70's Italian Horror Part Twenty-Two

LOVER OF THE MONSTER

(1974)

Dir - Sergio Garrone

Overall: MEH

A companion piece to The Hand That Feeds the Dead which was filmed at the same time and with the same crew and actors, Lover of the Monster, (Le amanti del mostro), is a noticeably low-budgeted Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde variation.  Klaus Kinski is his usual off-putting self, here playing a newly married doctor who undergoes personality-altering experiments after arriving at his wife's ancestral home where he discovers a book that leads him in such a disastrous path.  The details are never sufficiently explained where Kinski seems to be possessed by either a malevolent entity or just the dark recesses of his primordial, violent nature that speaks to him in an echoed, maniacal manner.  Due to the brisk shooting schedule and lack of funds on hand, the running time is heavily padded with long bouts of nothing happening where the camera lingers on already unnecessary moments long past an agreeable length.  Still, Kinski is wonderful and appropriate as a raving madman who becomes filled with just as intense of an amount of remorse in the film's final moments, leading to an ending that is more bleak than most Euro-cheapies would usually allow.

 

THE BLOODSUCKER LEADS THE DANCE

(1975)

Dir - Alfredo Rizzo

Overall: WOOF

An oddity amongst Euro-trash that comes off like an unaware parody of Gothic eroticism, The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance, (La sanguisuga conduce la danza, L'insatiable Samantha, Il marchio di Satana), is a steady combination of extremely boring, head-scratchingly strange, and accidentally absurd.  It is difficult to tell what writer/director Alfredo Rizzo is exactly going for as he he stages what is essentially an easily guessable, horny whodunit in a mansion with plot points and character mannerisms that are both routinely bizarre and derail any sense of atmospheric tension that could have been attained.  The dialog is as hilariously atrocious as the performances are; performances which are either melodramatic or wooden.  Plus in typical low-budget export fashion, the dubbed version is especially atrocious in this regard.  Italian horror mainstay Giacomo Rossi Stuart sounds the most ridiculous as if he barely has a grasp on the English language and is on some kind of sleepy time drug.  Speaking of, the lengthy expository explanation at the end features a police inspector allowing for various characters to pontificate their motives while everyone else in the room patiently sits with zero expression on their faces.  Already ruined with a stagnant sense of anti-momentum, the French cut also adds hardcore pornography with different actors who are obviously standing in for the ones that are on screen.

OBSCENE DESIRE

(1978)

Dir - Giulio Petroni

Overall: MEH

The last known work to be directed by Giulio Petroni, Obscene Desire, (L'osceno desiderio), is a softcore porn knock-off of Rosemary's Baby that manages to accomplish some creepy atmosphere despite its lackluster, derivative story.  Here, Austrian actor Marissa Mell has recently married a wealthy nobleman who keeps lazy-eyed genre regular Víctor Israel on as a caretaker, eventually revealing a diabolical plot involving a condemned witch's curse to give birth to the Devil's son eight generations later.  The cliches are all in place and they are tossed together in a contemporary setting with very little action, several exploitative bouts of slow motion nudity and/or sex, and some blasphemy for good measure.  Budget wise, this is a bare-bones affair that could not even afford a proper flashback sequences to show us the crazed witch spouting her vengeance to angry villagers before being put to death, but Petroni still makes the most out of the meager production means.  The sound design is deliberately off-putting and of course the same piece of music gets used ad nauseam, but it creates a haunting mood as is appropriate.  It meanders too much to maintain one's interest, but there is some erotic and eerie style to go along with the familiar tropes.