Specters (1987) by Marcello Avallone

Director: Marcello Avallone

Year: 1987

Country: Italy

Alternate Titles: Spettri

Genre: Creature Feature

Plot:

In the wake of a tunnel collapse, a professor looking into an ancient Roman society gradually comes to believe that he and his team have uncovered a monstrous spirit guardian from inside a pagan tomb from the society and must stop its bloodsoaked rampage against those who enter the tomb.

Review:

This was an enjoyable if somewhat uneven genre effort. Among the better elements within this one comes from the highly enjoyable setup that allows this one to partake in the kind of enjoyably retro-Gothic sensibilities. The strong setup with the archeology team looking into the series of relics left behind by the ancient society in the catacombs beneath the society and the different interactions that take place with the tourists to the area, which trigger the supernatural being coming back to life, gives the film a decent enough start. The amount of information we get on the society and the whole encounter taking place within the catacombs where the tourists are stranded underground that signals the start of the whole thing featuring the swarm of rats, the subsequent cave-in, and harrowing rescue attempt that comes about here that all makes for a strong atmospheric touch being in the underground environment while setting up the supernatural vibes present.

Once this gets to the possibility of the disturbance causing something to be awakened and roaming the community, this manages to keep things enjoyable with the series of intriguing showpiece sequences that focus on the flair for the sense of style and atmosphere prominent in these types of features. The big sequence in the underground caverns where the researcher exploring the tunnels is caught inside the crypt of one of the ancient figures and is reduced to the possibility of revealing the true origins of the society, which leads the team into uncovering the truth about everything. This leads into the series of encounters and confrontations down in the crypt, where the monstrous being targets and torments the group that stumbled upon the tomb, which brings about some fun scenes of the entity manipulating the weather in the environment to strike at others, which leads to some cheesy gore throughout here. Overall, these all manage to provide a lot to like.

There are some drawbacks present here. The main issue for the film is the reliably expected sense of confusion that manifests from how the spirit entity is supposed to operate. The supernatural antics here give it some leeway in how it moves about our world, but that still doesn’t mean that what it can or can’t do isn’t explored, which is the case here. It seems to manifest out of nowhere without warning, pulls people into enclosed spaces like it’s a portal to an alternate dimension, and is so stealthy that it can never be seen until it’s too late. This goes alongside the lack of information about it, where it came from, what it looks like beyond clips of its hand or mouth, or anything like that, which is rather disconcerting. Even though it takes until the film is halfway over is a big issue since it never comes up until then, and most of what we learn about it is inferred content from the film itself. The other issue is the weird inclusion of the film shoot taking place at the same time as the characters don't interact with the archeology team, and their presence is easily removed without altering much of the storyline. Otherwise, there's not much to hold this down.

Overview: ***.5/5

A likable enough if somewhat problematic genre effort, there’s a lot to like here with this one getting some enjoyable factors while only having a few issues featured here in this one. Those with an interest in this kind of genre effort, are curious about it, or who don’t mind the issues here, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.

This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site: