To begin with, I do not consider myself a fan of Italian sexploitationer Brass; however, having enjoyed a couple of his atypical earlier work – the Spaghetti Western YANKEE (1966) and the pop-art giallo DEADLY SWEET (1967) – I expected more of the same to be of comparable quality (for the record, I have three others still to check out from this vintage). Anyway, I was deeply disappointed by the film under review – especially after reading it was deemed surreal (in retrospect, it is much closer to the style of fellow Italian Federico Fellini or Alejandro Jodorowsky, whose brand of weird I particularly deplore, rather than that of my all-time favorite Luis Bunuel). Well, bizarre (and virtually plot less) it certainly is but, as to engaging, quite the opposite – making for an annoying and downright repellent experience! Just about its sole saving grace, in fact, is the hauntingly beautiful presence of leading lady Tina Aumont: she, a bolting bride, and popular Italian comic Gigi Proietti are the 'heroes' who go from one wild encounter to another – notably an orgy, a cannibal family and a city under siege (from what I can recall, since the film has already started to fade from my memory, within the space of just one week!); an inspired self-referential moment even has the central couple literally running into Jean-Louis Trintignant, protagonist of DEADLY SWEET!
Review of The Howl
