User Reviews

Director Fernando Di Leo is best known to us horror nuts for SLAUGHTER HOTEL (1971), a sleazy "giallo" that forgets to be thrilling or horrific and instead concentrates mainly on getting its female cast members naked during gratuitous lesbian and solo sex scenes. This one (which I saw under the title HOLIDAY MASSACRE) is his third foray into the horror/thriller genre and basically follows the same exact formula, cramming as much nudity in as possible but seemingly forgetting about everything else. Ostensibly a thriller taking its cue from Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (which influenced many Italian/Euro exploitation films from the same time), all this really is is an excuse to have lead actress Lorraine De Selle parade around nude for about 85 minutes. Naturally, if you're a Lorraine fan you'll probably enjoy this for what it is, but if you're going in expecting an actual thriller or horror film you will likely walk away pretty disappointed.

Convicted thief and murderer Joe Brezzi (Joe Dallesandro) escapes from prison, murders a man with a pitchfork, steals his car and then heads off to find 300 million lira he'd stolen and hid in a secluded vacation home right before he was arrested. Before he can get inside and get the loot (which is hidden underneath the fireplace), married couple Sergio (Gianni Macchia) and Liliana (Patrizia Behn) show up looking for a little weekend R&R. Also tagging along is Liliana's self-absorbed and bitchy younger sister Paola (Lorraine De Selle), who is secretly having an affair with Sergio. That evening there's a lengthy sex scene for the couple (and a solo effort from Ms. De Selle on the couch), as Joe patiently waits outside. The next day, Sergio goes hunting, Liliana goes into town get some groceries and Paola decides to stay behind to sunbathe (topless, of course). Joe strikes when the getting's good, knocks out Paola and starts chipping away at the fireplace with a pick axe. When Paola comes to, she's "raped" (well, it starts as a rape...) and then her sister and brother-in-law show up for more of the same.

A pretty low-budget affair, with minimal location change, minimal action and a very small cast, this one lacks suspense and tension and isn't nearly nasty or violent enough to be worth recommending. Dallesandro is the only one who manages to keep his clothes on the entire time (even during the rape scene) and basically coasts through this entire film with an annoying "angered" looking facial expression. Another constant annoyance is a huge poster of John Travolta's grinning mug hanging on a wall in the room where most of the film takes place. And despite the title there really is no "massacre" aside from a little rifle shooting at the very end.

'Vacanze per un Massacro' (Madness) won't do much to enhance Fernande Di Leo's reputation. A low-budge film, shot in 12 days, from the first frame warns an alert cinema buff that he or she is in for a disappointing 90-odd minutes. And the leading actor ex-Wahol factory sex symbol Joe D'Allesando has neither the weight nor the talent to rescue a very thin script from being bad. 'Madness' is a four-character film. The narrative stripped down to its essentials is follows an escaped sadist from prison who heads straightaway to a cottage where he's buried 800 million lira. He doesn't count on finding a man and his wife and sister-in-law there on 'vacation'. Suddenly, D'Allesandro falls into a love triangle. He forces the sister-law and sister's husband to have sex whilst the wife looks on. And then, D'Allesandro forces himself on the wife. In the end, he leaves a bloody trail of mayhem and murder as he goes off with his booty. D'Allesandro's trade mark is a wild look in his eyes. You know when the film is bad when the sister-in-law shows her bare busom and display a rich, hairy vagina. This display of nudity is a sign that the film has nothing to offer, so why not titillate the film goer by a bit of porno? In fact, the script is so meaningless the wife, husband and sister-in-law show little enthusiasm for the parts they play. Forget about this film.

Written and directed by the magnificent Fernando Di Leo, whose brilliant 'Milieu-Trilogy' ("Milano Calibro 9", "La Mala Ordina", "Il Boss") stands out as the absolute highlight in Italian crime cinema, "Vacanze Per Un Massacro" (aka. "Toy") of 1980 is a delightfully sleazy Thriller that is often unfairly referred to as a mere "Last House on the Left" rip-off. Fact is that Kidnapping and Hostage situations were themes that were immensely popular in Italian 70s and early 80s cinema (the most outstanding example being Mario Bava's masterpiece "Cani Arrabbiati" of 1974), and that, apart from sleaze, violence and a hostage situation, this film hasn't too much in common with Wes Craven's debut shocker. It is interesting to see how Italian genre/exploitation directors liked to utilize everything as widely as possible: Di Leo simply re-employs the brilliant score (by film composer Bruno Nicolai and Progressive Rock band Osanna) to his own greatest masterpiece "Milano Calibro 9".

A married couple Sergio (Gianni Macchia) and Liliana (Patrizia Behn) and the wife's nymphomaniac younger sister Paola(Lorraine De Selle), who has an affair with her sister's husband, are spending a week-end at their cottage in the mountains. As fate wants it, the violent criminal and prison-escapee Joe (Joe Dallesandro) is looking for something in exactly the same house. When Sergio has gone hunting and Liliana has gone shopping, Joe enters...

The political incorrectness of Italian Exploitation cinema - one has got to love it. A rape-victim complimenting her rapist for his skills as a 'good lover' is quite unimaginable in present-day cinema. "Vacanze Per Un Massacro" is gritty, violent and full of delightful sleaze and nudity. However, it is not as gratuitously sadistic as some other Italian hostage films, such as Aldo Lado's "L'Ultimo Treno Della Notte" ("Night Train Murders", 1975) or Ruggero Deodato's "La Casa Sperduta Nel Parco" ("House on the Edge of the Park", 1980), both of which are rightly labeled "Last House on the Left" rip-offs (as opposed to this film). The performances are pretty good. Especially Joe Dallesandro, the favorite actor of every sleazebag-director of the 70s, is very good in his role of the thug. Sexy Lorraine De Salle (who is best known for playing the lead in Umberto Lenzi's "Cannibal Ferox") is very good in the role of the seductive, manipulative bitch, and furthermore she's naked for about half of her screen-time. Gianni Macchia who plays the husband, had appeared in Di Leo's own "La Mala Ordina" ("Manhunt", 1972) before. Patrizia Behn, who plays the wife, is virtually unknown, but beautiful and delivers a good performance in her role as the film's only likable character. One hilarious aspect about "Vacanze Per Un Massacro": All the Sleaze and Violence is taking place underneath a giant portrait poster of John Travolta.

Apart from a few extras in the beginning, the film only features four characters.With the exception of the wife, all characters are dirtbags, which may lessen the ability to care for them, but enhances the wonderful grit-factor. The score is obviously great, as it is the same that was used in "Milano Calibro 9". Overall, "Vacanze Per Un Massacro" isn't as good as Di Leo's fantastic Mafia trilogy, but nonetheless highly recommendable to fans of gritty and sleazy Exploitation cinema, and my fellow Di Leo fans in particular. 7.5/10

Joe Brezy (Joe Dallesandro making his last movie in Italy) is the kind of person that'll escape prison, kill a man with a rock and stab an old man with a pitchfork before most of us have our second cup of coffee. Then, he asks an old man for everything that he knows about the cabin where Liliana (Patricia Behn), her sister Paola (Lorraine De Selle, House On the End of the Park) and her husband Sergio (Gianni Macchia) are having a very tense vacation.

The next day, when Sergio goes hunting and Liliana goes shopping, Joe makes his way inside and forces her to help him dig out the fireplace. As each person returns to the house, he makes them dig as well, as he's hid money there before he got sent to jail. Oh yeah, he also reveals that Paola and Sergio are having an affair and forces them to make sweet - well, not so sweet - love in front of her.

The captives come up with a plan to escape, but Joe ends up shooting everyone but Liliana, who he wants to take away from all this madness. Instead, she shoots him and that's our movie.

This was written by Mario Gariazzo (Play Motel, Enter the Devil, Eyes Behind the Stars) and he intended to direct it, but Fernando Di Leo - whose company Cineproduzioni Daunia 70 produced many of Gariazzo's movies - ended up making it instead. He wasn't happy with the finished movie, saying that in Roberto Curti's Italian Crime Filmography that it was a "disappointing film indeed, including my toying with Lorraine De Selle's nude scenes. It's mediocre, but not because I did wrong - I just wasn't interested in it." He added, "...you don't always have the chance to do what you want, and often you know very well you're making a bad movie, but you do it anyways."

As for the soundtrack, Luis Bacalov brought music he had already used for Caliber 9 and The Designated Victim.

For being someone not known for his acting, Dallesandro is pretty good in this. That's because he's just seducing women and being a wildman. He's used the right way and man, De Selle is the reason this all works. It's a one room meltdown, primal violence and wanton lust.

A low budget home invasion thriller from Italy, directed by Fernando di Leo on one off his off-days; apparently he hated the finished product and it's easy to see why. The low budget is telling throughout, with unrealistic action and a general lack of the crucial ingredients needed to make a good thriller. Plot-wise, it has similarities with earlier and sleazier classics like HITCH-HIKE, with the emphasis is more on the sex and nudity than the violence, although it has its moments. Joe Dallesandro gives an indifferent performance as the antihero and feels limited at times. I watched the censored American version, shorn of some fifteen minutes by all accounts.