AMITYVILLE 3-D (1983)

 

(a.k.a. AMITYVILLE III: THE DEMON. Director: Richard Fleischer. Screenwriter: David Ambrose, billed as William Wales.)

Storyline

An investigative magazine reporter going through a divorce moves into the DeFeo murder house with his teenage daughter. Of course, paranormal stuff and deaths follow.

Review

AMITYVILLE 3-D, like THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979) and AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982), is only marginally connected to its namesake flicks. There’s no mention of the Lutzes (a legal stipulation, per a Lutz-instigated lawsuit) or the fictional Monticellis (of AMITYVILLE II), who were cinematic stand-ins for the real-life DeFeos. In AMITYVILLE 3-D, the events of the second film are said to have happened to the DeFeos.

AMITYVILLE 3-D begins with an investigative magazine reporter, John Baxter (Tony Roberts) and his photographer, Melanie (Candy Clark, CAT’S EYE, 1985) busting psychic frauds, Harold and Emma Caswell, who hold seances in the notorious spook house. Helping John and Melanie in their sting operation is Elliot West (Robert Joy, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, 2006), a scientist and paranormal debunker.

John─divorcing his wife, Nancy (Tess Harper) and sharing custody of their adolescent daughter, Susan (Lori Laughlin, THE NEW KIDS, 1985)─is looking for a new place to live. A real estate agent offers John the Amityville house for a low price. John moves in.

Familiar AMITYVILLE things happen: flies constantly buzz around, inside and outside the house; the camera’s Demon POV, less zip-around-the-house than the it was in the first two films, watches people from within the house; new light fuses constantly pop and burn out; water faucets turn on, with nobody around and won’t turn off; then there’s the unsettling, boarded-over well in the basement . .

AMITYVILLE 3-D adds a scientific angle with its investigative characters (e.g., Melanie seeing the demon’s face hidden in a photo)─it’s moderately interesting for a few moments, but it’s mostly for naught: Orion Pictures, which put out AMITYVILLE II, got a lot of viewer complaints about how “tasteless” the dark, disturbing second entry was. The production company overcorrected and made its follow-up almost squeaky clean, aside from a few sly sex jokes made by Lisa (Meg Ryan), Susan’s classmate and best friend, who provides exposition about the house’s troubled history (Indian burial ground, spooky basement well, murders, etc.).

AMITYVILLE 3-D is also by-the-numbers in its execution. Even Howard Blake’s not-quite-histrionic soundtrack─less alarming than Lalo Schifrin’s first-film compositions and more emotionally heightened than Schifrin’s second-film compositions─can’t make the mostly ho-hum proceedings worthwhile. It does not help that some of the film’s scenes, shot for 3-D, are blurry even with the appropriate glasses. The 3-D effects are cheesy, better than the demonic FX Reveal at film’s end that, like AMITYVILLE II’s, are more suitable for an ALIEN (1979) flick.

The film briefly takes on an emotional, viewer-immersive edge when one of its key characters is killed, galvanizing John and others into action against the house. However, that viewer engagement─rendered potent by Tess Harper and Tony Roberts’s performances─ends quickly. 

As with the first two films, AMITYVILLE 3-D is populated by a standout cast and crew despite its studio-mandated, bleached-out tone. Director Richard Fleischer (SOYLENT GREEN, 1973) and screenwriter David Ambrose (THE SURVIVOR, 1981) keep AMITYVILLE 3-D moving along at a steady pace, the actors’ performances range from great to solid (e.g., veteran actors John Beal, DARK SHADOWS, 1970-1, as Harold Caswell, and Leora Dana, SOME CAME RUNNING, 1958, as Emma Caswell, are fun).

Not the worst AMITYVILLE flick, this is one you can skip unless you’re looking for a few instances of Eighties-cheesy FX and a mostly dull flick you can fall asleep to.

While AMITYVILLE 3-D did not bomb, it was not the money-maker Orion Pictures hoped for. Because of that, this was the last theatrically released AMITYVILLE entry until the 2005 remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, which has not resulted in any further theatrical sequels. (Six direct-to-DVD sequels followed AMITYVILLE 3-D between 1989 and 2017.)

AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION (1982)

 

(Director: Damiano Damiani. Screenplay by Tommy Lee Wallace and an uncredited Dardano Sacchetti, loosely based on Hans Holzer’s 1979 book, Murder in Amityville, re-released as Amityville: Fact or Fiction?)

Storyline

Before the storied Lutzes moved into 112 Ocean Avenue, the Montellis [cinematic stand-ins for the DeFeo family] did, with even more horrific results.

 

Review

AMITYVILLE II, released three years after THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979), is noticeably different than its source film.

AMITYVILLE II, a prequel, opens with an across-the-yard shot of the supposed devil abode. The Montellis─Anthony and Delores, with their four kids, various ages─arrive in three cars. Everything is idyllic until Sonny, the oldest, teenage son, is bullied by Anthony (Burt Young, THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS, 2018) for arriving five minutes after the rest of the family. Not long after that, Sonny sees something in the house’s iconic “evil eye” windows─something viewers are not shown.

Delores, Catholic mother, discovers the first-floor windows are nailed shut. A mover accidentally discovers a crawlspace-room in the cellar─an unlit, hidden room full of flies, stinking muck, and leaking water from the floor above. It’s not long before the camera POV switches to a fast-moving Demon POV (reminiscent of Sam Raimi’s THE EVIL DEAD, 1981). This Demon POV is often utilized to good effect throughout AMITYVILLE II.

In swift succession, more supranatural, how-do-you-explain-that stuff happens. Demon POV tracks an initially oblivious Sonny while he walks through house. A distorted, male voice speaks to him through his Sony Walkman headphones, uttering comforting lines like “Why didn’t you kill the pig?” (referring to Anthony). Soon after that, Sonny, sickly looking and creepy, seduces his slightly younger sister, Patricia (Diane Franklin, THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS, 2018).

The consensual incest between Sonny (Jack Magner, FIRESTARTER, 1984) and Patricia occurs off-camera. In the original cut, there was R-rated on-camera carnality, but test audiences complained mightily about it, so it was trimmed. Director Damiani wanted to push horrific boundaries with the film, especially this scene. Also trimmed, again because of test audience reactions, was a non-explicit anal rape scene involving Anthony and Delores.

While much of this violent, morally icky stuff happens (or doesn’t happen), Father Adamsky (James Olson, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, 1971) is in contact with the Montellis, trying to bless (then cleanse) the house, and later, trying to exorcise Sonny.

In its last half hour, AMITYVILLE II becomes a different kind of hybrid than its source film. It switches from its haunted house/possession storyline to a legal drama with tacked-on, blatantly thieved elements from THE EXORCIST (1973) and EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (1977).

It’s a jarring shift, an unnecessary and overlong follow-through to the happenings of the previous hour-and-fifteen minutes. AMITYVILLE II, excellent as a nasty grindhouse flick up to that point, could have been wrapped up with a shot or two showing what happened to Sonny, or─given where the demon ends up─could have easily placed one of AMITYVILLE’s key characters at the house during the killing scenes. Also, there are a few instances where the creature/possession FX feel too over-the-top for the movie; most of it works, but when it doesn’t, it feels like more like a knock-off of ALIEN (1979) than an AMITYVILLE sequel.

That said, the last half hour of the film does not entirely ruin it. There is so much to appreciate in this underrated movie, e.g. its simple bookend final shot, which recycles its opening shot. It’s simple and effective.

The talent behind and in front of the camera is, as with the first film, worth noting. The overall look and tone of AMITYVILLE II is mood-effective, even when holy frak stuff happens, and Lalo Schifrin, composer from AMITYVILLE, takes a different approach in AMITYVILLE II─his score work is composed of quieter, sadder compositions, with occasional heightened PSYCHO-esque-alarm moments (whereas in the first flick the score was constantly loud, sharp, and nerve-jangling).

The cast furthers the excellence of AMITYVILLE II’s better parts. Burt Young gives a layered, wow-worthy performance as a tetchy, insecure, and scared guy who honestly seems to love his family, despite his vicious, lash-out temperament (e.g., when he hugs Sonny at a birthday party─there’s sad, palpable tenderness between them despite their violence and tension). Rutanya Alda (CHRISTMAS EVIL, 1980) also stands out as the wife and mother who’s trying to keep her oldest son and husband from killing each other, while living in a satanic, tantrum-throwing house. Jack Magner’s Sonny is a nuanced character as well, an angry, sweet-hearted young man who’s struggling to maintain his temper and sense of familial propriety while fending off an insidious invader. Diane Franklin imbues Patricia with a balance of innocence and desire in the lead-up to her family’s murders─this balance makes Father Adamsky’s post-slaughter focus on her slightly less pervy (even if the house hellspawn is preying on his guilt).

Other noteworthy actors try to transcend their characters, thinly sketched and genre-typical on the page. They don’t always succeed, but it’s good to see these players anyway: James Olson as Father Adamsky; Andrew Prine (THE LORDS OF SALEM, 2012) as Father Tom, Adamsky’s co-worker and fishing buddy; Leonardo Cimino (THE MONSTER SQUAD, 1987) as their Chancellor, who refuses to allow Adamsky to perform an exorcism on Sonny; Moses Gunn (FIRESTARTER, 1984) as Turner, a homicide detective whose later actions are plot-convenient unlikely; Allan Dellay (BLOODSUCKING FREAKS, 1976) as the “Judge” whose reaction to Sonny’s not guilty plea is fun.

Ultimately, AMITYVILLE II is worth watching, if you can pretend its last half hour, aside from Father Adamsky’s last scene and its bookend final shot, didn’t happen. With this film, Damiani and his cast and crew made a film that is, in many ways, a more viewer-resonant work by embracing the gritty, nasty, and sometimes tender dynamics of its events and characters in its first, taut hour and fifteen minutes─in this way, it maintains a more serious tonal balance that eschews the feel of the first film. Yeah, AMITYVILLE II’s last half hour flies off the rails, but prior to that this flawed but gripping flick has a grounded (if more squicky) quality that its source work lacked.

COUNTESS DRACULA (1971)

 

(Director: Peter Sasdy. Screenwriter: Jeremy Paul, his screenplay based on Valentine Penrose's uncredited book.)

 

Storyline

Seventeenth-century Hungrarian widow Elisabeth Nádasdy [based on the real-life Countess Erzsebet, 1560-1614] maintains her misleading youthful appearance by bathing in the blood of virgins regularly supplied to her by faithful servant Captain Dobi.”

Review

COUNTESS, a Hammer Film Productions Ltd. flick, is a drama with occasional displays of blood, desperation, and abuse of wealth and power. It also features several scenes of female nudity, not extensive but more than flashes, a reminder that nudity used to be allowed in PG-rated films, up until the early 1980s (e.g., CLASH OF THE TITANS and DRAGONSLAYER, 1981).

The always-excellent Ingrid Pitt (THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, 1970), who took a role refused by Diana Rigg, played the titular character, Elisabeth Bathory. Bathory is an old wealthy woman desperate and powerful enough to bathe in young virgins’ blood to maintain her youthful attractiveness. Thing is, Elisabeth’s therapeutic results are short-lived, and every time she becomes old again, she looks more aged than she did before. Craven behavior on her part follows, and bewilderment and disapproval of those close to her increases.

To explain her sudden youthful appearance, Elisabeth pretends to be her recently returned daughter, Ilona, who has been abroad since her childhood. The real Ilona, played with innocent bewilderment by Lesley-Anne Down (FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, 1974), has been kidnapped and imprisoned in a country cottage at the behest of her mother. Elisabeth’s orders are carried out by Captain Dobi (Nigel Green), her longtime advisor who longs to become the recent widow’s lover. Unfortunately for Dobi, the young and handsome Lieutenant Imre Toth (Sandor Elès) has recently arrived at the castle, a beacon of desire for Elisabeth.

According to IMDb, Elton John made a cameo appearance in COUNTESS, around its 45:14 mark. His character is “wearing white shirt and headgear, seated with three others at a tavern.”

All the actors in COUNTESS are quality performers, even if the screenplay fizzles out long before the film ends. Visually, it’s up to Hammer’s usual standards, with sets, backdrops and exterior shots that stand out. The ending, once it finally arrives, is effective in its cut-to-it title shot.

COUNTESS, if you’re a die-hard fan of any of the actors, especially Pitt, is worth seeing once. Don’t expect to hear her voice, though: Sasdy had Pitt’s voice dubbed by someone else, without telling her─this led to her refusing to work with Sasdy again. Otherwise, this is a meh, padded flick with a worthwhile cast, not one of Hammer’s better advertised-as-horror films.

THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979)

 

(Director: Stuart Rosenberg. Screenwriter: Sandor Stern, screenplay based on Jay Anson’s book of the same name.)

Storyline

A dysfunctional, cash-strapped family move into what they believe is a demon-possessed house.

 

Review

1975. A year after the gruesome murder of the DeFeo family, the Lutzes─in emotional and financial distress─move into the cursed murder house, later revealed to be built on a Native American burial ground.

From the get-go, the briefly shown, melodramatic DeFeo murders set the tone for this atmospheric, blood-in-your-popcorn demonic house-possession flick. If you’re a viewer like me, you might laugh a lot, occasionally jump during the barrage-rush of AMITYVILLE’s miasmic mood and obvious-horror-trope terror scenes, which really put the unreliable in unreliable narrator, supposed occurrences that, if they happened, have easily spotted, non-supernatural explanations.

Some of these tropes include: flies swarming inside the house and on windows; demon-stalked Catholic priests and a nun, made sick by an unseen force; extreme, in-a-second temperature changes within the house and doors that slam by themselves, without warning; George Lutz (James Brolin, THE CAR, 1977) has trouble sleeping and routinely wakes up at 3:15 a.m., the exact time Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his family (in real life he claimed he “heard voices”); the hidden, bizarre “red room” behind a basement wall; animalistic, glowing eyes appearing in windows; and so much more!

What makes this potboiler devil-haunted abode flick work is the talent involved in its making. Camera shots are seen in extreme closeups or from a distance, as if characters are being watched by an unseen someone or something. Lalo Schifrin’s constant-state-of-alarm score maintains the film’s pulse-racing tempo (whether those emotions are laughter or terror), Robert Brown’s editing further enhances Sandor Stern’s brisk, constant-jolts screenplay while Stuart Rosenberg’s direction matches its mood and pacing.

The cast, who often scream and yell at top volume at the drop of a penny, is great.

James Brolin’s George Lutz is a man under visible strain, pale and creepy as he stalks around the yard and house with a constantly sharpened axe. Margot Kidder (BLACK CHRISTMAS, 1974) is excellent as Kathy Lutz, an argumentative, passionate Catholic who hums the love theme to SUPERMAN, 1978, while washing dishes. Their name-changed kids, Greg (K.C. Martel, THE MUNSTERS’ REVENGE, 1981), Matt (Meeno Peluce, Dio’s  "THE LAST IN LINE" video, 1984, directed by Don Coscarelli) and Amy (Natasha Ryan, THE ENTITY, 1982) are appropriately reactive, especially Amy who’s enthralled by her imaginary, satanic-porcine friend, Jodie.

Rod Steiger (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, 1967) is volatile and loud as Father Delaney, who’s repeatedly attacked by the long-range demon. Don Stroud (SWEET SIXTEEN, 1983), as Father Bolen, imbues his secular psychiatrist-priest with quiet, urgent humanity. Murray Hamilton (JAWS, 1975) once again plays a bureaucrat (this time as Father Ryan, a church administrator) who puts maintaining the status quo above obvious human safety.

Other notable players include Helen Shaver (THE CRAFT, 1996) as Carolyn, the Lutzes’ psychically sensitive, basement-exploring acquaintance. Val Avery (FRIDAY THE 13^th:THE SERIES, 1988 episode) is his usual solid and understated self as Sgt. Gionfriddo, who’s called to 112 Ocean Avenue, after George reports a break-in, which appears to be a breakout.

AMITYVILLE’s climax is wow-cataclysmic, with an abrupt and crazy-shots finish. Based on Jay Anson’s supposedly nonfiction 1977 book, this is a risible, fun, and iconic late-Seventies flick.

Suggestion: if you buy it, try to purchase it used. Wouldn't want the con artists who perpetuated this hoax (George and Cathy Lutz, Ed and Lorraine Warren and their estates) to further profit from it.

BODY COUNT (1986)

 

(a.k.a. BODYCOUNT; director: Ruggero Deodato. Screenwriters: Alessandro Capone [billed as Alex Capone], Luca D’Alisera, Sheila Goldberg, an uncredited Tommaso Mottola, and Dardano Sacchetti [billed as David Parker, Jr.].)

Storyline

Fifteen years after murders where a campground killer was never caught, a campsite becomes the location for a new spate of murders.

 

Review

An eight-year-old boy (Ben Ritchie) sees a couple murdered on the campgrounds owned by his parents (Robert and Julia Ritchie)─the murderer is not caught. Fifteen years pass, and Ben (Nicola Farron) still lives there. When a group of fun-loving young people come up to party and hike, a fresh round of killing begins.

Set in Chicago but filmed in Italy, BODY COUNT is an intermittently entertaining and oddball film. It mixes the ribald humor of PORKY’S (1981), the stalk-and-slay focus of FRIDAY THE 13^th (1980), marital drama, and the dreamlike intensity of a giallo. As a slasher work, it’s solid in parts, intertwined with scenes where the campers run around the campsite enjoying nature, in and out of their clothes. Their oblivious-to-danger behavior drives Robert Ritchie (played with loopy relish by David Hess) closer to a violent breakdown─Robert is haunted by the escaped murderer fifteen years prior. He lays traps in the woods and walks around with a gun, ready to shoot the killer should he show himself again.

Robert is not the only one affected by the murders. His wife, Julia (Mimsy Farmer, THE BLACK CAT, 1981), tired of dealing with Robert’s moodiness, is having an affair with Charlie, a quirky, bad-ass deputy (played by Charles Napier, BODY BAGS, 1993). Of course, Ben, who witnessed the murders, is strange─he is a nerd with rage issues, made worse by his parents’ problems.

Following the start of the new brutal murders, a few of them taking place in the campsite’s bathroom/shower house (convenient for multiple female nude scenes), the killer hides their corpses. The other characters do frivolous things.

Eventually the bodies are discovered. Robert and Julia’s marriage comes to a death-struggle end. Charlie the Deputy shows up for the big killing show, after running around the campground, checking out one clue or another.

BODY runs considerably longer than it needs to, with odd tonal shifts and sometimes bad editing (e.g., two characters, start to kiss in daylight─seconds later, when their lips touch, it’s nighttime). 

The characters, aside from the older adults, are disposable and unmemorable (though Nicola Farron’s Ben is unintentionally hilarious when he emotes). Much of the blame for these issues might lie in having a written-by-committee screenplay and a few instances where the film blatantly adheres to FRIDAY THE 13^th tropes: several scenes in BODY are lifted straight from FRIDAY flicks, e.g. a body thrown through a window, and some of its soundtrack sounds like a direct rip-off of Harry Manfredini’s FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 3 (1982) scoring─while these elements are effective and nerve-jangling, they also distract from what’s going on in BODY.

What BODY gets right is noteworthy, too. When Claudio Simonetti, composer extraordinaire and keyboardist for the prog-rock band Goblin, creates original music, it’s effective and often subtle. Emilio Loffredo’s cinematography, murky during daytime scenes, lends a dreamlike vibe to BODY. The neurotic older characters are straight out of a giallo, furthering the flick’s weirdness.

It helps that the older cast members are standout players. David Hess (THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, 1972), a prolific and successful musician and actor, was known for imbuing his often-raw characters with unexpected sensitivity. Ivan Rassimov (THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, 1971), a veteran player in action and gialli, has a brief role in BODY, but he makes his character, Deputy Sheriff Ted, interesting. Mimsy Farmer is palpably distressed (and later unhinged) in her portrayal of Julia. Charles Napier’s Charlie the Deputy has a good-‘ole-boy-but-heartfelt-about-Julia vibe.

Its sequel-inviting end-scenes are not shocking but appropriately offbeat.

The above elements make BODY a mostly mundane and sometimes badly edited flick with a few instances of standout acting and entertaining bits thrown into it. While I’m glad I saw it, it won’t be a film I revisit any time soon. It’s worth your time if you're really into slashers/gialli and keep your expectations low.

NIGHT OF THE LEPUS (1972)

 

(Director: William F. Claxton. Screenplay by Don Holliday and Gene Kearney, loosely based on Russell Braddon's satirical 1965 novel, The Year of the Angry Rabbit.)

Review

Storyline: A small town in the American Southwest is attacked by mutated rabbits. 

LEPUS is a silly, boring giant-monsters film. Oh, sure, for two seconds the closeup and shadow shots of the bunnies to make them seem huge are amusing, but otherwise this is a straight-faced snoozefest. Actress Janet Leigh (PSYCHO, 1960) who took the role of Gerry Bennett, said she was in the film because it was close to her house, enabling her to spend more time with her family. She also, post-film release, said it’s a film she tries to forget. Probably a good thing she did not allow her daughters, Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis (HALLOWEEN, 1978), to act in it because she did not want her daughters to see and act in horror films.

Stuart Whitman (EATEN ALIVE, 1976), Rory Calhoun (MOTEL HELL, 1980), DeForest Kelley (in his final non-STAR TREK role) and Paul Fix (the first, unaired episode of STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES, 1966) also have big roles in LEPUS. Like Leigh, they do the best they can with their thankless roles. Worth watching if you're willing to fast-forward through the film, inebriated, high and/or in a silly mood.

Deep(er) filmic dive

According to IMDb, LEPUS was originally titled NIGHT OF THE LEPERS, a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) rip-off, but after a MGM executive spilled wine on its script, causing him to mistake LEPERS for LEPUS, he made a joke about a murderous rabbit flick to his daughter. She was greatly amused by the notion, and the script was radically reworked, resulting in LEPUS.

#

From Michael Gingold’s article “That Time Jamie Lee Curtis Could Have Faced Killer Bunnies” (Fangoria magazine, Vol. 2 #20, July 2023, p. 87):

 

“The credited source material is The Year of the Angry Rabbit. . . published in 1965. When [20^th Century Fox] studio head Richard D. Zanuck lost his job, the project went with him, and was ultimately sold to MGM. The location was changed from Australia to America, among many other altercations: as [film director Michael] Ritchie told Michael Walsh in Vancouver’s The Province: ‘All the politics, all the satire, all the humor was taken out, all the characters changed and what was left was the worst movie ever made.’” . . .

 

“One of the [screen]writers was Gene R. Kearny, who scripted Curtis Harrington’s 1967 psycho-sexual thriller Games; the other is billed as Don Holliday, who appears to have no other screenwriting credits, though that pseudonym was used by several authors on sexy paperbacks throughout the 1960s, including the The Man from C.A.M.P. gay spy-adventure series.” . . .

 

“The LEPUS ensemble also included 350 rabbits playing both the normal rabbits and the enlarged mutations, rampaging through miniature sets (on which food pellets were used to get them to literally chew the scenery). Production had to be halted when ‘Mildred,’ one of the star bunnies became pregnant, and the genders were separated to prevent any further unwanted multiplying.” . . .

 

“[Janet] Leigh also revealed to journalist Sue Rhodes ([Rory] Calhoun’s wife) in the Australian Women’s Weekly that an animal other than the film’s central threat freaked her out on set. ‘I was terrified of those bats’ seen in a laboratory scene. ‘The script called for me to pick on up. I just couldn’t do it. And then one of them got out of the cage and started flying all over the place. I thought I was going to scream.’ In the end, [Film director William F.] Claxton reassigned the bat-handling job to [Walt] Whitman.” 

MALASAÑA 32 (2020)

 

(a.k.a. 32 MALASANA STREET; director: Albert Pintó. Screenwriters: Ramón Campos, Gema R. Neira, David Orea and Salvador S. Molina.)

Storyline

A family, used to country living, moves into a big-city haunted house.

Review

Set in 1976, MALASAÑA starts off as a promising, drenched-in-dark-filtered-spookiness flick. Its building, exterior and interior, is baroque with long shadows and corners where one  expects creepy fingers to wrap around them. The acting is all-around good─their sense of desperate poverty and alienation with their surroundings is palpable.

Unfortunately, it’s only a few minutes before MALASAÑA meanders into annoying flash-cut-image moments, ineffective scenes that only pad out the film’s running time, and a few jump-cuts too many. When it becomes an EXORCIST-lite possession flick, it’s a by-the-numbers work. (I initially liked the twist involving Clara’s identity, but the film’s meandering script watered down her character, making her another bland ingredient in its soupy mess.)

MALASAÑA, a deeply flawed work, has talented people involved in it. It would have been better with a tighter script that was less choppy and capitalized on its Clara-related uniqueness (and given her character more depth and humanity). As it is, the hour-and-forty-four-minute flick feels like an empty exercise in sometimes-creepy style.

THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964)

(Director: Roger Corman. Screenwriters: Robert Towne and an uncredited Paul Mayersberg.)

Storyline

A newly married woman’s relationship with her husband is threatened by his obsession with his dead wife.

 

Review

The last of Roger Corman’s six Poe-inspired films, TOMB has a different feel than Corman’s other Poe flicks in that it was mostly shot outdoors─the other films were largely interior works. In it, the second wife of a rich man finds that her husband’s obsession with his first, dead wife is causing her to have ongoing nightmares, even as the first wife’s black cat stalks and slashes at her. Vincent Price (SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, 1970) played the husband, Verden Fell; Elizabeth Shepherd (DAMIEN: OMEN II, 1978) played The Lady Rowena Trevanian (second wife, with ginger features) and The Lady Ligeia (the first wife, with long black hair). John Westbrook (THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, 1964) played Christopher Gough.

Made from a screenplay by Robert Towne and an uncredited Paul Mayersberg, TOMB is a lesser, okay entry in Corman/Price’s Poe series. That said, this is not terrible film, given the talent behind it─it merely, compared to its predecessor flicks, recycles themes and visual elements that were more richly shown in the first five films. If you’re a fan of Corman’s Poe-cycle movies and a completist, it might be worth seeing once, but don’t expect too much from it.