Great Film overall

An absolute waste of money

A different way of telling a story

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

After the splatter-coloured opening credits, action man John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth) introduces himself in a voice-over as a paranoiac. Seemingly trapped in a loveless marriage with a wife who will not let him go, he is haunted by psychedelic dreams of some childhood trauma that seem to be tipping him towards murder. I describe him as an 'action man' not because he commits acts of great physical prowess, but because his perfectly manicured, coiffured, extravagantly made-up appearance makes him look like a male doll. Despite the distraction of his exquisitely chiselled features, Forsyth is good in the role, and throws himself into the character's apparent lapses into violent insanity.Director Mario Bava emblazons the picture with lush, packed visuals, much use of garish colour and hallucinogenic effects and the rasping musical strains of Sante Romitelli. He even at one point has the characters watching a scene from his own 'Black Sabbath (1963). Although I feel that Bava's style is too garish and brash to generate any real sense of horror – and I realise I am in the minority with this – Harrington's continual confusion as to whether his wife is haunting him or not is well conveyed. With no real answers forthcoming, it is a genuine mystery as to what quite is going on.While the regularity with which his dead wife appears and disappears threatens to get monotonous, this remains a solid entry into the giallo genre. If you are a fan of Bava's work, there is undoubtedly much to enjoy here. As an entirely personal note, I find his style too stylised for my tastes and tends to obscure, instead of enhance, the mood.

The man who brought you such successful chillers as "5 Dolls for an August Moon" , ¨Operazione Paura¨ ,¨Black Sabbath¨ , "Six Women for the Murderer" , ¨The Evil Eye¨ goes back in this nice film that packs great cinematography , impressive spectacle and well staged killings . It begins developing an elaborate animated collage for the film opening credits , being originally created by the great Mario Bava . The flick deals with a respected fashion mogul who runs a house of style where happens several bloody murders and gruesome executions . As a bridal design shop owner called John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth) kills various young brides-to-be (Femi Benussi) in an attempt to unlock a repressed childhood trauma that's causing him to commit murder . John contracts a new fashion model , that person ultimately being Helen Wood (Dagmar Lassander) , who eventually gets a little too close for his comfort . Harrington is facing further torment in the mutually unsatisfying marriage to Mildred (Laura Betti , originally the script didn't include the role , it was only after expressed interest in working with Bava that the director re-wrote the script so that Betti could have a suitable starring) who subsequently to return to haunt him as a ghost . Meanwhile , a police inspector named Russell (Jesus Puente) investigates the strange killings , being his prime suspect Harrington . When Russel enters Carrington's home , the latter tells the screams heard are caused by the television set (the TV show that Harrington refers to in an attempt to fool Inspector is a clip from Mario Bava's own Black Sabbath (1963) - specifically the "Wurdalak" sequence featuring Boris Karloff) . Mario Bava strikes again in this mysterious and grisly picture with haunting atmosphere , colorful photography and strange musical score . Bava's great success (the first was ¨Black Sunday¨ or ¨Mask of Demon¨)is compellingly directed with startling visual content . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , chills , high body-count and glimmer color in lurid pastel with phenomenal results . Interesting screenplay filled with twists , turns and rare situations by prolific Santiago Moncada , an usual playwright . This is a classic slasher where the intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and luxurious interior and exterior . Nice as well as twisted acting by Stephen Forsyth as a psychotic killer who manages a model house . This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by the same Mario Bava with magenta shades of ochre , translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red . Filmed on location in Barcelona , Harrington's villa , Rome , Paris and studios Alfonso Balcazar . The Spanish villa that the majority of the film was shot at was formerly the touristic home of Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco .The movie well produced by Manuel Caño belongs to Italian Giallo genre , Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) along with Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨Il Vampiri¨) are the fundamental creators . In fact , both of whom collaborated deeply among them , as Bava finished two Fedra's films ¨Il Vampiri¨ and ¨Caltiki¨ . These Giallo movies are characterized by overblown use of color in shining red blood , usual zooms and utilization of images-shock . Later on , there appears Dario Argento (¨Deep red¨, ¨Suspiria¨,¨Inferno¨), another essential filmmaker of classic Latino terror films . Rating : Good, this is one more imaginative slasher pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills.

Stephen Forstyh plays John Harrington (and he looks a LOT like the French actor Alain Delon). John is a real screwball. He's married to a woman who hates him and vice-versa but she won't divorce him. Obviously he holds A LOT of hostility towards her and their marriage, as for kicks he dresses up women in wedding gowns (and, later in the film he himself wears a cute bridal outfit) and hacks them to pieces. All the while, he talks to the audience and admits that he's crazy and is having a dandy time.I am sure since this is a Mario Bava film that it's SUPPOSED to be a horror film, but I swear it felt like a comedy. This is because the dialog is so laughably bad it seemed as if they must be trying to make us laugh. Now this might not be completely the fault of the writers or Bava. Since the movie is dubbed into English, perhaps the translation is horrible because the dialog sounds so ridiculous throughout the film. Or, perhaps the movie just sucks. All I know for sure is that it sure takes him a long time to start the killings and the film had some horrible music. In fact, I think the music actually was pushing John to kill--I know it almost did that for me!! It's a shame, actually, as some of the ideas in the film (especially John's hallucinations late in the film) were quite good and this should have been a very scary and tense film.My advice is to see the film. The die-hard Mario Bava fans love everything he does, so they'll be happy. As for the rest of us, we could all use a good laugh--and this one's full of them.

Laughably bad giallo film from Mario Bava. Full of pretensions and attempts at being something more artistically memorable than it is. Insipid performances, especially from Stephen Forsyth. It's a movie that aspires to be spooky, creepy, frightening -- but all it really achieves is to be unintentionally funny. It has some nice Bava visual touches here and there, as one might expect. But these touches don't overcome a silly plot, terrible music score, and guffaw-inducing narration. Completely lacking in the suspense and psychological terror it attempts to achieve. Obviously avid fans of the director will admire this a lot more. I happen to like a good many Bava films, despite their flaws. But this sort of stuff is too cheesy for my tastes.