Director: Gianni Martucci
Year: 1980
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Il mistero della casa maledetta
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
Arriving at a secluded house in the countryside, a group of friends looking to spend a quiet weekend away together suddenly realize that several of them have gone missing, and when they realize that a hulking, maniacal killer is on the loose tries to find a way to get the survivors away alive.
Review:
There's very little to like about this slasher/giallo effort. Among the few positives here is the general atmosphere of the situation featuring the killer lurking about the house as this one generally tries to feature some atmosphere at times. The first stalking after the photoshoot has a few genuinely eerie moments of the point-of-view tracking her through the woods, while the scenes of the group going through the woods looking for their friend has some suspenseful moments where the darkness and the noises outside creatures a fine sense of atmosphere. Moreover, the frantic finale here offers a genuinely enjoyable series of stalking throughout the house as the activity is rousing enough compared to what came before, especially the final confrontation which has genuine creepy and chilling sections provided by the location and situation. The only other bit that's enjoyable is a nicely sleazy touch where the killer fondles a nude victim for several minutes for no reason giving this a nice touch of necrophilia added to the mix, but that's all the good points here.
Among the film's biggest flaws here is the completely out-of-character mannerisms affected to the killer. The fact that the killer is shown off five minutes into the running is a huge departure for the genre which leaves on of the greatest qualities in the genre to be completely voided out as we can't guess who the killer will be. That means we get to see him interacting on-screen with a fake eye-piece and a sluggish limp trying to chase after younger, healthier victims who are struck down by his physical stature allowing for a series of some of the most laughable and awkward kill scenes here featuring no gore and very little actual interaction leaving this to feature scenes including strangulation, heart attack or shadow actions on the wall behind them exposing some of the most atrocious gore effects ever filmed as the aftermath shots. These are wholly disappointing and depressing which lowers the film significantly.
That also leads into the wholly detrimental factor of how cheap and lay the film is. The overwhelming sense throughout here is one of incompetence, from the lack of locations to the inability to tell anyone apart because it's rarely giving out names for people or the utterly infuriating way things drag out simply to allow them to remain in the killers' cross-hairs. These here are so poorly handled that the film comes off with little semblance of rational thought where the group is continually going out to look for people alone without coming up with reasonable motivations to do so, especially once they start becomes aware that something's going on. The last flaw here, and another stalwart example of the films' incompetence is the finale, which is the greatest, most creative, unique and mind-numbingly infuriating way to end a film ever which absolutely screams they've run out of money and had to do something to end this. It's insulting, and leaves this on a forgettable note.
Overview: */5
An absolutely terrible effort on all counts, this one fails at being both a giallo and a slasher with numerous detrimental efforts that manage to counter the few solid worthwhile positives. Only the most desperate, pent-up giallo or slasher fans should attempt to look at this one, while anyone else should outright avoid or seek extreme caution.
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