ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Steineded How sad is this?

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

gavin6942 When women are found knifed and gouged in the tiny hamlet of Holfen, everyone suspects the distantly related heir of Baron Von Klaus, a sadistic 17th century baron who cursed the village.There are some good themes here: the small village, the wealthy but evil baron, and the idea of a family curse. At one point the heir wonders if at some point he will become a killer like von Klaus was. The film does not play into the emotional or psychological very deeply, but it raises that age old question: can you escape your destiny? I would need to see this film again to give it my full attention and a more thoughtful review. I was not ready for subtitles and could not follow along the whole time. Shame on me.

Brian Boyle Every one knows Franco is off his rocker. But this film is from a period where it wasn't so abundantly clear from looking at the screen.For those that think Franco is a hack film maker with all the sleazy zooms of his later films, see this and you'll discover that he does that because he likes it, not because he doesn't know how to do anything else.This one is made very nicely. It's shot in black and white holds up very well today, comparing favourably with many other films from this era and genre. Plot wise it's a serial killer movie, but it has that real timeless feel and atmosphere that places it firmly in the horror category.The understated performance from Franco regular Howard Vernon is outstanding, but all the cast are great. I'm not sure what the original language is, probably Spanish, I've seen it in English and French and although they're both acceptable, it's a shame not to hear the real actors voices (although Vernon probably dubbed himself).It's also amazingly daring for 1962, in fact way too daring for its day and the dungeon scene was removed by bastard censors. But it's back now and it's great, if you like that sort of thing of course, which, as you're reading a review of a Franco film, you do. I love this film.

bensonmum2 A series of murders of young women have the townspeople believing that a centuries old killer, Baron Von Klaus, has returned from the dead. Many of the locals claim to have seen his shadowy figure rising from the nearby swamp. Is it really the dead Baron come back to claim more victims or is it one of his descendants? The biggest reason I don't rate this movie any higher is that I found the first 3/4 of the movie to be incredibly boring. There's little suspense, little action, and little drama. I generally don't mind a slow moving movie as long as there is plenty of atmosphere and a sense of dread. But, Franco doesn't seem to be one of those directors who excels at atmosphere. Usually, he doesn't seem patient enough, but here he just seems to have no idea of how to do it.The final fourth of this movie, however, is quite well done. The ritualistic murder is both frightful and erotic at the same time. And there is some real suspense in the chase scene leading up to the murderer's capture.The more Franco movies I see, the more I'm growing to enjoy his choice of music. The snappy jazz scores are now one of the things I look forward to.

macabro357 This is NOT a horror movie. It is a serial-killer movie, so you won't find any aspects of the supernatural, here.B/W feature, set in Germany, dubbed in French with English subtitles. I suspect that it was actually filmed in northern Spain. Don't know for sure.A modern day Baron's ancestors have a curse that goes back 500 years to when the ancient Baron was involved in a series of murders of young women by knifing and torturing them. The police and a crime reporter from out of town go on the hunt to search for the killer.Btw, it didn't take rocket-science to know who the killer was since this became apparent early on in the film.The film does have some spooky atmosphere to it and it also has one S/M scene where the barmaid (Gogo Rojo?) is chained up from a rafter, topless with very faint whip marks on her back. She is stabbed by the killer although it isn't shown on the film directly, but slightly off camera with no blood shown.But besides all this, I think it is a weak film that deserves no more than a 3 out of 10 for sheer boredom.