Bezenby At a very plush mental hospital in Italy, a masked intruder is stalking the halls at night. Various Euro-beauties sleep off their various mental illnesses while others strike up 'relationships' with the staff. Sounds like the makings of a giallo to me...Asylum Erotica, as this film was embarrassingly titled when I bought it, hasn't really got much of a plot, but it's a fairly interesting giallo packed full of Euro-Babes and atmosphere, and daftness. There's very little by way mystery or investigation when it comes to the murders, rather is pans out like a three act play. In the first part, we're introduced to our various mental patients, all of which are stunning (including Rosalba Neri! Lady Frankenstien herself!), and the staff, and therefore we get to know the victims and our suspects. In the second part of the movie, we get a very long stalk and slash sequence where the killer carves his way through some of the cast, and the last part of the film there's the police intervention and resultant catching of the killer. Very simply played out, but not without it's entertaining quirks.Rosalba Neri (Lady Frankenstien! Worth saying twice!) is a nympho with an unhealthy fixation on her brother, who has sensibly put her in the asylum out of harms way. She does however still peel her clothes of and go out on the prowl for men. Then there's Klaus Kinski in a very ill fitting suit, and his love interest. And the budding relationship between patient and nurse (another stunner), which is sadly cut short by a crossbow just before it was going to get interesting.It's not a pervy as the title suggests, just more of a mid-range giallo that keep you entertained through seventies sexual values (Rosalba Neri!), mild violence, and a pretty good, although stupid ending.Can be picked up for a quid in the UK - not sure if it was cut, but the pan and scan cropped the picture a bit.

Michael_Elliott Slaughter Hotel (1971) * 1/2 (out of 4) This Italian giallo has the reputation of being one of the sleaziest out there but more on that in a bit. The film takes place at a mental asylum for rich women. Klaus Kinski plays a doctor trying to cure some of the women but soon a man dressed in a black coak shows up and starts killing the women one by one. After hearing so much about this film over the years I must say I can't remember the last time I was more disappointed in a movie. In fact, this might be the most disappointing Euro Horror I've ever seen, which is a shame because the film features a great cast. You got the wonderful Kinski on hand but he mostly sleepwalks through the film. You've got two beauties in Margaret Lee who was in Jess Franco's The Bloody Judge among others and you've got the incredibly sexy Rosalba Neri from Lady Frankenstein. The screenplay of this film never makes any sense and the movie also features some of the worst editing I've ever witnessed. Just check out the scene towards the start of the movie when we first see the killer and he's walking up the stairs. Another problem is that the film is rather dull and downright boring. There's never any energy behind the film, which sits even worse considering the first murder takes nearly half an hour. As for the reputation of the movie being sleazy, that's really not true. There are several murders but all of them are quite tame and there's quite a bit of nudity, including Neri playing a nymph, but nothing really stands out. There's a couple hardcore masturbation scenes but again, they aren't erotic and come off very lame.

MARIO GAUCI I knew beforehand that Di Leo's sole foray into the giallo subgenre didn't have a good reputation, but I couldn't have anticipated that it would be so lame! As a matter of fact, it almost challenges Riccardo Freda's TRAGIC CEREMONY (1972) for the title of the poorest and most bewildering vintage film by a renowned Euro-Cult director I've ever watched! Despite its violent outbursts - mostly confined to the second half - typical of Di Leo (one particularly vicious episode at the very end, which leaves numerous victims, has to be seen to be believed), he shows no real feeling for - or even much interest in - this type of film! In fact, a good deal of the running time is devoted to exploitative erotic content featuring nymphomaniac Rosalba Neri and a lesbian relationship between a nurse and a black patient! With respect to technique, the editing is particularly sloppy: sometimes it seems like the editor has fallen asleep on the job, with several scenes going on for much longer than is required (beginning with the very first scene of the killer prowling the asylum grounds - though before the credits had even rolled, more than just my brain cells had suddenly snapped to attention with the appearance of a fully naked Margaret Lee {one of my favorite Euro-Cult starlets} tossing and turning in bed; regrettably, this is her only nude scene in the entire film!); occasionally, however, there are disorientating tilted shots and a series of pointless - and irritating - rapid cuts of two converging locations (for instance, the killer approaching a victim's room); besides, we get all kinds of people having flashes to earlier scenes, but the shots are so randomly chosen as to make no sense whatsoever!The score, usually a prominent feature in a giallo, occasionally delivers but it's too uneven (the killer's theme is dreadful, for instance) to really count as a success; indeed, the only worthwhile element to the whole film is the casting of three Jess Franco alumni in the lead roles: the aforementioned Lee (despite the fact that her role doesn't give her much scope) and Neri (who, at least, gets to shed her clothes quite often and takes a shower memorably), and Klaus Kinski as an enigmatic and wild-looking doctor who becomes romantically involved with Lee - even if his contribution is a listless take-the-money-and-run turn, seemingly there only to serve as a red herring! By the way, the notorious and mystifying audio glitch found on the version (horrendously dubbed in English and actually bearing the on-screen title of COLD-BLOODED BEAST) released by Media Blasters - which also plagued the copy I watched - is a real pain in the neck...

Phalanx666 I have to confess, I bought this movie only for two reasons: Rosalba Neri and Klaus Kinski. I have some kind of weird Kinski-fetish I think, I have to own every single movie Kinski starred in. Unfortunately der Klaus starred in a lot of cinematic garbage too, this is definitely one of them.According to the extra's on the DVD this movie was shot in less than two weeks and it wouldn't surprise me if the plot was written in less than two minutes. In an asylum filled with sexually frustrated women, the wet dream of any self-respecting psychiatrist, someone is killing the inmates. I hope I haven't given away too much because that's actually the complete plot. Maybe I should check the "containts spoiler" box now... There, I did it. There's the usual running around and panicking of naked women, the ridiculous setting (complete with swords, axes and other medieval weapons on the walls, just what kind of asylum are we running here?) and off course Mr. Kinski is his usually scowling self. The "surprise" ending shows just how creative one can be with a flail and a lot of half-naked women.There are a lot better giallo's around. This movie can be fun when you're drunk or when you have a hormonal problem, but mind you there's almost 90 minutes of this tedious nonsense. Unless you have to see everything Kinski starred in, leave this one alone.