(1973)
Dir - Luigi Batzella/Joe D'Amato
Overall: GOOD
It leans a little too heavy on cliches that act as plotholes and spends several minutes too many slugging the pace down with characters walking around looking for things, but for the most part The Devil's Wedding Night, (Full Moon of the Virgins), is an innocent and fun, Gothic horror gem. Apparently American-though-very-Italian-looking start Mark Damon had gotten his hands on a version of the script which he was eager to make, eventually coming to life once producer Franco Gaudenzi got on board. Acting as a debut for both Luigi Batzella, (Nude for Satan), and Joe D'Amato, (Beyond the Darkness), each director shot and then re-shot various scenes, yet the result is thankfully quite uniform and consistent. The story presents yet another scenario where bold, non-superstitious travelers find a flimsy reason to travel to Dracula's castle, (even more conveniently on the eve of some kind of virgin moon blood sacrifice Satan whatever event), and of course lots of naked women, bright red blood, spooky catacombs, and all sorts of evil are on display. It is hardly anything to take too seriously, but the filmmakers utilize just enough care to make it rather captivating and occasionally even clever. There is a twin brother angle that is used to make the audience second guess a few instances and of course a final, bleak tag at the end that actually does seem to be there to make you chuckle. Yet it is all excellently atmospheric and charmingly blasphemous, proving to be a rather textbook and strong example of Hammer-inspired, occult, 70's Euro-horror in an era with plenty to choose from.
(1974)
Dir - Alberto De Martino
Overall: MEH
There are moments of worth to Alberto De Martino's The Antichrist, (L'anticristo, The Tempter), yet another deliberate Euro-Exorcist knock-off made quickly and comparatively on the cheap. The cast is not altogether undistinguished with familiar faces Arthur Kennedy and Alida Valli present. Sonically and visually it is frequently exceptional even with some pretty dated special effects here or there. The black mass scene in particular could not be better, (or more 70s), and the opening around an elaborate Catholic ceremony with a bizarre Virgin Mother statue plays out very sinisterly with whispered voices and screechy violins on the soundtrack, cues which would thankfully appear later on as well. Everywhere else, it is predictable and drab. Ippolita Oderisi, (Carla Gravina), is unlikable even before the devil starts speaking explicitly through her and there are the usual scenes of concerned family members talking to priests and whatnot, slowing things down until we get to the inevitable exorcism of course. Director Alberto De Martino, (who would go on to make the hilariously stupid The Pumaman six years later, much to the delight of MST3K fans), does a decent enough job with the weird dream sequences and demonic possession scenes. Still, a hundred and twelve minutes is an unnecessary amount of time for such material with much of the pussyfooting around easily something that could have been done away with to get to more of the Satan.
(1978)
Dir - Antonio Bido
Overall: MEH
All the hallmarks are present in Antonio Bido's The Bloodstained Shadow, (Solamente nero, Only Blackness), to make it what it is; a giallo by numbers affair. Goblin provides the music, its two leads are Lino Capolicchio, (The House with Laughing Windows), and Stefania Casini, (Suspiria), the entire movie is one boring wait after the other to see some other suspicious character get picked off by a disguised killer, and the end reveal is easy to guess by who is left. Bido in fact plays all of his cards so competently that it actually makes the movie rather unremarkable because of it. Just like the uncountable amounts of teen slasher films alone that would begin to emerge like a rapid-growing pestilence across the VHS horror landscape in the coming few years following, so little of an attempt is made to differentiate The Bloodstained Shadow from the plethora of works that came before it that its mere existence is pointless. The performances are all toned-down and the twist is not any more nonsensical than any others, but maybe if they were it would actually be a bit more of a hoot since by 1978, it would have been fair game for filmmakers to already be making fun of these movies instead of playing them so bland and serious. Yet just like avid, easily pleased slasher movie fans, for those who cannot get enough of the Italian variety, this movie sure crosses all of its T's and dots all of its I's.
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