Garazi (Sílvia Munt) is the granddaughter of a woman burned as a witch who finds herself battling the Catholic Church just like her ancestor. The name of this film means “witches’ sabbath” in English and this goes into the witch trials against women of San Juan de Araiz, which is part of Navarre in northern Spain.

This trial found 27 people arrested, with 11 women and two men accused of witchcraft. They were executed in the name of Catholicism with the rest later dying from their mistreatment. This Inquisition came from a church that was more about men and their desires than serving the Lord. That doesn’t sound like that history is repeating at all, does it?

Director Pedro Olea said of the actor who portrayed Acevedo, the lead Inquisitor, “What better inquisitor than López Vázquez? He accepted the role and turned it into another character that was amazing: a religious sadist, cruel and libidinous. Simply, his way of brushing Silvia Munt’s chest with his fingers when removing a medal, of directing another torture session with her naked and then flagellating himself in his cell, demonstrates a perfect interpretive treatment of the repression suffered by the sinister friar.”

This was filmed on location, using the caves of Zugarramurdi, which are known as the “Cathedral of the Devil.” This same area figures into the plot of La brujas de Zugarramurdi (Witching and Bitching).

Akelarre is part of the new Severin box set, All the Haunts Be Ours Volume 2. It has extras including interviews with director Pedro Olea and actors and Iñaki Miramón, as well as a featurette, Invoking The Akelarre, which has Dr. Antonio Lázaro-Reboll, author of Spanish Horror Film discussing the Basque Witch Trials.

You can order this set from Severin.