Director: Ottavio Alessi
Year: 1969
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: The Seducers
Genre: Giallo; Exploitation
Plot:
Setting off on a trip together, a woman and her friends try to force her dim-witted son into adulthood by engaging in his first sexual encounter, but when his attention turns elsewhere than their intentions, an effort to keep everything on schedule is threatened when several strangers are brought into their games.
Review:
This was an exceptional and highly impressive sleazy giallo. This one gets so much of the enjoyable elements featured through the use of its appealing and frequent amount of nudity or sexual situations from those well-qualified to deliver it. Considering the participants, this one gets plenty of mileage out of not just the nude couplings or just casually lounging around which is played for such a fiery, erotic tone. Given that everything is designed for sexual manipulation and is part of a game at some point with the trip being an effort to make the son lose his awkwardness around women, there’s plenty on display here to enhance the eroticism featured with a generally raw sexuality based on getting them into these positions as often as possible.
Moreover, with the sexiness on display, there’s a lot to like with the gradually darker turn this makes. As the main focus of the trip is to bring the son into adulthood by using their feminine wiles, there’s already a perverse tone apparent from the start where sexual games are par for the course and seduction plays a huge role in the outcome of everything. When this is turned around with their own thrills involving the island girl brought into their circle, the innocence she displays is in stark contrast to their free-spirited ways even after the attempt to introduce her into their lifestyle. That it turns into a veritable bloodbath at the end with some unexpected bodies showing up and the rather risky nature of trying to get away with it all offers a fun series of thrills on top of the somewhat shocking action featured. These here all make for a highly enjoyable and impressive genre effort with a lot to like about it.
There are some minor issues on display here. The main problem is that there’s very little about the son that actually endears us to want to see him succeed in his quest. A shy, quiet introvert who stays by himself, tends to get into trouble due to a curiously unexplained child-like view of the world and just seems completely bland compared to everyone else, this one has very little interest in getting his sexual experience. The scenes of him on the boat playing with the island girl are just excruciating as they have no chemistry at all and the whole affair tends to go ignored for such long stretches it can easily be forgotten. The other issue here is the odd and unsatisfying motivations in the finale which are highly underwritten and don’t seem genuine to what’s come before in their characterization which creates wildly inconsistent characterizations in this section. Otherwise, there isn’t much to dislike here.
Overview: ****.5/5
Not just a fantastically fun exercise in the exploitation offerings of the genre, there’s a lot to like here without including that aspect which makes this a true genre classic. Give this one a look if you’re a fan of the sleazy side of the giallo, this type of Eurothriller in general or the creative crew while those who aren’t into this format altogether should heed caution.
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