Eugenie... The Story of Her Journey into Perversion comes to 4K/Blu-ray from Blue Underground

In 1969, Jess Franco created Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion. Coming off the heels of his previous adaptation of the Marquis De Sade’s tale, Justine, Franco sets this story of depravity in the modern era, and upon watching this for the fist time in 2023, it eerily predicts the Jeffery Epstein scandal of today.

Christopher Lee opens the movie with a monologue direct from the writings of the Marquis De Sade, standing at a podium in front of a satanic ritualistic killing of a naked woman behind him, while unsavory characters watch the scene. At first thought, it’s an almost Vincent Price way of being our host through the story. It’s only later do we discover his character will play a main role in this depraved tale.

The story begins when a wealthy businessman seeks the company of an attractive socialite call girl, Madame Saint Ange (Maria Rohm). But in order to pay for her services, he has to be willing to let his young daughter Eugenie (Marie Liljedahl), accompany her to a private island for the weekend.

After arriving on the private island, the Madame introduces her to her eccentric brother, Mirvel (Jack Taylor), who admired Eugenie from afar, and plots with his sister to seduce her to the sadomasochistic, incestuous lifestyle that the two siblings let run wild.

The pair drug Eugenie and force her to participate in various sexual acts, only for her to awaken the next day with no memory of depraved evening except for thinking she had a horrible nightmare -- or was it a wonderful dream?

The next night they drug Eugenie once again, but this time we discover that the Madame and Miraval have invited the wealthy upper-class to the island to watch as they torture Eugenie at the behest of Dolmance (Christopher Lee), leaving her body covered in marks and bruises. The next morning, Eugenie again recounts the nightmare; she had not believed what had happened was real because there wasn’t a single mark on her. (Later on in the story we discover why she was free of the marks from that night’s encounters.)

Recalling to the Madame and Mirval her lucid nightmare, Dolmance reveals himself to Eugenie and forces her to kill the duo and become the next Madame of the island, to continue the groups sexual deviancy. Naked, bloody, and scared, she escapes only to discover the graves of the previous girls who were subjected to the same travesties as herself, and, like them, she finds there is no escaping the island.

Blue Underground packs this 4K/Blu-ray release with fantastic special features:

• Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) and HD Blu-ray (1080p) Widescreen 2.40:1 feature presentation
• Audio: 1.0 DTS-HD (English; French)
• Subtitles: English SDH, Francais, Espanol
• NEW! Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
• Perversion Stories - Interviews with Director Jess Franco, Writer/Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Marie Liljedahl & Christopher Lee
• Stephen Thrower on EUGENIE - Interview with the author of Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco
• NEW! Jack Taylor in the Francoverse, Interview with Star Jack Taylor
• Theatrical Trailer
• NEWLY EXPANDED! Poster & Still Gallery

My Jaw absolutely dropped watching this film in today’s setting, witnessing the parallels of the story to what information is being released about Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffery Epstein and all that occurred at their private island. Was life imitating art, or vice versa? If you are a conspiracy theorist, you will have a field day connecting the dots and coming to your own conclusions. This alone makes this a must see if you wish to head down the rabbit hole.