The Queen of Evil (Martine Beswick) is the main villainess in the 1974 horror film Seizure!, also known as The Queen of Evil. This was the debut film of director Oliver Stone.
Story[]
Edmund Blackstone is a horror novelist working on a scary children's book in the countryside with the company of his wife Nicole and son Jason. Edmund begins suffering from harrowing dreams that bleed into reality. The dreams revolve around a trio of villains: the Queen of Evil, a psychotic dwarf named Spider, and a mute giant named Jackal the Executioner.
Edmund invites a quintet of guests for a weekend including his brother-in-law Gerald, arrogant fat cat Charlie Hughes, his unfaithful wife Mikki (Mary Woronov), middle-aged jock Mark Frost, and another very eccentric couple, Serge and Eunice.
Mark is strangled to death with his own belt by The Queen, Edmund accidentally shoots Gerald in the head, and Nicole is chocked by Spider.
When Edmund awakes he finds each of the remaining guests bound at the wrists. The Queen tells them not to ask who they are or where they came from. She says that their only purpose is death and that they will all do as they're told. She tells them that Mark, Eunice and Gerald are already on their way to darkness, and that one by one, the rest of them will die. Only one of them will be left alive at dawn.
The provocative and sultry Queen is a very dominant character and leader of the trio. She is everything a man could wish for and dread at the same time. The trios ultimate goal is to spread corruption. As a result, the guests bicker, amuse themselves and even switch bed partners. The supernatural home invaders force the terrorized guests to play murderous games.
They are led outside tethered by their necks with a long rope for some survivor games. The first one is to race around the house five times. The person who finishes last will be executed. Serge comes in last, and despite trying to pay to have his life spared, the Queen orders his death. However, Charlie knocks Spider down, which forces Jackall to crush his skull. Charlie's brain gushes out of his skull.
Eunice jumps out of the window to her death because she sees her ruined face in the mirror.
Mikki tries to run down the road and reaches the gas station, before she is retrieved by the Spider.
While Edmund and Serge are locked in the study, Serge starts to try to unravel the mystery of their torturers He tells of a prince named Louis the Cruel who was a dwarf that tortured people and earned the nickname, The Spider. He then said that the name Jackal could be a variation of a Russian word that means executioner. Serge lastly said that the Queen of Evil could be the Hindu goddess Kali.
Edmund is then led to the patio where the Queen sits waiting. Mikki arrives and she tells her if she kills Edmund, she goes free. Edmund and Mikki are given a knife to fight to the death. When Edmund wins, he is unable to carry out the sentence, and the Queen does the honor by slitting her throat.
Edmund is later in his bed when the Queen enters and begins seducing him. When he refuses her advances she tells him that few men or women have refused her over the centuries, and that she'll give him two hours with his wife, but then he'll be hers forever.
Edmund finds Nicole holding Jason in a rocking chair in the attic. Back in the room, Nicole tells him that what has happened to all of them was born from his dream, and that he alone is in control of it. After having sex with his wife, Edmund wakes up to find a message in blood written on the bathroom mirror. It says "I loved you".
Serge is eventually led out to the chopping block where he has his head cut off by the Jackal.
The Queen tellls Edmund that he and his child are all last ones remaining, but there can be only one survivor.
While trying to find Jason, Edmund is able to kill the Jackal with his axe.
When the Queen finds Jason in the attic, she picks him up. However, Nicole is also there, and tells her to put him down. The Queen does what she asks, and Nicole tells him to go to his room. After he leaves, the Queen tells Nicole that Edmund is hers.
Meanwhile, Edmund is caught by Spider who begins strangling him. Edmund sits up in bed screaming. He tells Nicole he had a dream again and it was clearer than ever. After noticing it was dawn outside, he went to the bathroom and filled the sink with water to shave. When he looked in the mirror, he sees the message written in blood is still there. He ran back into the bedroom and threw open the covers, only to find the Queen, who has lost all of her good looks. He screams and images from the evening replay in his mind.
Later we see Nicole retrieving the milk on the front porch and watching her son Jason run in the garden. She tells him to go wake his daddy up and tell him the guests will be there soon. Jason runs upstairs to go wake his dad and Gerald passes by him on the stairs.
He goes into the bedroom and finds his pale faced dad in bed with eyes staring, as the announcer reports:
The Edgar Allen Poe of modern American fiction, writer illustrator, Edmund Blackstone died today at his Joliet County home of a heart attack. He was 47 years old and leaves behind his widow, Nicole, and his ten year old child, Jason.
Trivia[]
- Martine Beswick appeared in the 1965 movie "Thunderball", as James Bond's contact in the Bahamas, Paula Caplan. In this movie, she was kidnapped by Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi), and later committed suicide by taking cyanide so she couldn't reveal anything to the SPECTRE agents.
- Martine Beswick appeared as Nupondi in the 1966 fantasy film, "One Million Years B.C.".
- Martine Beswick later portrayed the amazon Queen Kari in the 1967 film, "Prehistoric Women".
- Martine Beswick appeared as Sister Hyde in the 1971 horror film, "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde".
- Martine Beswick appeared as the mob boss Lana in the 1987 episode "The Color of Hammer" for the TV series "Sledge Hammer!".
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