The Curse of the Alpha Stone 1972 (Facts, Where to Find) Stewart Malleon's Film Review

Here is my another post where I will tell you about one more forgotten old, sleazy flick and share what I could find out about this obscure gem of exploitation cinema. Read on.

 

This Film Is Really Obscure

The Curse of the Alpha Stone is a sleazy mystical-themed and quite an obscure sexploitation film, shot in 1972 in the USA. There is not much information about it. I found a couple of short reviews in two blogs. Before watching the film, I also read a few comments on IMDb, giving the film ratings ranging from mediocre to the worst. Most of them aggressively criticized the movie, saying it's a completely worthless, talentless garbage.

These negative comments were helpful: I watched the film, and it appeared to be great.

 

Plot Summary

A young, talented and successful scientist Abe specializes in genetics and works at a university. He is also interested in alchemy and incorporates magic into his scientific experiments at his home laboratory. One day he succeeds in creating the Alpha Stone - the legendary Philosopher's Stone of ancient alchemists.

Driven by noble intentions, he believes that the stone removes any imperfections in a human body, and at first, it's confirmed by his experiments on guinea pigs and even on humans. Specifically, the effects are prominent in sexuality: individuals experience enhancement of their sexual capabilities, and homosexual ones even become heterosexuals.

But the power of the Alpha Stone appears to be uncontrollable, which leads to tragic and creepy events.

Reasons to Watch this Film

Exploitation Elements

Mystery and Supernatural

For those who enjoy the flavor of mysticism in films, The Curse of the Alpha Stone features nice scenes of the main character conducting weird scientific experiments that look more like magic rituals.

 

Sexploitation

Despite the film is not as explicitly erotic as its European sexploitation competitors from 70s, it features enough nice nude lovemaking scenes with pretty actresses, most of whom, I must admit, are very attractive, and the rest are just attractive.

Olivia Enke as Patricia - the alchemist's girlfriend

Sandy Carey as Evelyn Findlay

Music

I actually discovered this film because of a piece of its score, extracted from a VHS copy, was featured on this amazing bootleg compilation of audio fragments from retro sleazy exploitation films.

I really enjoyed the creepy synthesizer score, as well as funky rock music pieces and powerful drum solos incorporated into appropriate scenes. According to the final credits, all music was composed and recorded by someone named Rusty Hefarland, but, unfortunately, I couldn't find any information about him online.

Interesting Storyline

I totally disagree with the comments on IMDb saying that the storyline and the ending are poorly-made. During watching this film there wasn't a minute when I was bored. The storyline included a variety of events that were developing gradually, keeping me interested and thrilled during the whole film.

The ending was interesting as well: not another boring happy or even unhappy end, but an open ending, leaving you fantasizing about all weird things that can happen afterwards. It actually shows that the events in this film were only a start of a bigger weird story.

 

Comedy and Acting

In a few scenes there were elements of comedy, that looked funny to me. This made me admit the good and enjoyable actors' work. Some comments on IMDb are saying the acting is horrible, but it's just not true.

 

Sweet Sleaze

Traditionally for low budget exploitation films, The Curse of the Alpha Stone includes sloppy moments. For example, in one scene we can hear a background environment noise (from the wind outside, I guess) during certain phrases pronounced by characters, that rapidly disappears in the next piece shot separately to change the position of the camera from the close up of one character to another.

In another dialogue scene the character behind the frame sounds faint or muffled, because his voice didn't reach the microphone or the microphone wasn't working.

 

Historical Facts About the Film

According to this small article and one of the comments on IMDb, The Curse of the Alpha Stone has never had a theater release. It had been filmed in 1972 before it was released only in 1985 on VHS by Jeff Hogue's United Home Video in a package together with other 8 low budget movies.

The director Stewart Malleon seems to have never filmed any other movies, at least anything that became available to the public.

Online research by the cast members' names shows that the only actors who are known to have played in other films are:

Olivia Enke (Patricia - the main characters' girlfriend), who played in two other films: The Amorous Adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, 1976 - erotic comedy, and another one - Farewell, My Lovely, 1975 - a neo-noir criminal drama or something like this, where she had a secondary role (as well as young Sylvester Stallone, by the way) of a prostitute, but was uncredited.

Sandy Carey, who has a considerable filmography in other American exploitation films.

 

Where to Find It

The Curse of the Alpha Stone is quite a rare gem that may be hard to find for sale or free download. I've seen it on Amazon, but if you check and it's no longer there, send me a message and I will share it for free.

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I created this blog for like-minded people with weird taste for unpopular, obscure, and sleazy films and music. If you feel our tastes are similar, let's be email friends. You can also reach out to me if you need help in finding any rare film or music mentioned in by blog.

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