. But the story doesn't end there. The woman goes down to the village by herself. The priest tries to warn everyone that she is evil, but the local policeman defends her. He means well, but the Sennentuntschi is on a mission to take revenge on every man she meets.

This film has only been released in Germany, but the German Blu-ray has English subtitles. It's highly recommendable.

Here is a list of the 31 horror films that I've watched this month.

1. Blood Reunion (3 Stars)
2. Sharknado (3½ Stars)
3. Let the right one in (5 Stars)
4. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (4 Stars)
5. The Iron Rose (5 Stars)
6. Cowboys and Vampires (3 Stars)
7. Strippers vs Werewolves (3 Stars)
8. Let me in (5 Stars)
9. Demons (4 Stars)
10. Exte (4½ Stars)
11. Vampire (4 Stars)
12. Tag (5 Stars)
13. Freezer (4 Stars)
14. Shikoku (4 Stars)
15. Dark Water (5 Stars)
16. Tormented (1½ Stars)
17. Child's Play 2 (4 Stars)
18. In a dark place (3 Stars)
19. I know what you did last summer (5 Stars)
20. I still know what you did last summer (5 Stars)
21. Cabin in the Woods (5 Stars)
22. The Mist (5 Stars)
23. Mirrors (4 Stars)
24. The Wicker Man [2006 Version] (4½ Stars)
25. Green Inferno (4 Stars)
26. Girlhouse (4 Stars)
27. We are the night (5 Stars)
28. Zombie Strippers (3 Stars)
29. Monster Club (3 Stars)
30. Bikini Swamp Girl Massacre (2 Stars)
31. Sennentuntschi (4 Stars)