During an interview included on the 2006 Blue Underground
release of Succubus, Jess Franco spoke of a sixteenth century
book he had come across on a bookshelf entitled Necronomicon that had belonged to
a wealthy actor and film producer Pier A.
Caminnecci, who had invited Jess over
to his house to indulge in his extensive jazz collection, as the two were
mutual jazz fans. Jess read a short
story from this particular book that was so extraordinary he had to make it into a movie. Of
course, this incarnation of the Necronomicon was most likely an imitation since
this popular mythical tome came entirely from HP Lovecraft’s imagination in the early twentieth century, but it’s
still fun to think that Jess may’ve
been influenced by the actual ‘book of the dead’ written by the “Mad Arab”
Abdul Alhazred. Jess blended the
material from the book with a script for a horror movie he had previously
worked on, and the result is one of his most provocative films.
