I love eccentric Italian horror. Not much thought to restraint or good taste, or even simple logic, just go-for-the -jugular, style over substance that after countless years of bland Western movies is very endearing. The maestros of these forgotten pics (the talented or really ballsy ones anyway) offered visionary set pieces that really stood out from the original mainstream flicks they imitated. The first Italian director I discovered was Lucio Fulci, stumbling on a fuzzy, out-of-print videotape of GATES OF HELL which I took away to digest (in the children's ward of my local hospital no less...).
Having read of the insane moments of the director's oeuvre, I eagerly anticipated the grisly highlights (and for anyone whose seen it, they'll have no doubt I wasn't disappointed by the vomitorium on display).I will always treasure Lucio's Gothic cheese operas as the crimson cream of this crop, but that doesn't rule out the other directors who tried their hand concocting bizarre, gaudy delights. I mean, where else can you find such a cavalier attitude towards the wholesome subjects of multiple child murder, necrophilia and cannibalism?
Lamberto Bava, Son of Mario, helms this quirky descent into madness, and it works nicely if somewhat restrained in the excess department. Perhaps that makes it ideal for beginners not wishing to jettison their stomachs over something stronger like GATES and it's brethren. After the double tragedy of the year previous, Jane, divorced mother of now one rents a room in decaying manor owned by a blind handyman. However, all is not as it seems (when is it ever) and before he knows it, the hapless young man is pulled into a perverse family melodrama.
The pace of MACABRE is slow and the plot lacks thrust, but as a more free-flowing attempt at establishing a certain mood instead of a tightly plotted cliff hanger, it mostly works. The lack of goings-on makes it that much more impactive when something nasty does rear its ugly head. In fact, its pretty easy to see how this could've started out as an elaborate sick joke.The opening 10 minutes have an eerie mundane-ness like the calm before a storm. It's somewhat overlong at an hour an a half and some tighter editing could have reduced the padding. There seems to be an awful lot of the characters simply plodding along with their daily routines. Plus the dubbing is eye-gougingly irritating, sadly par for course for a lot of these foreign efforts. Noticeable as well is the setting of New Orleans, which American or not, still feels like Italian soil. Not quite a bad thing, it's interesting to see how a director interprets an alien land. The movie relies too heavily on its surprise ending and I could see that definitely diminishing the enjoyment upon repeat viewings, but overall Bava's debut is a respectable, little grand-guignol flick in the tradition of his legendary daddy, barring the out-of-left-field shock ending which, in light of the very worldly conflict of the preceding 90 minutes, lacks any real bite.