Scott LeBrun Novice actress Shula Roan plays the title character, who as a 12 year old had butchered her parents while they were having sex, and then set a fire to try to cover up the crime. Because of her age, and the "crime of passion" nature of her misdeed, she's declared not guilty. But now, at age 20, she's in the care of a psychiatrist, who urges her to purge herself of her nightmares in a symbolic way. Along the way, she encounters Lucifer (played by screenwriter Herb Robins) and artistic types such as painter Lennie (Ted Roter) and actor Mark (Gary Kent).One of cult filmmaker Ray Dennis Stecklers' ventures into adult cinema, "Sinthia the Devil's Doll" is not the kind of thing that this viewer can easily write off. It is true that it's going to bore some people, despite the expected plethora of skin. In fact, this plays like a bizarro mix of skin flick and arthouse picture. It has just enough weirdness and atmosphere to make it passably interesting, plus it has a "performance art" aspect to it, with characters spouting dialogue as if they're always on stage, acting in a play. Definite credit should go to Steckler, who served as his own cinematographer, and lights props, sets, and actors in colourful ways, as well as Andre Brummer, who composed the original music.Ms. Roan acts her little heart out. Even if she wasn't a professional, it's hard to deny the deep commitment of her performance (Sinthias' main character flaw is severe daddy issues). The rest of the cast, including B picture mainstay Kent ("The Thrill Killers", "Satan's Sadists") and the sexy Diane Webber ("Mermaids of Tiburon", "The Witchmaker"), are fine.Even at 77 minutes, this is pretty slow-paced, and it won't maintain the interest of all audience members. Still, it's not just the typical trash movie, and that's worth noting.Six out of 10.

Witchfinder General 666 Another 'masterpiece' by the infamous Ray Dennis Steckler, who also was the man behind the incredibly crappy but highly amusing film with the greatest title ever, "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?" (1964), "Sinthia, the Devil's Doll" (1970) is an abysmally bad and virtually plot-less Trash gem that is highly recommendable to fans of 'so-bad-it's-good', but should be avoided by anyone else. The eponymous Sinthia (kudos for the clever wordplay) is a girl with certain... err... issues, who is so madly in love with her daddy that she kills both of her parents when she catches them having intercourse. Years later, Sinthia, who has blossomed into a beautiful young woman, is still tormented by guilt (the poor thing). Her psychiatrist gives her a somewhat unusual advice to make her guilt go away... Or something; the plot really is way too confused to even call it that. There are three reasons to watch "Sinthia", one being the film's extreme weirdness, another the absolute lack of logic or coherence, which, in such a uniquely outrageous extent makes it worth watching. The most convincing reason to watch "Sinthia" is the lovely Shula Roan in the eponymous role. Roan, who never appeared in any other film, is sexy and very cute, and while she certainly isn't the best actress ever, I still wish we could admire her 'talents' in a few other films. The film furthermore includes several (unintentionally?) hilarious sequences, and breasts are shown every other minute. In spite of that, it is overall very boring, and only recommendable to my fellow Trash-fans who are willing to endure periods of pure boredom for some bits of enjoyable weirdness.

lazarillo I have to take some exception with some of the other reviews. I don't think this is really any worse than any of Ray Dennis Steckler's other movies. True, it has far less of a plot, but given how stupid the plots of some of Steckler's other films are, that's not necessarily a liability. It also doesn't work very well as an erotic sex film, but that's not necessarily a liability either. Sex films are generally worthless and boring and usually little more than masturbation fodder. Even the ones from the 60's that are somewhat "erotic" can hardly hope to compete with the ones today, which are much more graphic and have better looking women (at least, if silicone breasts and anorexic-looking bodies really turn you on). But it's the weird, disturbing ones like this that are a lot more fun or interesting today--if not always necessarily for the reasons originally intended.This film is about a disturbed young girl who at twelve murdered her parents while they were having sex due to incestuous longings for her father. She burned down the house afterwards, but was rescued by the neighbors and was committed to an asylum where six years later she recounts the incident to her psychologist. Of course, it's also possible she was killed in the fire and consigned to hell. But whether she's crazy, or in fact actually in hell, the imagery is pretty much the same—psychedelic scenes of infernal orgies with lots of droning voice-over narration. It does get a little repetitive and sleep-inducing, but that's true of pretty much all sex films isn't it? Making the protagonist twelve years old at the beginning is definitely in pretty bad taste, but given that the voluptuous actress playing "Sinthia" isn't believable even as the eighteen-year-old she plays in the "present day" scenes, I'd just let that one go.This movie is currently available on a Something Weird DVD along with the Anton LaVey/Church of Satan "documentary" "Satanis", and I have to say I much prefer the psychedelic-styled fake satanic orgies of this film to the documentary-style "real" satanic orgies of LaVey and his followers in the co-feature (not to mention, having to put up with LaVey himself, an egotistical charlatan who spent thirty years laughing all the way to the bank with his "satanic" nonsense). This is not a great film by a long shot, but relative to Steckler's other films, to sex flicks in general, and to its co-feature "Satanis", it's not THAT bad.

Coventry "Sinthia the Devil's Doll" was my first acquaintance with the oeuvre of Ray Dennis Steckler, whose other horror movies do enjoy a modest cult reputation. Nobody claims that titles like "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies", "Rat Phink a Boo Boo" or "The Thrill Killers" are masterpieces of the genre, but supposedly they hold some kind of irresistible charm and entertainment value. This is NOT something that can be said about this film, however. Maybe it's my own fault and I should have chosen a Steckler movie where he actually uses his own name on the credits instead of an alias, or maybe – and most likely – it's just a seriously retarded film; period. The best aspect about the entire movie is the play upon words in the title. The lead girl's name is actually Cynthia, but Sin-Thia is pronounced exactly the same, so there you go. Clever, huh? "Sinthia, The Devil's Doll" is a typically late 60's Sexploitation movie without anything that even remotely resembles a plot. To compensate for the lack of substance, Steckler attempted to insert wannabe controversial themes (a teenage girl in love with her father) and psychedelic hallucination footage (an orgy with the Devil himself). The finished product is far from exciting, just plain boring and irritable. The film opens with a flashback of young Cynthia killer her parents and setting fire to the house (off-screen, obviously) because her beloved daddy treats her too much like a daughter instead of a mistress. Fast forward to six years later, when the adolescent Cynthia visits her psychiatrist who intents to find out what exactly happened that night. From then on, "Sinthia" is one long and incoherent hallucination sequence that does not seem to end. She endlessly wanders over secluded beaches, descents into hell and has sexual conversations with Lucifer himself. For all you cult-fans out there: Lucifer is depicted by Herb Robins, who also co-wrote the script (what script?!?) and went on to directed the oddball 70's flick "The Worm Eaters". The sex footage is beyond dull and Shula Roan – in her first and last major film role ever – isn't even attractive or voluptuous or anything. Personally, I fell asleep multiple times during this short movie but I couldn't even be bothered to rewind and see what I missed. One to avoid, there are so many better exploitation trash movies out there to discover.