Director: Giorgio Ferroni
Year: 1960
Country: Italy/France
Alternate Titles: Il mulino delle donne di pietra; Drops of Blood; Icon; The Horrible Mill Women; Horror of the Stone Women
Genre: Mad Doctor
Plot:
Arriving in a small village, a reporter comes looking to do a story on a reclusive doctor who's turned a local mill into a themed carnival ride, but as he carries on a romance with his seductive daughter finds a series of strange experiments conducted at the mill and tries to stop it.
Review:
This was a wholly enjoyable and likable Gothic horror effort. One of the better elements present here includes the standout storyline that works incredibly well to deliver a slew of solid ideas throughout. The initial arrival at the village and meeting up with the creator and his assistant at the windmill while he prepares his story is a solid start with everything coming together to give off a creepy vibe involving the carousel of figures being constructed for the exhibition and the strange instructions given by the doctor to comfort the ailing daughter and her doctor that helps to give off an air of mystery to the whole affair. As he conducts the research for his story and meets the various points of his story involving how the animatronic models are created and the necessary precautions to cover up the daughters’ condition, it creates a solid setup for the later shenanigans going on.
As this provides the necessary setup for the first half to get everything in motion, the reveal of the true intentions behind the setup at the mill and what’s going on with the daughter comes together incredibly well. That they need local women to supply the daughter with fresh blood so that she can stay alive is a cruel and disturbing twist that makes for a shocking reveal when it occurs, following up on the death reveal and eventual turnaround. This section of the film turns into a solid series of exploits, looking at the depths the father is capable of going through to bring the daughter back to life with a series of experiments and obscure procedural treatments that are designed to get the necessary formula down for the daughter to come back to life.
By the time the ruse is revealed due to the series of missing persons’ reports in the area and the connection to the windmill is revealed, this starts the action in earnest, with the race to stop the final series of injections to save the ailing daughter. This is full of the genre’s usual assortment of strong Gothic action as the double-cross is revealed, the concurrent race to get out of the facility is stopped by the whole thing going up in flames, and the whole thing has the kind of explosive action-packed finale that’s required of these stories. Some might find fault with the amount of time it takes to get to this section of the film, with the majority of this section focused on the love triangle series of romances, or getting to see the inner workings of the carousel attraction that hides the bodies, which takes quite a while before anything happens. It might be dull for some out there, but it is the main issue to be had against it.
Overview: ****.5/5
A highly effective and enjoyable Gothic horror effort, this is a fantastic entry in the genre that has quite a lot to like about it while only being brought down slightly by a slower tempo that some won’t care for. Those with an interest in this era of genre cinema in general, who enjoy European Gothic horror, or who are curious about it, will have the most to like here, and most others should heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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