Friday, October 17, 2014

70's Italian Horror Part One

BEYOND THE DOOR
(1974)
Dir - Ovidio G. Assonitis
Overall: MEH

It is hard to tell this is one of the best or worst rip-offs of The Exorcist, though it probably steers closer to the latter.  Beyond the Door, (Chi sei?, Devil Within Her), is an infamous Italian/American co-production that went under a different title in almost every country it was released in, the most hilarious being Greece's To Sperma Tou Antichristou, (Sperm of the Antichrist).  There are one or two solid scenes, (wait for when the rocking chair in the two little brat's room starts rocking by itself for the best of them), though most of the other horrific moments are too derivative of the film this is clearly inspired by.  So blatant was the case that Warner Bros. actually filed a lawsuit to claim copyright infringement which was settled five years later.  As far as the story goes, it an incoherent mess that is likely due to the whopping seven credited screenwriters on board who are clearly going for a "just have a girl use profanity and spit bile on people, plus something about the antichrist" box office cash grab here.

NUDE FOR SATAN
(1974)
Dir - Luigi Batzella
Overall:  MEH

Hack-maker Luigi Batzella, (who had a hodgepodge of other on-screen aliases as well, so much to the point where there is debate as to what his real name was), is apparently known as the Italian Ed Wood.  After seeing Nude for Satan, (Nuda per Satana), one can very clearly see the comparison and not just because he looked remarkably like him.  Just substitute Wood's "not knowing where to put the camera" for Batzella's surprisingly competent cinematography in the hands of Antonio Maccoppi and then substitute Wood's fondness for stock footage for Batzella's inter-splicing of hardcore porn.  Twenty seconds in we see a woman running naked in slow motion and twenty minutes in we are greeted with a blowjob scene, so, you cannot say it does not deliver on the title.  As an actual film though, it is unsurprisingly and completely ridiculous.  The dubbing is typically horrid, there is a spider that would make Wood look as competent as Stanley Kubrick, porn doubles are embarrassingly and noticeably used for the hardcore scenes, (down to hair color, breasts size, the physical setting, and their actual faces being completely different), and there truly is no plot.  The plan seemed to be just throwing some words together for other actors to later dub, shooting a bunch of stuff in a creepy castle, and then inserting, (huh huh), the fornication.  It is occult and porno trash under the guise of avant-garde pretentiousness, which in this case may as well be a compliment.
 
DIABOLICAMENTE... LETIZIA
(1975)
Dir - Salvatore Bugnatelli
Overall: MEH

One of only seven softcore sleaze movies made by sporadic director Salvatore Bugnatelli, Diabolicamente...Letizia, (Sex, Demons, and Death), is a nonsensical and sluggish one that still provides some unintentional chuckles for Euro trash enthusiasts.  Franca Gonella plays a wide-eyed, pushing-thirty teenager with vague, malevolent superpowers who recently shows up at her aunts house to make everyone there horny while fighting with each other.  Such a bare-bones premise is sufficient enough to hang a series of naked, silly set pieces on and one of the more memorable ones involves Gonella turning into a shewolf for a split second to scare the shit out of the household's maid.  For the rest of the time, she utilizes telekinesis, voodoo, and hypnotism to reap her family revenge for a previous crime that is not entirely explained.  While the nudity and ridiculousness is amusing in an exploitative fashion, the pacing is dreadful and the plot structure is tedious as it spins in circles with Gonella dragging out her scheme for no other reason than for the movie to reach the ninety-odd minute mark.

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