Spooktober IV: Morte all'italiana

Dallamano makes another appearance with this solid horror movie that blends the psychological, ghost, and possession subgenres together to create a pretty chilling story about a wife who can’t let go of her family, so she takes possession of her daughter…. Or does she? Or has the daughter been taken by someone more nefarious?

The stunning cinematography by Delli Colli is something that stands out right away, although that shouldn't come as much of a surprise any more. The cold temp and a little glossiness together help produce this surreal quality and a great sense of foreboding. The few nightmare scenes we got were really effective for me, with one in particular involving a child racing…

Massimo Dallamano's only foray into horror is this rather subdued piece, that has rightly vanished into obscurity. I thought this was going to be an Exorcist rip off, but it is nowhere near as fun as that! The plot has something to do with a documentary filmmaker investigating Satanic paintings and an apparently possessed medallion that he gives to his daughter. The film is not as interesting as that plot description sounds - mainly because hardly anything happens for the full runtime. It has a nice aesthetic - locations are good and the soundtrack helps in this respect too; though it is essentially the same piece of music playing over and over again. Nicoletta Elmi is always memorable she does…

“Creatures with cloven feet are notoriously sexy.”

A movie for the five or so people in the world that find Richard Johnson incredibly attractive. Why this film has numerous Richard Johnson sex scenes, I have no idea, but for those of you out there that might be interested, The Night Child has got you.

AKA The Cursed Medallion (would pair well with Fulci’s Manhattan Baby), this is a very slow The Omen/The Exorcist-adjacent thriller, and I use the word thriller loosely, as there isn’t much in the way of scares or surprises here. There are two laugh-out-loud dummy falls, and some of Johnson’s foreplay conversation is pretty frightening, but otherwise this is a rare dud by director Massimo Dallamano.

Everyone’s…

The 2016 Cult Movie Challenge - Week 51 - Italian Horror week

A BBC documentary maker heads for Italy to make a film concerning the devil and, at the slightly bizarre urging of his doctor, takes his young daughter along to help her recover from the latest in what seems to have been quite a series of "nervous breakdowns" following the mysterious death of her mother. What better way to recuperate than by chasing demons around Italy, eh?

Needless to say, before long, the daughter is experiencing strange visions of medieval torture, all of which seems to be tied back to one painting that her father finds endlessly fascinating. And, before you know it, the other women in his life…