Heading out to a nearby castle, a group of friends attempting to initiate a weekend full of paranormal investigation find the warnings of a psychic friend coming true as they're murdered one-by-one and must try to get away alive.
For the most part this one here was a decent if not entirely impressive early giallo. Although a great deal of this is due to the adherence to the newfound genre, the vast majority of the fun in this one comes in the celebrated Gothic stereotypes here which shows the early elements still at play. The fact that the castle setting here, typified by the elaborately-designed ornate rooms, lush columnar hallways and creepy rooms, allows for the final half hour to be filled with the typically chilling scenes where the characters go skulking around the dimly-lit hallways and corridors, doors opening and creaking off in the distance and the knowledge that there's a killer loose amongst them gives this one some nice suspense scenes, all according to the Gothic tropes enforced upon it by the story. Even their attempts to clear themselves are quite fun, as the efforts to put suspicion on all of them lets this one indulge in some fine giallo trappings as each one tries to investigate the others with the parlor room explanations and the dinner table revelations. These do a fine job of crafting the mystery of the killer's identity and motives that there's quite an enjoyable central mystery at the heart of this one and the final revelation in the attic is somewhat more lively than expected. While these here do make this one somewhat enjoyable, there's still a few problems here. One of the biggest issues here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of interesting things going on throughout the first half here as the scenes of the group going through their games inside that just aren't that exciting. The exploits of them dancing to a song that is completely out-of-sync to their gyrations and far too old-fashioned for a group this hip and chic to find appealing, a card-game that promises more sleaze than what it eventually showcases and the group basically loitering around the castle are just so dull and bland they drag the film out considerably so that the first murder doesn't occur until nearly the fifty-minute mark. Even less interesting is the fact that this holds off the horror aspects until it comes to the first murder, leaving this one also struggling to really build up the typical body-count associated with these films. Still, that isn't enough to really hold this one down too much.
Rated Unrated/PG: Violence.
For the most part this one here was a decent if not entirely impressive early giallo. Although a great deal of this is due to the adherence to the newfound genre, the vast majority of the fun in this one comes in the celebrated Gothic stereotypes here which shows the early elements still at play. The fact that the castle setting here, typified by the elaborately-designed ornate rooms, lush columnar hallways and creepy rooms, allows for the final half hour to be filled with the typically chilling scenes where the characters go skulking around the dimly-lit hallways and corridors, doors opening and creaking off in the distance and the knowledge that there's a killer loose amongst them gives this one some nice suspense scenes, all according to the Gothic tropes enforced upon it by the story. Even their attempts to clear themselves are quite fun, as the efforts to put suspicion on all of them lets this one indulge in some fine giallo trappings as each one tries to investigate the others with the parlor room explanations and the dinner table revelations. These do a fine job of crafting the mystery of the killer's identity and motives that there's quite an enjoyable central mystery at the heart of this one and the final revelation in the attic is somewhat more lively than expected. While these here do make this one somewhat enjoyable, there's still a few problems here. One of the biggest issues here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of interesting things going on throughout the first half here as the scenes of the group going through their games inside that just aren't that exciting. The exploits of them dancing to a song that is completely out-of-sync to their gyrations and far too old-fashioned for a group this hip and chic to find appealing, a card-game that promises more sleaze than what it eventually showcases and the group basically loitering around the castle are just so dull and bland they drag the film out considerably so that the first murder doesn't occur until nearly the fifty-minute mark. Even less interesting is the fact that this holds off the horror aspects until it comes to the first murder, leaving this one also struggling to really build up the typical body-count associated with these films. Still, that isn't enough to really hold this one down too much.
Rated Unrated/PG: Violence.