MADNESS aka Gli Occhi Dentro

(Bruno Mattei, 1994)



Too little, too late, Bruno! This might have been groundbreaking if it had been released in 1981, before Tenebre, but alas... Tenebre came first! Why do I keep mentioning Dario Argento's beloved Giallo Tenebre? Probably because that's exactly what Mattei rips off almost in its entirety here!



Giovanna is a successful comic strip writer, creator of the immensely popular Doctor Dark series. An insane fan starts killing people the same way as the Doctor Dark character, leaving their eyeballs for Giovanna to find. The media are quick to condemn her work, and the police question her about the deaths (to which she replies, "If they kill someone with an electric drill, do you take it out on Black & Decker?"!!) Like I said, if you've seen Tenebre, you know EXACTLY who the killer is in the first 5 minutes!



That being said, Madness is still a guilty little pleasure. It retains that naive 80s low budget charm, though filmed in '93. It's a little sad that Bruno hadn't made more Gialli, as he clearly did have an eye for color and imagery. The deaths are nice and bloody, and we get to see a few eyeballs first pulled from the socket, then sliced out with broken glass! The soundtrack, also obviously Tenebre-inspired, isn't half bad either. Sadly, this doesn't amount to much when you KNOW HOW IT ENDS 5 MINUTES IN!! And the killer's motive for the murders is absolutely ridiculous!



This is recommended for completists only, and it's just as well as this title is extremely difficult to track down. Mine's an old VHS rip I managed to dl a while back; still waiting for an official release!

DELERIUM aka Le Foto Di Gioia

(Lamberto Bava, 1987)

Here's another late 80s Giallo offering by Lamberto Bava. It tells the tale of Gloria (Serena Grandi), a former "model" who now successfully runs Playboy-esque Pussycat Magazine. Someone is killing off her friends and employees, then sending her photographs of the corpses posed around blown up pictures of her. Among the suspects are Daria Nicolodi (Deep Red, Shock), George Eastman (Anthropophagus, Absurd), David Brandon (Stagefright), and Karl Zinny (Demons)!

I have to say that although most might consider Bava's films nonsensical and hackneyed (and a few are), they DO have a certain something going for them. For starters, he has his own visual style, with a smattering of Mario Bava and Dario Argento's use of color and lighting. In Delerium, he makes use of heavy red and magenta lighting whenever the murderer is about to strike. And as with most of his movies, emphasis is placed on the death scenes.

What sets this title apart from the rest are the zany POV shots that reveal how deformed the killer perceives his victims to be. The first girl is seen as having but an eye for a face. Another is seen with the head of a bee. The deaths themselves are fairly well executed, though I must say the Death-By-Bee-Attack scene is a little far fetched (and quite hilarious!). Lamberto also makes good use of Serena Grandi's "talents" here, adding a healthy dose of sleaze to an otherwise mediocre Giallo. Recommended for intermediate Giallo viewers and Bava fans.

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THE OTHER HELL

(Bruno Mattei, 1981)



1981 was a GREAT year for Italian horror. It gave us Patrick Still Lives, Macabre, Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror, Murder Obsession, and THIS! Bruno Mattei delivers another greasy cheese pizza with The Other Hell, though I find it oddly delicious...



The Other Hell is about a convent besieged by the Devil. He is causing the nuns to commit diabolical acts. A priest is called in to investigate after one nun stabs another to death in the depths of the convent cellar. At first he is (naturally) skeptical but, after a series of bizarre incidents, he begins to believe that Satan may be among them.



What could have been a delightfully schlocky nunsploitation romp is instead a delightfully schlocky MESS in Mattei's hands. Everything in this movie is borrowed from somewhere else! In Bruno's defense, it IS entertaining. I absolutely loved the soundtrack, which was essentially Goblin tracks lifted from a few of their scores. He lifts scenes directly from Dario Argento's Deep Red (hanging doll, the child's drawing)and Suspiria (dog attack). He also took cues from Lucio Fulci and included a lot of close-ups of the eyes, and of course some maggots. Then there's the stock footage of the owl. Yes, really. As if Mattei hadn't learned after Hell of the Living Dead at ALL! He also manages to rip off Carrie (the character herself AND the psychotic religious mother!)The one original image he DID create in TOH is the faceless girl looking through frosted glass, which was picked up much later in a variety of Asian horror movies.



I should also the mention the special effects, or lack thereof. The devil appears to be nothing more than a foam head painted black with a couple red lightbulbs in his eyes! At one point we are introduced to an infant who has psychic abilities, which is OBVIOUSLY a plastic doll. Oh ya, and there's a fake bat stuck on a wall and flapping its wings like a moth at one point too! The story itself isn't terribly original either, and is offensive and tacky in a way only Bruno Mattei could get away with. Anyone who might be allergic to pure cheese should probably stay away from this (but if you're fearless like me, it might just end up in yer Top 10!)



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UNTIL DEATH aka The Changeling 2

(Lamberto Bava, 1987)

It's a pity Lamberto is known mainly for his Demons movies, as his other horror efforts are quite entertaining and underrated. His Gialli are some of the most brutal (yet stylish), his psychological horrors effective, and his slasher movies...well, you know. Until Death, originally made for Italian TV, falls into the realm of psychological horror with a dash of the supernatural.

Linda and her abusive partner Carlo murdered Linda's husband eight years ago and have been running a bed and breakfast ever since. One stormy night, a handsome young drifter named Marco stops by and asks for a room. Linda is smitten and invites him in, to Carlo's dismay. Instead of leaving the next morning, Marco stays on and helps Linda around the house to pay his keep. Though attracted to him, Linda is also repulsed and frightened as he seems to know a lot of details about her former husband. Her son, plagued routinely by nightmares of his father's rotting corpse, also takes a liking to Marco. The question is, of course, who or what is Marco, and why does he know so much about her husband? Watch and find out!

This is one of Bava's finest films, derivative as it may be. There's decent acting, effects, soundtrack by Simon Boswell, and snazzy camerawork. The tension/ violence between Carlo and Linda, as well as the sexual tension between Linda and Marco, keep things interesting and add some dimension to what would otherwise be a standard tale of ghostly revenge. The scare scenes, though incredibly tame and relatively blood-free, are still fairly effective. It's Bava's use of lighting and music to create a dreadful atmosphere that provides the real chills, and anyone who puts him down in comparison to his father Mario might do well to see this, Macabre, and A Blade in the Dark to see how deftly Lamberto manipulates these elements.

Definitely a Must-See, even for late 80s Italian horror, and available on DVD thanks to MYA Communications. Go get it!

Buy It