The Whip And The Body (1963) aka La Frusta E Il Corpo

3.5 / 5 Mar '11
Tagline: The most deliriously romantic horror picture ever made!
Directed by: Mario Bava
Written by: Ernesto Gastaldi, Ugo Guerra
Actors include: Christopher Lee, Daliah Lavi, Tony Kendall
Genre: Horror, Drama, Romance
Length: 85 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well it is at least lovingly filmed and very elegant in nature. It's a shame the version I saw was dubbed (why couldn't Christopher Lee dub his own voice I wonder) as it was a little distracting. Lee plays sadist Kurt Menleiff who loves torturing and whipping and sexing. Kurt has come home after being away for a while to find his Father is less than happy to see him and his little brother Christian is married to Nevenka (his former lover and cousin). Christian just happens to be in love with another and Kurt still wants Nevenka. When Kurt turns up dead from being stabbed in the throat things get more interesting as fingers get pointed and Nevenka starts seeing the ghost of Kurt. His muddy footprints adorn her floor and he reaches out and scares her regularly but nobody believes her it seems. It's a rather interesting film as parts were cut out from nearly every release but finally it's been put together again for an uncut Euro version (which luckily is the version I saw). It's rather slow moving but it does become rather interesting as the plot thickens and the characters are rather memorable and the S&M is unusual too.

Availability:  On DVD

Return of the Evil Dead (1973) aka El ataque de los muertos sin ojos aka Attack of the Blind Dead aka Mark of the Devil Part V: Night of the Blind Terror aka Return of the Blind Dead

3 / 5 Nov '09
Tagline: Have they heard your heart beating?
Directed by: Amando de Ossorio
Written by: Amando de Ossorio
Actors include: Tony Kendall, Fernando Sancho, Esperanza Roy
Genre: Horror
Length: 91 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:

Although decently filmed, and some shots of the Blinded Knights are quite cool (usually the stationary shots) this didn't have the finesse of La Noche del Terror Ciego [Tombs of the Blind Dead]. It gives us a recap as to why the Blind Dead are blind (they were torched and blinded for committing human sacrifices) in case you didn't see the first movie you could start here. The legend is that as the town is celebrating the anniversary of terminating the Knights, of course they come back for revenge! It's got a few decent killings, a few eerie scenes (usually involving a little girl who's parents were killed) but for the most part it lacks momentum and surprise. It's kinda hard to explain why the first one was so much better, but this is at least still viewable at least! It's just very dark, very predictable and contains some recycled footage from the first one. If you want to go through the series then yes, you need to see this but it looks to me like seeing the first one would have been good enough (too bad there are still several more sequels to get through for me).

Availability:  On DVD