Wordiezett So much average

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Nigel P After the splatter-coloured opening credits, action man John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth) introduces himself in a voice-over as a paranoiac. Seemingly trapped in a loveless marriage with a wife who will not let him go, he is haunted by psychedelic dreams of some childhood trauma that seem to be tipping him towards murder. I describe him as an 'action man' not because he commits acts of great physical prowess, but because his perfectly manicured, coiffured, extravagantly made-up appearance makes him look like a male doll. Despite the distraction of his exquisitely chiselled features, Forsyth is good in the role, and throws himself into the character's apparent lapses into violent insanity.Director Mario Bava emblazons the picture with lush, packed visuals, much use of garish colour and hallucinogenic effects and the rasping musical strains of Sante Romitelli. He even at one point has the characters watching a scene from his own 'Black Sabbath (1963). Although I feel that Bava's style is too garish and brash to generate any real sense of horror – and I realise I am in the minority with this – Harrington's continual confusion as to whether his wife is haunting him or not is well conveyed. With no real answers forthcoming, it is a genuine mystery as to what quite is going on.While the regularity with which his dead wife appears and disappears threatens to get monotonous, this remains a solid entry into the giallo genre. If you are a fan of Bava's work, there is undoubtedly much to enjoy here. As an entirely personal note, I find his style too stylised for my tastes and tends to obscure, instead of enhance, the mood.

ma-cortes The man who brought you such successful chillers as "5 Dolls for an August Moon" , ¨Operazione Paura¨ ,¨Black Sabbath¨ , "Six Women for the Murderer" , ¨The Evil Eye¨ goes back in this nice film that packs great cinematography , impressive spectacle and well staged killings . It begins developing an elaborate animated collage for the film opening credits , being originally created by the great Mario Bava . The flick deals with a respected fashion mogul who runs a house of style where happens several bloody murders and gruesome executions . As a bridal design shop owner called John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth) kills various young brides-to-be (Femi Benussi) in an attempt to unlock a repressed childhood trauma that's causing him to commit murder . John contracts a new fashion model , that person ultimately being Helen Wood (Dagmar Lassander) , who eventually gets a little too close for his comfort . Harrington is facing further torment in the mutually unsatisfying marriage to Mildred (Laura Betti , originally the script didn't include the role , it was only after expressed interest in working with Bava that the director re-wrote the script so that Betti could have a suitable starring) who subsequently to return to haunt him as a ghost . Meanwhile , a police inspector named Russell (Jesus Puente) investigates the strange killings , being his prime suspect Harrington . When Russel enters Carrington's home , the latter tells the screams heard are caused by the television set (the TV show that Harrington refers to in an attempt to fool Inspector is a clip from Mario Bava's own Black Sabbath (1963) - specifically the "Wurdalak" sequence featuring Boris Karloff) . Mario Bava strikes again in this mysterious and grisly picture with haunting atmosphere , colorful photography and strange musical score . Bava's great success (the first was ¨Black Sunday¨ or ¨Mask of Demon¨)is compellingly directed with startling visual content . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , chills , high body-count and glimmer color in lurid pastel with phenomenal results . Interesting screenplay filled with twists , turns and rare situations by prolific Santiago Moncada , an usual playwright . This is a classic slasher where the intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and luxurious interior and exterior . Nice as well as twisted acting by Stephen Forsyth as a psychotic killer who manages a model house . This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by the same Mario Bava with magenta shades of ochre , translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red . Filmed on location in Barcelona , Harrington's villa , Rome , Paris and studios Alfonso Balcazar . The Spanish villa that the majority of the film was shot at was formerly the touristic home of Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco .The movie well produced by Manuel Caño belongs to Italian Giallo genre , Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) along with Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨Il Vampiri¨) are the fundamental creators . In fact , both of whom collaborated deeply among them , as Bava finished two Fedra's films ¨Il Vampiri¨ and ¨Caltiki¨ . These Giallo movies are characterized by overblown use of color in shining red blood , usual zooms and utilization of images-shock . Later on , there appears Dario Argento (¨Deep red¨, ¨Suspiria¨,¨Inferno¨), another essential filmmaker of classic Latino terror films . Rating : Good, this is one more imaginative slasher pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills.

acidburn-10 Being a big fan of Giallo movies, I was pretty eager to see this one, well for the title alone, sounds like fun and when I finally got round to viewing this I was, well kind of disappointed and to be honest I found this movie kind of weird, even by the Italian slashers standard.Not to say that this movie is all bad, there were some parts that were quite interesting and fun. Here we have the lead character John who is hell bent on killing young brides to be in order to remember what happened to his own mother, which is an aspect that I found rather interesting as he played out rather well, but unfortunately the outcome was rather predictable. But his wife Mildred who is rather a miserable out hag who he hates and she takes every opportunity to put him in his place, I found her hilarious. But what was rather strange is that when he finally does kill her she begins to haunt him, where everyone can see her apart from him, which again a rather interesting plot point but totally off key and not what I expected. The deaths were really disappointing also as they were quite bloodless and off screen, and this movie does have pacing issues which tends to drag begin to lose interest halfway through.All in all I don't why it has been said that this movie is essential viewing in the Giallo era as, there are much better titles than this namely (Deep Red, Blood Bath and Bird With The Crystal Plumage). Not a terrible movie but not something worth viewing more than once.

bunion_bill This was the worst thing I have seen in a very long time. Really a complete waste. It was not a horror movie, it was not a thriller, it was not gore - but it tried to be a little of everything, and it turned out it didn't succeed in any of those ambitions. The acting was poor to say the least, the sound was terrible, not to mention the non-existing lip sync. Already half way through the film you feel you've had enough of the close ups of Stephen Forsyth's face and eyes. It's not even thrilling, since you in the first five minutes get to know who the killer is. The only positive thing to say about this film is that it contained a few groovy outfits and sets but nothing worth to waste an hour and a half on!