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| "Next..." |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Angora Fever: The Collected Short Stories of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (BearManor Bare, 2019).
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| Horror Sex Tales. |
The story: "The Witches of Amau Ra" (also known as "Witches Tale of Horror"), originally published in Horror Sex Tales, 1972. Credited to "Dick Trent."
Synopsis: It is midnight on October 31, the beginning of ten days of debauchery and murder for a secret, demonic conclave. One member of the conclave, a gorgeous witch named Karen, has an ambition to be a princess and live a life of ease and luxury. To do that, she'll have to find favor with the group's mysterious leader, Amau Ra. She makes love to a High Priestess named Toni and asphyxiates her in the process. She convinces two High Priests to let her take Toni's place in the bed chamber of Amau Ra. After Karen fellates the priests, they finally allow her to see the leader, who turns out to be very different from what Karen was imagining.
Wood trademarks: Witches (cf. "The Fright Wigs," "The Last Void"); phrase "She was a witch and a God-damned good one" (compare to phrases "She was a hell of a good private eye" and "She was damned good at everything she did" from "The Fright Wigs"); "big black" (cf. "Hitchhike to Hell," "Blood Drains Easily"); the Devil (cf. "Hellfire," "The Devil Collects His Dues"); women discarded when they get old (cf. "Flowers for Flame LeMarr," "The Movie Queen"); silk and satin (cf. "Exotic Loves of the Vampire"); character named Toni (cf. "Out of the Fog," The Cocktail Hostesses); negligee (cf. "Exotic Loves of the Vampire"); drunkenness (cf. "Epitaph for the Village Drunk"); pubic region (cf. "Wanted: Belle Starr"); pink (cf. "The Movie Queen," "2 X Double"); fur (cf. "The Movie Queen"); nipples (cf. "Howl of the Werewolf"); tongues (cf. "Gore in the Alley," "The Hazards of the Game," "The Hooker," "Bums Rush Terror" "The Responsibility Game"); eternity (cf. "Where Did Charlie Get on the Train"); "Pleasure hell" (compare to phrases like "orchestrations, hell" from "So Soon To Be an Angel," "starve hell" from "Starve Hell," and "think hell" from "The Devil Collects His Dues"); snake (cf. Orgy of the Dead, Necromania).
Excerpt: "Karen’s hand had already drifted to that region and probed and petted and slipped across the little man in the boat… and Toni could no longer contain herself as she reached down and grasped Karen's head and pulled it back up to her. Their mouths crushed together and their tongues entwined in a dance of pure delight and Toni's body moved furiously but rhythmically on the bed… inviting Karen's body to come on top of her."
Reflections: "The Witches of Amau Ra" is so quintessentially Ed Wood that it could serve as the Rosetta Stone for deciphering all of his other stories. You'll notice that my list of "Wood trademarks" got a little out of hand this time, but I couldn't help it. In these 2,898 words, you'll find many of the tropes, trademarks, obsessions, and oddities that distinguish Eddie's work from that of all other writers. In fact, if a person only had time to read one of Eddie's short stories but still wanted to get a feel for what his writing was generally like, "The Witches of Amau Ra" would be a good candidate.
Between this story and movies like Necromania (1970) and Orgy of the Dead (1965), Eddie really seemed to have a thing for satanic or supernatural sex cults with strangely formal rituals, prayers, and ceremonies. Greg Dziawer insists that Ed didn't really write the SECS Press psuedo-textbook Sexual Practices in Witchcraft and Black Magic (1971), but it's easy to see why many people think he did. This is obviously a topic that fascinated him and that he revisited again and again.
It makes me wonder, were there really groups like this in the 1960s and '70s? Were covens of witches -- or hippies who called themselves "witches" -- actually getting together to have orgies and perform black magic rituals in the Hollywood hills back then? Or was this mostly hysteria brought on by the Manson Family? Some of this must have been real. Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey (1930-1997) was obviously a real person, but he could have been more talk than action for all I know. When this phenomenon, the intersection of sex and the occult, is documented, it is usually done in a sleazy, sensationalized (read: unreliable) way. Maybe Eddie was making all this up. Or maybe he was getting invited to some very strange parties back then. The mind reels.
By the way, I'm sorry to report to you that the quaint euphemism "the little man in the boat" made me think of the Ti-D-Bol man of TV commercial fame.
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| The little man in the boat. |
P.S. In its original form, "The Witches of Amau Ra" received a fairly spectacular two-page illustration. It's reproduced (albeit in censored form) below. Please click on it to see it at a larger size.
Next: "Then Came Thunder" (1971)