(1972)
Dir - Giorgio Feronni
Overall: MEH
Mill of the Stone Woman director Giorgio Feronni made his second to last film Night of the Devils, (La notte dei diavoli, La noche de los diablos), as a co-production between Italian and Spanish companies, one such company being founded by one of the actors appearing here. It is a pretty dull affair truth be told, even with a dark be it predictable ending and a premise that we have seen a thousand times of a family isolated in the middle of the woods who have to lock up their doors at night because of something evil outside. Of course, the concept of just getting up and moving away is never an option because why would it be? The cliches in tow are not the problem though. It primarily falls on director Feronni's shoulders, since he never kicks the pace up enough to stop the viewer from tuning out. Scenes showing people walking around and not saying or doing anything of particular interest simply go on too long and this actually gets in the way of making the movie have any sense of urgent dread. It has a few successful moments if looked at on their own though, particularly near the end where our main protagonist seems genuinely terrified as a horde of zombie/vampire/witch/whatevers are attacking him. Said horde of which includes two cackling children, something that is usually a plus.
(1973)
Dir - Corrado Farina
Overall: MEH
The character of Baba Yaga as she appears in the film baring her name has zero resemblance to her Russian folklore counterpart. Instead, the movie Baba Yaga is an adaptation of one of Guido Crepax's erotic Vanelntia comics. Director and screenwriter Corrado Farina, (in his second and last feature film), does make a purposeful attempt to spice up the presentation, frequently flash-cutting between the past and present while the film is edited in an occasionally bizarre manner where characters are having continuing conversations over the course of several different locations, presumably with large enough amounts of time in between to make them peculiar. This could be the work of cuts that were made to Farina's original run of the movie against his will and could not be restored, cuts which omitted some twenty minutes due to it being too slow. In any event, it is a somewhat strange movie with an interesting premise of a witch or something using a doll or something to murder people through a camera or something. Also, Nazis because why not? If the specifics sound unimportant, that is because that is precisely how they are treated by the filmmakers. This is kind of a bummer since we need a little more information to make what is intriguing actually work. Whether easily bored, cut-happy studio heads or Farina himself is to blame is forever a mystery, but it is a flawed end product all the same.
(1974)
Dir - Sergio Garrone
Overall: MEH
Now speaking of slow and boring, good grief. Shot in Istanbul along with Lover of the Monster during an eight week period with the same actors and crew, The Hand That Feeds the Dead, (La mano che nutre la morte), sounds like it is worth seeing if you take into account that it has Klaus Kinski in it playing an unofficial Dr. Frankenstein type character. There is nothing else good you can say about it besides that brief little synopsis though. This is one of the biggest offenders of not knowing how to pace your film. Not only do all of the scenes linger on longer than they should which is common enough, but every character in it seems to be in the opposite of a hurry. There are moments where people are literally laying around barely able to move and the camera just stays on them endlessly as we wait for something to happen. Kinski is dubbed which is nothing new yet even though he does his usual shtick of being calmly creepy, it does not work here because every shot is so lackadaisical that you end up using every ounce of will power just to get through the whole thing. Sergio Garrone, (who also penned the screenplay), primarily made spaghetti westerns, but judging by his work here, it is not likely that they pack any more of a wallop.
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