I have to agree with djbulmer7978 on this one. I had read how this was a great horror film, in comparison to the whole genre not just D'Amato's own works, and was disappointed after viewing it, if I had gone into it with my normal D'Amato expectations I'd have enjoyed it, but I expected more and it didn't deliver.
The movie was never really scary, it was eery or gross at times and laughable at most. When the hitchhhiker is having her fingernails pulled out I didn't find it at all disturbing, it was funny. It started off good when she saw Frank with his dead girlfriend, holding her eye in his hand, and she runs off, the garage door is locked (which I didn't understand later since the 'detective morgue guy' opened it easily the next morning) and so she ran back to attack him, that made no sense, anyway, he knocks her on the ground, sits on her and starts the torture, she was a rather big girl, and all she did was squirm and shriek, it'd have been more believable if she'd sat on top of him and ripped out his fingernails.
It got a bit better after that, hacking her apart, dissolving her, a great transition from the skull in the tub to the burial and then Iris' special dinner. Iris was the saving grace for this film, she was excellent, eery and cold, and her family was the scariest thing in the film, they should have extended that dinner scene somehow. The relationship between Iris and Frank was fascinating, the breast feeding scene, when she 'hand'led him, she brought the film alive.
Anyway, I guess Frank is some kind of ladies' man because he has no trouble not only getting women back to his house but getting them naked, in his bed or in his bathtub, there are some pretty easy-going women in his neck of the woods.
The scene with the jogger in the incinerator was good, I was kind of expecting it, but still was a good scene, mostly because of the look on Iris' face as she watches through the glass.
The ending was as disappointing as the rest of the film. I laughed when Iris pulled out Frank's eye, I mean he should have just moved, but instead he sat there and let her do it, though he was on top, I guess people in this movie like to make it easy for their attackers to remove body parts. The 'detective mortuary guy' shows up, I have no idea who this guy was or what his motive was, it would have been nice to know something about him, and watches the main character die.
Then, the big jump scene, which you could see coming a mile away if you've ever seen any horror movies, you know that if the movie goes a few minutes after the death of the 'bad guys' that there is going to be a jump scene, typically the bad guy coming back to life, but in this case you knew it would be the girl since that's who the guy was putting in the coffin... and she pops out of the coffin on queue, freeze frame, cheezy music, credits, hysterical laughter.
This one just didn't do it for me personally. Though I was highly impressed by the special effects, good for the time, even good for today. I'm not going to give up on D'Amato yet, I just won't expect as much in the future, and watch his stuff when I'm in the mood for a disgusting horror movie with lots of laughs.
reply
share
dick_yrk
16 years ago
remember, Iris pulled the girl out of the truck, she could have left the door unlocked for the mortuary guy to open
reply
share
CrunchCameron
16 years ago
I agree that this movie kind of sucked. The only cool thing about it was Goblin's score, which in most cases was inappropriate for this movie.
reply
share
Xcalat3 (3701)
7 years ago
/The movie was never really scary, it was eery or gross at times and laughable at most. /
described perfectly.
reply
share