I don't suppose I need to tell you this has absolutely nothing to do with any writing, real or implied, by the Gentleman of Providence do I? And if I do, you've probably been neglecting your homework when it comes to the cinematic Lovecraft. I don't blame you really, most of the stuff they bastardize his name on isn't worth watching anyway, least not if you have something better to watch.

Anyway, it may not be Lovecraft, but it is a gory, low-budget mess of a haunted house movie with the promise of naked women (not pleasant, take my word on it) and evil spirits from some other dimension. I suppose that's two things it's lied about so far. What it actually is, is the history of a boarding house that may or may not be haunted, and the generally unstable people that have lived there over the course of (I'm guessing) about two hundred years. That on its own wouldn't be too bad, but the whole thing is confusing and annoying as hell. None of the stories are really connected by anything other than location, nothing is ever explained, and people do some of the stupidest things for no reason at all just to further what is supposed to be scary.

Scary? Not at all. The only truly effective thing in this confusing mess is the few shining moments of gore that stand out amongst the drab goings on better than they really should. Most notable is a woman trying to play violin on her chewed out wrist tendons to keep some sinister force from crashing through a window. To be honest, that's about as good as it gets.

From what I'm told, most of the films from this Brain Damage (suitable in hindsight) Films fall into this same rut of confusing gore scenes loosely connected by an over-long and boring story. We'll see as I still have two others to sit through.

Joy abounds... (Red, 12/13/04)

Directed By: Ivan Zuccon.
Written By: Enrico Saletti, Ivan Zuccon.

Starring: Giuseppe Lorusso, Federica Quaglieri, Emanuele Cerman, Silvia Ferreri.