Dir - Antonio Boccacci
Overall: MEH
The lone directorial effort from pulp writer Antonio Boccaci, Tomb of Torture, (Metempsyco), has an atmospheric opening and some Gothic imagery scattered about, but it is otherwise a typically dull bit of Euro-horror that is rightfully obscure. As the title would suggest, there is indeed a torture chamber nestled in the bottom of a castle, but sadly for fans of exploitative sadism, said torture chamber does not get properly utilized besides serving as a means for women to get chained to a wall while screaming a bit. One of the characters is a hilariously deformed brute, another is the living embodiment of a dead Countess, and one guy is a mystic wearing a turban, so there are colorful enough characters sprinkled about. Not that any of this equals an engaging story mind you, plus Boccaci understandably cannot keep up an adequate pace, thus being his low-budgeted debut. Even with some odd moments like a full suite of armor beating people to a pulp and a painting kind of coming to life, there are far from enough quirky components to keep things interesting.
(1964)
Dir - Renato Polselli
Overall: MEH
A equally lackluster follow-up to director Renato Polselli's The Vampire and the Ballerina, The Vampire of the Opera, (Il mostro dell'opera, The Monster of the Opera), was released three years after principal photography began due to budgetary production issues. The resulting film is a slog in all capacities as the first half and some change is dedicated to tortuously uninteresting sequences where a dance troupe sets up shop in an allegedly haunted theater, practicing their seductive moves while exchanging the same dialog over and over again. There is an old creepy guy that keeps warning them that bad things are going to happen, none of the men listen to him, and the women either keep frantically saying that they must leave or just playfully tease each other, all to the utter boredom of anyone watching. The opening nightmare scene is replayed in the finale and is effectively spooky, plus one or two other moments are scattered about where Polselli showcases that he has an adequate knack for capturing some macabre atmosphere. Mostly though, the paper-thin plot goes absolutely nowhere and does not even properly establish that there is a member of the undead about in the first place until well past the halfway point. Yet for anyone craving scene after scene of leggy Italian women busting out ballet moves, a guy in a cape with fangs, and one brief moment of suggested lesbianism, then the target audience you hereby be.
(1966)
Dir - Gianni Vernuccio
Overall: WOOF
Though plenty of filmmakers have merely dipped their toes into horror and produced spectacular results, (Werner Herzog and Stanley Kubrick come immediately to mind), perhaps co-writer/director Gianni Vernuccio's relative inexperience with the genre is one of the elements that makes But You Were Dead, (La lunga notte di Veronique), an aggressive chore to sit through. To be fair though, the movie is not concerned with typical Gothic imagery and macabre, sensationalized atmosphere and plot points as it is merely a lackluster melodrama with some mild supernatural components. Even giving it a pass in such regards, the pacing is unacceptably slow, plus Vernuccio and Enzo Ferraris' script leaves no room for coherency. It all has something to do with a guy visiting his grandfather after his parents were killed in a car crash, where he then runs into a beautiful ghost that he becomes smitten with while another woman likewise falls in lust with him. While this may seem straightforward enough if not altogether interesting, the structure is broken up with frequent, very soft-focused, extended flashback sequences which come and go at a moments notice. This renders the movie incomprehensible as well as desperately boring, yet things keep plowing along with the momentum of a slug stuck in super glue.
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