(1972)
Dir - José Luis Madrid
Overall: MEH
The second giallo collaboration between Paul Naschy and co-writer/director José Luis Madrid, The Crimes of Petiot, (Los crímenes de Petiot), is n unrelated follow-up to the duo's Seven Murders for Scotland Yard which was released the previous year. Essential narrative components are all there, like a black-gloved killer picking off victims while the police try and narrow down suspects, all pointing in various red herring directions along the way before the big reveal of who the murderer is utilizes a traumatic past for his excuse. This particular story is very loosely/not really at all based on Dr. Marcel Petiot, a French serial killer who was discovered a few years after World War II, though the version here paints a more sympathetic picture driven by unwilling vengeance. Unfortunately, such psycho analyzing sounds far more interesting than the actual movie which is plagued by a monotonous structure that consists almost entirely of characters sitting in rooms saying variations of "Well maybe YOU'RE the killer" only to be followed by, "Well there can be no doubt, THIS guy is the killer". Also, virtually one piece of music plays on the soundtrack over and over and over again and it proves obnoxious even before the opening credits are finished.
(1974)
Dir - Miguel Iglesias
Overall: MEH
A dopey and bog-standard amazon woman jungle adventure, Kilma, Queen of the Jungle, (La diosa salvaje, The Jungle Goddess), has all of the preposterous elements that you would expect from such silliness. After a helicopter full of diamonds crashes in the jungle, a young child, (who is the lone survivor), grows up to be a smoking hot, body-hair-shaved, makeup wearing, raven-haired babe with a leopard print bikini on who plays with monkeys and wields a leather whip at any humans that come her way. Her mother then has dreams about her daughter still being alive as a female Tarzan, her complaining husband with dubious, alternate intentions stages an expedition to find her, the mother is never seen again, a dashing hero guy falls in love with Kilma, other greedy assholes show up, primitive natives are there to keep the cultural insensitivity in check, etc. It is more harmlessly silly than actually fun, with regular monotonous intervals that slog the pace along which are only occasionally broken up by the dated goofiness of the presentation. For his part as the aforementioned shady husband, Paul Naschy gets plenty of screen time and makes his inevitable villain reveal convincing enough even under the typically atrocious English dubbing. Otherwise though, this is definitely to be missed.
(1976)
Dir - León Klimovsky
Overall: GOOD
A post-apocalyptic movie from director León Klimovsky, The People Who Own the Dark, (Último deseo), has a number of familiar faces present to liven up what is essentially a dour production. Nadiuska, Alberto de Mendoza, Julia Saly, Antonio Mayans, and of course Paul Naschy had all made their names to some degree at least in other genre movies from the era, yet this particular film is of a different breed from straight, low-budget Euro-sleaze and unabashed Gothic horror. A handful of wealthy, borderline unlikable people throw a tasteless party at a remote mansion where prostitutes are invited to perform in strange, occult ceremonies for a gag, all of which sets things up to be some soft of sadistic captive story. This is ultimately not the case though as an extreme shift happens in the plot which turns it into a survivor-style hold up where said crop of characters fend off against a town full of newly blinded commoners once a nuclear war breaks out. As one could guess, the millionaire's back-stabbing, "every man for themselves" nature quickly dominates while others simply lose their marbles in the chaos of it all. It all culminates in a tense, cynical finale that nevertheless serves as a highlight, leaving things off on a bleak series of images that is more memorable than what is usually allowed.
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