Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

While this film has it's moments, and probably should be viewed by all Bava enthusiasts, I wouldn't recommend this as your Bava intro if you're a newcomer. It's got alot of the Bava trademarks and such, but most reviewers are correct when they say this is one of Bava's lesser films. Of course a lesser Bava film is infinitely better than a "good" Michael bay film anyday. This movie plays out like Bava's version of Clue. It's a bunch of folks holed up in a snazzy house on an island. One of these guests has developed a very important formula for industrial purposes(it's never clearly explained just what it is). A trio of high falootin rich guys are persistent in trying to get the inventor to sell it to them. He don't wanna sell! He wants to do it for the benefit of humanity and not personal profit. How noble. Soon, the guests start dropping off like flies and the question is, who's doing it? Is it because of this formula? Marital infidelity? Detroit? Is the professor as noble as he seems? Ya know, honestly you really don't care all that much. While the movie's never exactly boring, it's never that interesting either. Only a handful of characters stand out, and unless you've seen it many times, alot of the female characters seem interchangeable, and it's sometimes difficult to determine who was who and what their part in the whole thing was. On the positive side, it's got some groovy music, some succulent women and of course, those Bava visuals. Hardcore bava fans-see it for sure, everyone else-optional.

This early giallo from Italian master Mario Bava concerns a party of rich sophisticates who are gathered on holiday at a luxury island home. One of them is a scientist who has invented some highly useful scientific thing that could earn him a fortune. It turns out that the other men in the group want to offer this character large sums of money to cut them in on the discovery, but the scientist refuses, and soon afterwards the guests start turning up as corpses. With large money sums at stake and nobody trusting anyone, the holiday becomes a cat and mouse game as all the guests try and stay one step ahead of the murderer among them.

What we have here is really quite a mundane thriller in which we watch 8 or so unlikeable people argue and fight with each other, while trying to avoid becoming the next corpse, in the style of the old "Ten Little Indians" chestnut. As is the norm for an Italian thriller from this era (1970), the women are all impossibly gorgeous and the men are all kind of ugly and brutish, plus there's also a lot of great 1970's detail (I loved the revolving bed which really enlivened a couple of scenes!). Much screen time is allotted to filming the female cast members in various glamorous outfits and locations, and it has to be said that this pays off with some very lovely women filling the screen, including cult favourite Edwige Fenech. However, apart from the beautiful actresses and a certain amount of expectation youi may have for finding out who the killer is, there isn't really a lot else worth watching this for. The pace of the film seems devoid of any tension or excitment. The plot twists are more confusing than entertaining (you'll know what I mean when you reach the part where all the cast pass out on the sofa, then disappear, and then reappear again!), and you won't find any of the characters likeable or interesting enough to care whether they make it to the end alive or dead.

As a giallo or thriller, the film fails to engage. The murders are all off screen and only a freezer full of corpses provides any sense of chills. As a Bava film, it has to be considered a poor effort, but due to his considerable talents, this still means it's a better film than a lot of others out there. Still, after my introduction to Bava was via such masterpieces as "Blood and Black Lace", "Lisa and the Devil" and "A Bay of Blood", I was expecting something a bit more interesting than this. I would only recommend this if you have to see everything that this director has produced. Otherwise, stick with his other, more successful releases