A stylish, atmospheric, well above average continental chiller; this still screams for an uncut, restored print that will bring out the best in the cinematography and art direction, both of which are obviously well done but not shown in their best light in the murky public domain version currently making the rounds. Motorcyclist Fred (Andrés Resino), hitchhiker Laura (Annalisa Nardi, not Ida Galli like many on here are saying), mentally unstable divorcée Elsa (Analía Gadé), perverted Mr. Porter (Franco Fantasia) and married couple The Tremont's (Eduardo Fajardo, Yelena Samarina), become stranded by a very thick fog and end up having to spend the night in a creepy mansion located right next to a graveyard. While inside, they meet strange, beautiful Martha Clinton (Ida Galli, credited as "Evelin Stewart" here), who claims that she owns the house and says her grandmother Julie was rumored to be a vampire-witch. After everyone settles into their bedrooms, bizarre things begin to happen as a hulking, undead chauffeur and a creepy old woman lurk the grounds and Elsa begins to have flashbacks to her troubled relationships with both her father (Georges Rigaud) and her husband (Alberto Dalbés).
There's an underground catacomb that extends to crypts in the graveyard, some major plot surprises (including an eleventh-hour twist that may not sit well with some viewers) and a curious absence of exploitative elements (the print I saw from Brentwood Entertainment was obviously culled from a censored version and some jadded editing cuts hint that nudity and violence may have been trimmed). The acting, particularly the underrated Galli, is very good, and the score from Marcello Giombini, photography from Guglielmo Mancori, special effects from Pablo Pérez and some great production design and sets, all contribute to making this a welcome creepy old-dark-house diversion. I actually preferred this to many of the more popular gialli I have seen.
There's an underground catacomb that extends to crypts in the graveyard, some major plot surprises (including an eleventh-hour twist that may not sit well with some viewers) and a curious absence of exploitative elements (the print I saw from Brentwood Entertainment was obviously culled from a censored version and some jadded editing cuts hint that nudity and violence may have been trimmed). The acting, particularly the underrated Galli, is very good, and the score from Marcello Giombini, photography from Guglielmo Mancori, special effects from Pablo Pérez and some great production design and sets, all contribute to making this a welcome creepy old-dark-house diversion. I actually preferred this to many of the more popular gialli I have seen.