Guest Review by Mario. A young Man Tino (Danilo Matei) arrives in Venice to study arts locally while he is staying at the mansion of his Uncle and Aunt.Not very long after his arrival he hears strange sounds coming from a room upstairs. Wondering what is the source of this, his Aunts first tells him that it’s "nothing" and that he shouldn’t bother to investigate further.The old housemaid soon reveals the truth that here is indeed somebody living upstairs in the room. It is the mad brother of his uncle who is sort of locked in the room since some time, and is never leaving it.Through a peephole it is possible to take a look at the lunatic brother, which is all shown through a fish lens. The housemaid tells him that only his brother is allowed to enter the room and is taking care of him.Meanwhile it is also revealed that Tino´s Aunt is suffering from the strong-minded and tyrannical remarks of his uncle. Although the novel on which "Anima Persa" is based on is set in Trieste, if I am not mistaken it was a good decision to relocate the setting to Venice as it’s on a cinematographic level a far more interesting place.Additionally it underlines the subtle morbid and mysterious tone of the dramatic story perfectly.Like the beautiful facade of Venice, both main protagonists (Vittorio Gassman and Catherine Deneuve) appear to be "normal" people, but there is something hidden behind the facade of the heal world that crumbles.Something that is morbid... a tragedy that happened in their past that first is only revealed step by step till the finaland surprising conclusion. Somebody shouldn’t mistake this movie for a "giallo" as it is mentioned so in a reference book, I would rather say that this is more of a mysterious and peculiar drama instead. But this "liberal" mentioning of the movie might surely be forgiven as possibly I wouldn’t have stumbled across this movie otherwise... Vittorio Gassman gives a splendid performance, he portrays here a sort of "strong" egocentric character, totally convinced of his ideals and beliefs who makes quite an impression on Tino. Catherine Deneuve is also quite good in her role.For some reason I couldn’t stand her before but in this case she has convinced me. The Atmosphere of this movie is great, the house where they live, is an "old school antiquarian" villa (it can be said that the protagonists belong toa "bourgeois" upper class) which is impressive. As Venice, it is a sort of hermetic world from "yesterday" where the time has seemingly stood still, and which is entered by the juvenile and naive Tino who could be considered to be from the "present".Somebody who will be introduced to a somehow different world... Venice was the ideal stage and background for various movies as "Who saw her die?", "Bloodstained Shadow", "Damned in Venice", "Don’t look now".These movies that deal with murder, mystery (and partially supernatural elements as "Damned in Venice") are in good company with "Anima Persa".
Altough there is a clear difference that "Anima Persa" is focused much more on a character development, surely on a psychological level as one of the themes of the movie is "madness".. It is another example of an alternative Venice that clearly goes beyond the clichees of the idyllic tourist-postcards..
Baroque, poetic, melancholic are some of the keywords who would fit to this magical and beautifull film, that stays with you after the end credits are over.
Anima persa(Italy/France, 1977)
Directed by Dino Risi Written by Dino Risi, Bernardino Zapponi Based on a novel by Giovanni Arpino Starring: Vittorio Gassman, Catherine Deneuve, Danilo Mattei
"Elegant" is not the word often used to describe any of Joe D'Amato's 200-odd films.It is however, most appropriate in regards to his early directing effort, LA MORTE HA SORRISOALL'ASSASSINO.D'Amato's films aren't known for their well-rounded characters. Here, too heroes are sketchy but the ensemble cast does a good job with them.Kinski is as energetic as ever, despite being underused as the suspicious Dr. Sturges.EwaAulin is shamelessly pretty and does a great job playing an innocent-looking slut.Giacomo Rossi-Stuart is annoyingly stiff, but that somehow fits his outwardly prim character who's in fact rotten to the core. A special mention has to go to Luciano Rossi.His part is small but he manages to give his best in the few surreal episodes scattered throughout the patchy narrative and make a lasting impression.
Kier-La Janisse (pronounced K-La) gathered whatever scarce information available on Rossi in her great book "A violent professional: the films of Luciano Rossi". Fernando Cerulli has a walk-on part as Professor Kempte. He's perhaps best-remembered as the bathtub murder victim from Antonio Bido's excellent IL GATTODAGLIOCCHI DI GIADA. BertoPisano's lyrical and menacing score helps carry the film enormously through the many wordless passages. D'Amato tells his story with minimal dialogue, expertly handling the camerawork and relying on composition for impact.
The walled-up cat sequence from Fulci'sTHE BLACK CAT is very similar to the one in LA MORTE HA SORRISOALL'ASSASSINO, but one cannot claim a conscious tribute with any degree of certainty. As with most Italian films, locations in LA MORTE HA SORRISOALL'ASSASSINO are splendid. The whole film looks and feels grand and is one of the more carefully executed works of D'Amato. One does not need to be a D'Amato enthusiast to enjoy this atmospheric and original piece of perverse and bloody Gothic cinema. The haunting feeling lingers on long after the final freeze-frame.
La morte ha sorrisoall'assassino(Italy, 1973)
Directed by AristideMassacessi Written by Claudio Bernabei, A. Massaccessi, Romano Scandariato Starring: EwaAulin, Klaus Kinski, Luciano Rossi, Angela Bo, Giacomo Rossi - Stuart
In THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN George Hilton and Michel Antoine arrange to meet at the cinema house to discuss their nefarious plans. The film they go to see is Cozzi's feature debut, IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO. Based on a short story "The Tunnel Under the World" by famed US sci-fi writer Frederick Pohl ("Annals of the Heechee"), it is a self-funded affair shot in a totally unrestrained style. IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO was not intended as a commercial film and stylistically came out a lot bolder than Cozzi's later and better-known studio productions. A clip from the film is also featured in IL VICINO DI CASA, Cozzi's entry into Dario Argento's TV series LA PORTASULBUIO. Things that really stay with you after watching IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO are the imagery and incredible editing. Montage has got to be the most violent in any Cozzi film, rendering some scenes striking and dynamic, others - incomprehensible. The excellent score from IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO can be heard in the documentary piece on Cozzi's early career entitled ROAD TO THE KILLER. IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO is worth watching for many reasons.
It's a rare early glimpse into the mind of Cozzi, then a budding filmmaker enamoured with Godard's ALPHAVILLE. Seeing godardian iconography filtered through the mind of a man who was to become one of the more notable activists of Italian sci-fi cinema is fascinating. IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO will also be of interest to Frederick Pohl enthusiasts, who can spot the initial similarities between the screenplay and the source story. But Pohl's story was a mere springboard for Cozzi, who went all-out and mixed political commentary, sci-fi fable and adventure into a bizarre head trip of a film. And Cozzi fans will no doubt be glad to see the future CONTAMINATION director put in a rare acting appearance. Looking very young and skinny, Luigi plays a visitor from the future guiding the main hero towards some sort of "groundbreaking" discovery. The beautiful Ivana Monti of Fulci'sCONTRABAND is perhaps the most familiar face in the cast. Until recently IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO was damn hard to get hold of, and any info on it was scarce. Things improved a little with the French SE 2-disc DVD release of CONTAMINATION which featured IL TUNNEL SOTTO IL MONDO in it's entirety as an extra.
OVERALL: Definitely Cozzi's bravest and most original but sadly little-seen.
Special thanks to my colleague at OCCHIOSULLEESPRESSIONI for kindly providing a screener of the film.
Il tunnel sottoilmondo(Italy, 1969)
Directed and Edited by LUIGI COZZI Written by ALFREDO CASTELLI, TITO MONEGO Based on a strory by FREDERICK POHL Starring: ALBERTO MORO, BRUNO SALVIERO, IVANA MONTI, LUIGI COZZI
My name is John Harrington. I'm 30 years old. I'm a paranoiac. Paranoiac. An enchanting word, so civilized, full of possibilities. The truth is, I am completely mad. The realization which annoys me at first, but is now amusing to me. Quite amusing. Nobody suspects I am a madman. A dangerous murderer. Not Mildred, my wife. Nor the employees of my fashion center. Nor of course my customers.
[scoops a fly out of his drink]
HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON grabs viewer's attention right from the artful opening credits followed by an intriguing train murder.
Stephen Forsyth'schiseled features and intense blue eyes are framed extraordinarily lovingly by Maestro Bava in many shadowy compositions. Forsyth was apparently a Canadian actor of Italian films who quit the profession following this film.
HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOONis not as polished technically as some of Bava's most acclaimed work. There one or two pretty violent zooms here and in general the director doesn't overload the film with visual candy. It's very poetic but with an edge, suitably for the story which balances between the clinical and the supernatural. Bava considered screenplays to be the weakest link in his films. Usually maestro's films are a feast for the eyes but populated with mere cyphers. With HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON he had a better than usual material to work with. Co-written with Santiago Moncada, it's a rare instance of a horror script that's character-driven. John Harrington has got to be the most interesting protagonist in a Bava film.The ubiquitous police inspector haunting Harrington, played by JesúsPuente looks like a 70's Spanish version of Tom Sizemore.
The story is set in France while the picture was filmed in Rome and Barcelona. So a few exterior shots of the Eiffel Tower are edited in here and there. Bava already had experience of shooting Paris in Italy with Riccardo Freda'sI VAMPIRI (1956).
The incredible 70's vibe of the picture cannot go unmentioned. Harrington walks around wearing silk shirts and bright cravats and there's also one of those incredible disco dancing sequences one so often encounters in Eurofilms of the period.
As Stephen Thrower points out in his informative "Beyond Terror", TOUCH OF DEATH is the only Fulci film written entirely by the man himself, without the aid of other screenwriters.The result is far from perfect but certainly more character-focused than usual for "Godfather of Gore",notorious for his listless main heroes.
Budget limitations have forced Fulci to adopt minimalist style here, which suits the material rather well. TOUCH OF DEATHwas produced by LugiNannerini and Antonino Lucidi, responsible for the string of extremely cheap and dismal "Lucio Fulci presents" cash-in films.It's only logical to draw the comparison betweenTOUCH OF DEATHand those productions.Despite similarly tight budget which only allows for a handful of locations, Fulcimanages to pull off some rather complex shots, showing himself to be in a class above the likes of Andrea Bianchi or Giovanni Simonelli as a director. One or two scenes are genuinely effective, like when Brett Halsey breaks into the house at the stables, accompanied by hysterical horse racing commentary on the radio. Now to the minus sides: Brett Halsey. This man obviously doesn't take the material all that seriously. His performance is just a tired pantomime at times. Halsey went on to appear in Fulci's troubled would-be comeback DEMONIA (1990) Al Cliver gives the best performance in the film as the cynical crook Randy. His last screen credit today is also in DEMONIA. Hopefully we'll see more of Cliver in the near future. Overall, I've grown to enjoy TOUCH OF DEATH on repeat viewings. It's really not a first-rate Fulci, but in some ways it is quite original. Lots of reviewers claim that this film's original ratio was fullscreen, since it was a made-for-TV film. The existing DVD's from Shriek Show and EC would seem to prove that. Both were made from a BETA master(same one?). However, TOUCH OF DEATHwas released letterboxed on VHS in France under the title Soupçonsdemort. That was not a cropped fullscreen release and had a lot more information on the sides . So somewhere in the world there has to be original widescreen elements that need unearthing.
Quando Alice ruppe lo specchio(Italy, 1988)
Written and directed by Lucio Fulci Starring Brett Halsey, Zora Kerova, Sacha Maria Darwin.
Plot in one sentence: It's a bloody giallo, so plot won't fit in! What works: Naturally, cinematography and music. Everything else is debatable.
Just two days after watching it, I'm already considering revisiting SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS. I saw the spoiler-ridden trailer so I knew who the killer was and was just enjoying the 70's style and mood, much helped by Riz Ortolani's minimalist music.It took me some time to warm up to the leads, who were both unnaturally pretty and not too gifted in terms of charisma. But towards the end the beautiful Marisa Mell showed up and saved the day for me. Despite some excitingly kitschy set designs and lovely ladies, SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS is still missing something. Perhaps some personal investment from the director. Lenzi does a great professional job, but he's just the executioner, not a creator here. It's a very good example of a typical giallo with all the genre's strengths and weaknesses. Lenzi's contribution to the giallo genre should not be overlooked.
TRIVIA: -The shot from a drill murder scene from SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS somehow ended up on the artwork for Jess Franco's slow moving and depressing REVENGE IN THE HOUSE OF USHER.
-When Anotnio Sabato is at the cemetery, a black-gloved man comes up to him and says something in a foreign language. Sabato doesn't understand him and the man leaves. What the man actually says is "Excuse me, could you direct me to the Christian Orthodox cemetery please?" in Russian.
Sette orchidee macchiate di rosso(1972)
Directed by Umberto Lenzi Written byRoberto Gianviti Starring: Antonio Sabato, Uschi Glas, Renato Romano.
This is my favourite of the many grotesque mutants in Lenzi's apocalyptic idiocy NIGHTMARE CITY.
CHOICE DIALOGUE: DEAN MILLER: What the hell is going on? CAMERAMAN: I don't know. But it looks interesting. DEAN MILLER: Let's see it.
The above lines neatly sum up NIGHTMARE CITY's trashy charm.
Hugo Stiglitz...ah, words fail me. I cannot imagine anyone else in this role.Behold his "macho smoking" in the grabs below. In the film where everything from make-up to plot fails to convince one thing is done right - pacing is furious. NIGHTMARE CITY with its plentiful action and frenzied zombie attacks withstands repeat viewings without losing its overwhelming entertainment value.While SPASMO is Lenzi's hands-down best "proper" film, NIGHTMARE CITY deserves the honour of being hailed as his most enjoyable. EATEN ALIVE is also great, but a quarter of that film's made up of stock footage, so it gets second place.
Incubosullacittàcontaminata
(Italy/Mexico/Spain,1980)
Directed by Umberto Lenzi Written by PieroRegnoli, Toni Corti, Jose Luis Delgado Starring: Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Francisco Rabal, MellFerrer.
I remember first encountering Fred "Fredzilla" Anderson at Cinema Nocturna forums back in 2004 or so. We used to discuss wonderful stuff like beauty of miniature shots in Fulci's problematic AENIGMA. Recently I came across the man's passionate film blog NINJA DIXONand couldn't resist interviewing its creator. Now let the Ninja speak:
-Could you tell a little about the beginning of your filmmaking life? When did you originally decide to become a filmmaker and what prompted you on this path?
-Well, I'm not a filmmaker anymore, just an office rat trying to make a living. But my dream since childhood was to be an actor, but I was too shy to try it out as a kid and it never really happen. I was offered a place at an acting-school around 2004, but finally I said no because I was producing Kraftverk 3714 at the same time and couldn't leave that project. But I've always loved movies, and I've watched feature length movies since I was four-five years old. My parents were and still are, very liberal when it comes to culture and art, so they always encourage me to listen to the music I want and watch the movies I want. But to answer your question, I think it was in the early teens that I really decided to try out a career in movies and media.
-What are your influences?
-In 1982, when I was five years old, the public television in Sweden showed a series of Universal horror classics. You know, The Wolfman - Dracula - Frankenstein - The Invisible Man... and so on. They also aired King Kong, the 1933-version during New Year around this time. These movies affected me a lot. For many years I was mainly interested in the American monster-tradition, but then I got the chance to watch some of Arne Mattsson's excellent and scary Swedish thrillers and fell in love with that style. I also got more and more interested in stupid sequels and strange DTV-movies that my parents never rented, but I forced them too, and I felt so inspired by this at the same time odd kinda filmmaking and also very commercial. I still like when directors add those two ways of filmmaking in the same movie. Where the Eagles Dare is also an old favourite from this time, because of it's absurd violence and European feel.
It was probably one of the first really violent movies I saw. In my teens I also started to watch Franco, Fulci, Argento, Lenzi - and these excellent directors led me towards Fassbinder, Zulawski, Szulkin, Rollin. I think that European genre cinema and European art-house are very closely connected, and I've always felt that that loves European genre cinema often loves the arthouse-movies too.
-Would you say that the films which you enjoyed as a teenager are the ones you still love now?
-Hard to say really. I very rarely change my mind about a movie, and if it was good when I was fifteen I probably still think it's good. But sure, some movies loose some of their quality after some years, but why that happens I have no idea. It's probably like relationships, you just loose interest sometime.
-Are there any unrealized scripts or personal projects that you feel you absolutely must make into films? -Sure, but I doubt I will ever do them. One of my favourite stories, that I came up with together with Markus Widegren - the director of Kraftverk 3714 - is "Six bullets in the head of the audience", a very black and brutal drama-comedy about a homicidal theatre group. But making something like that in Sweden? It's impossible. I love directing action, and making the ultimate real action movie would be fantastic. The Swedish action movies so far is so bad and lacks action, and I'm tired of hearing people say "Good to be Swedish" about these movies. Who wants to make a movie that is good to be Swedish? I want to make one that is stands the test of the international audience. Which reminds me of "Gorilla", a movie we would like to do, with martial arts, violent chases and time travel.
-What is your preferred film among the ones you’ve directed/worked on so far?
-Kraftverk 3714, without a doubt. It's the most personal movie I've worked on (I was producer and co-writer, and a lot of other stuff) and nowadays when I look back at it, I can't understand how we made it for so little money in so short time.
-What would you describe as the biggest hardships of independent filmmaking?
-Right now I would say locations. If I had locations I would start shooting a movie tomorrow, but those morons out there that have all these fantastic places just don't realize that no one will pay 45000 Swedish kronor per day for it. They are naive thinking that there's money in Swedish productions, and in indie-productions there's more or less no money at all. I can pay little, but it has to be realistic. Ten years ago I would say it was money, but I don't think that way anymore. Money is just paper with numbers on, nothing more.
-Would you want to make something minimalist and abstract, in the vein of Jess Franco's PAULA-PAULA?
-Oh yes, and I think I've done stuff like that already, at least in the form of short movies. I wish I could do it in feature length too, but at the same time, I'm no Jess Franco and it will be very hard to get some kinda distribution for something like that. One of my dreams is to make video art, just for the museums and galleries - but Stockholm is dead and boring when in comes to video art, so I want to work somewhere else.
-Is there a famous film that you wish you had directed?
"The Living Dead Girl, The Wicker Man and Targets. Three brilliant movies that's more drama than genre movies, and I think I could handle that better than making a pure genre movie. But sure, if I had the talent to make something like Godzilla, A Virgin Among The Living Dead or everything else that is pure genius, I would be very happy.
-Can you give us some information about "The Ninja Mission" and "Ninja Mission 2000"?
-The Ninja Mission was one of the biggest hit ever to be produced in Sweden. It was in the middle of the eighties and Mats Helge shot everything in the south of Sweden with Swedish and Polish actors. He sold the distribution rights to New Line Cinema for a fixed amount of money, they made a HUGE profit from it and that's the way they got money to produce A Nightmare on Elm Street! I love Ninja Mission a lot and we wanted to make a short movie, a sequel almost. But this expanded and expanded and we shot a full length movie with car chases, shoot-outs, explosions, bad fights, some gore and a lot of squibs. I started to direct it, but Markus directed too and in the end Pierre Toresson did most of the direction. I kinda lost interest in the movie when it got to hyped. There's a lot of stories about it, and it would take forever to go through. But it's still a rough cut and I don't think it will ever be finished and released for anyone to see. It was just a first important lesson for us all in film making.
-Are there any good independent digital films you yourself enjoyed and could recommend to other lovers of "strange" cinema?
-Bernard Rose's Ivansxtc is a masterpiece, a really emotional black drama about a talent agent in Hollywood getting cancer. Shot on DV and very Dogme. Love it, love it. David Lynch's Inland Empire of course... and Lars Von Triers Antichrist. Well, I know there's a lot shot on digital indies that I like, I just can't remember any titles now. Nowadays it seems like most of them are shot digital and I think it's great. Total freedom and the chance for film makers to show how fucking good they are without spending years trying to raise the financing. I also would recommend our own Kraftverk 3714, because I think it's a good (but uneven) movie that fully uses the cheapness of digital film making.
What's you opinion of "Thriller - en grym film" and the work of Bo Vibenius in general?
-I've met Bo-Arne several times, and was involved when the Americans bought the rights to Thriller. Bo-Arne was a fantastic talent, though he seem to despise his own movies a lot. Breaking Point is an original and black controversial drama that's better as a movie than Thriller, but less commercial. But I love Thriller, I think it's one of the best exploitation movies of the seventies. But Breaking Point is more of a personal movie for Bo-Arne and it's a pity that it probably never will be released on DVD.
You can read more about my meetings with Bo-Arne here: http://ninjadixon.blogspot.com/2009/09/me-thriller-and-man-who-made-it.html
-If you were to be stuck on a deserted island for ten years, which one DVD would you take with you: AVATAR or Bruno Mattei’s ROBOWAR?
-I'm not trendy enough to say that I disliked Avatar - I actually saw it in cinemas two times! But this deserted island would probably be like Pandora, so I would have chosen RoboWar to spice things up a little bit!
Choice dialogue:"I was known as John Englund. I am now Robert Saxon!"
Plot in one sentence: A maniac kidnaps Faye, a seemingly innocent girl to take revenge.
What works:
-certain moments of brutality did feel orgasmic, appealing to a misogynist in me;
- pacing is good, film never feels drawn out;-some nice cinematography;
What doesn't work:
-There's no original music;
Even the best films I watch don't end soon enough. There's always a 10-15 minute slack that could be rid of. Luckily, "Tormented" is not guilty of being overlong. At about 40 minutes' running time it feels nice and tight. Perhaps the short duration was more due to limited budget and not consideration for impatient viewers. The best thing I liked was the violence. I couldn't really care for Faye character so it was rather nice seeing her beaten into a gory pulp. Acting is a lot more confident than in previous Impey efforts. RamiHilmi and Helen Clifford did a credible job with their parts. The bulk of the film really rests on their performances.
Dialogue is "classic" Impey: a mixture of swearwords, politically incorrect speeches and film references. Robert Saxon is another one of Impey's mentally unstable characters who cannot get over some past abuse. Ending wasn't as downbeat as it could have possibly been.
"Tormented" could be a very nice introductionfor the newcomers to cinema of Jason Impey.
TORMENTED TRIVIA -shot in two days; -director Impey, actress Sharon Alcock and cinematographer KemalYildirim have brief cameos;
-part of an unofficial thrilogy with "Troubled"(2007) and "Tortured"(2009).
Tormented(UK, 2010) Written, Produced, Directed by Jason Impey Cinematography KemalYildirim Starring: RamiHilmi, Helen Clifford
Plot in one sentence:Hauer plays an American smuggler in a dystopian futuristic Russia, who gets betrayed and killed by his partner only to be resurrected by doctors and seek revenge.
What works: Decent pacing, some good violence.
What doesn't work:
You've seen it all before(In a John Boorman classic "Point Blank", no less)
I enjoyed "Deathline" a.k.a "Redline" on basic level: blood, nudity and decent cinematography.
"Deathline" has got to be the most interestingly lit and fast-moving film from NU Image.I've seen a few of theirs: "Shadowchaser" Quadrology, "Cyborg Cop" films, abysmal "Otopus 2" and very average "Warhead". "Deathline" is the only one which I simply enjoyed, without any discomfort or boredom. Russia in this film is populated by bare-chested young muscle-men(and muscle-women) and firearm-wielding street bums .
Rutger Hauer looks simply great in a black military coat and manages to create a likable character, somehow injecting life into dullest of one-liners, such as "cut the shit" for example.
Trash values: Hauer is fighting a topless female kickboxer, wrestling a buck-naked girl, dreaming of shower a scene and featuring in a drawn-out "love scene", lifelessly choreographed complete with warm lighting and dissolve cuts.
Most of the extras and supporting cast, as usual in NU Image films, are woefully unattractive or just look plain dull. Dacascos doesn't get to show off much of his fighting skills except for a few brief but flamboyant fights, and spends quite a bit of time demonstrating his well-developed musculature to fellow-baddies in a Sauna which, just like "Red Heat", has some heavy lifting weights plus some more naked girls.
DEATHLINE a.k.a REDLINE (Canada/Netherlands. 1997) Directed by TiborTakács
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Mark Dacascos
Plot in one sentence: A series of kidnappings disrupt the quiet life of a provincial French town.
What works:
-Nothing at all. But there’s enough enjoyable weirdness to warrant one viewing for a die-hard Eurotrash fan.
What doesn’t work:
-Having a maniac killer in the title when there isn’t one in the movie.
Instead, there is a small cult that kidnaps and tortures prostitutes, a village retard that brings stray cats for an odd American surgeon to operate on plus some more vaguely exploitivemumbo-jumbo.
“Maniac Killer” is the most technically competent Andrea Bianchi film I’ve seen, but it’s very boring nevertheless. There’s nothing happening for the majority of the running time, action and torture scenes are way too brief and badly-edited to have any impact.
The “ass-kicking good guy” role is taken by Bo Svenson (“Inglorious Bastards”)
Main villain here is portrayed by Robert Ginty of “The Exterminator” fame, Professor Osbourne is played by former US baseball star-turned-actor Chuck Connors.
Eurociné regular Olivier Mathot has a small part as a police inspector, and Henri Lambert of “Trans-Europ-Express” and “L’abimedesmortsvivants” plays a grizzled butler.
“Maniac Killer” has nothing to make it worth recommending.
This is a rather small-scale picture, with sadly underplayed exploitation elements.
Unless you’re a Mario Bianchi/ Eurocinécompletist, “Maniac Killer” can be easily skipped.
Directed by Andrea Bianchi
Written by Marius Lesoeur, H.L. Rostaine
Starring: Chuck Connors, Bo Svenson, Robert Ginty, Olivier Mathot.
