Blutsschwestern (3½ Stars)

The title of this 2013 German film means "Blood Sisters". It's been released in France with the more appropriate title "La Bible de Sang" ("The Bible of Blood"), but at the time of this review no English language release is available.

The film begins in 1489. A witch known as Judith von Ingolstadt is performing a ritual in a forest which will culminate in the sacrifice of a young boy, presumably her own son. She's interrupted by knights accompanied by Dominican monks, who bind her and sentence her to be executed at dawn. She asks for a Bible, a wish that the monks gladly fulfil. During the night she writes on the pages of the Bible in her own blood. The next day she's burnt alive, and the Bible is burnt with her, but it's undamaged by the fire. One of the monks takes the Bible to make sure the witch's words will never be read.

Fast forward to today. Milla Görlitz is a medical student in her first year at the University of Munich. She's sharing an apartment with three other first year students, Stefanie, Jeanette and Alexandra. The university's medical department contains unexpected secrets. The head of the anatomy department is a direct descendant of the 15th Century monk. Judith's Bible has been passed down from father to son for 500 years, and the family has found the perfect hiding place for it: it's been put on a shelf in the university reference library. That's the safest possible place, because nobody is allowed to take the books out. Unfortunately Milla sees the book and smuggles it out in her back pack. The highly intelligent monks and university professors never reckoned with that!

The Bible is full of Judith's spells, which she has left for her descendants. Milla and her three roommates try out a levitation spell, and when it works they're hooked. They have to try others as well. What Milla doesn't realise is that she's a direct descendant of Judith von Ingolstadt. Her ancestor's spirit is working through her, guiding her towards the ultimate spell, which will bring the Devil to Earth in a human body. The seemingly random group of girls in the apartment have also been brought together by higher forces; they are also descendants of witches and have latent powers.

The film keeps a good balance between horror and light-hearted fun. The irony is that the film's bad guys – the young witches – are pleasant and likeable, whereas the film's good guys – the university staff – are repulsive.

I've given the film a relatively low rating because of the superfluous relationship between Milla and the fourth year medical student Tim. Whenever they get together there's annoying romantic music, making me impatient for the film to get on with the story.