Verdict
Summary
Severin’s first of four (so far) box set collections entitled Danza Macabra is a strong indication that Severin really bet on this series becoming a mainstay in their catalogue of lesser-known but fairly essential genre films. The transfers are of the best possible qualities, with hours of bonus features for each individual disc and a hard box that encases all four titles in a snug fit, this collection is an ideal place to begin for a collector of Italian horror films that might not be as “classic” as the studio films of the era. They’re every bit as fun and worth discovering, and collectors of physical media might do very well to begin here. Severin’s meticulous treatment of these films is truly a testament to preserving the fringes of genre films for generations to come.
Scream of the Demon Lover (1970) Plot:
A female biochemist takes employment with a strict scientist who lords over a haunted estate.
Review:
A blonde and beautiful biochemist named Ivanna (Erna Schurer) takes employment at a castle lorded over by a scientist baron named Janos (Carlos Quiney) who takes one look at her and agrees to hire her under the proviso that she follow his every command with no questions asked. Janos is a cruel and swarthy man, making it clear he lusts after Ivanna, who finds herself creeped out at night when she takes baths or makes ready for bed, believing that she’s being watched and molested when she passes out, and indeed she’s correct: A hideously scarred man – possibly the baron himself in a changed condition – is gassing her room and sneaking in to molest her while she’s unconscious, which begs the question: Is the baron a monster as a result of his experiments? Meanwhile, around the baron’s castle, nubile women are being found raped and murdered, and investigators are closing in one the culprit. As Ivanna finds herself wanting to explore the castle, she rankles the ire of Janos, who rages out at her and humiliates and degrades her, but still (miraculously) she develops feelings for her employer. Who – or what – is the hideous “demon” man lurking around the castle? All secrets will be revealed!
A kinky and surprisingly icky gothic horror film with lots of nudity and torture, Scream of the Demon Lover manages to crawl under the skin and feel like a weird bad dream, which is a good thing if you’re into Italian horror films. Filmmaker Jose Luis Merino keeps things sexy and nasty in equal measure, painting the film’s pallet with garish flesh tones and moldy decay. It is very much in the pulpy paperback vein, not shy to titillate or gross out its audience.
The Monster in the Opera (1964) Plot:
A theater where a dance team rehearses a performance is “haunted” by a vampire.
Review:
A beautiful woman named Giulia (Barbara Hawards) is a new hire on a dance troupe rehearsing a new opera / dance performance at an old theater that had long been shut down. The performance in question is a very sexy new agey experiment directed by the swarthy Sandro (Marco Mariani), and Giulia is supposed to be the hot new star of the show, much to the jealousy and envy of her fellow performers. Meanwhile, a cranky old caretaker who lives in the theater voices his displeasure at the performers, who carouse and carry on noisily with their rehearsals, and he warns them all that they better leave or stay quiet because there is a “monster” in the theater, and indeed there is! An ancient vampire lives in the catacombs underneath the theater, his entrance being an old painting of himself, and the vampire is Stefano (Giusseppe Addobbati) who keeps a harem of gorgeous vamps chained to his dungeon walls, but when he lays his ancient eyes on Giulia, he sees his great love from hundreds of years ago, completely reincarnated, plumb for the picking. The Monster of the Opera is ready to strike!
A meandering mishmash that blends The Phantom of the Opera with Dracula, The Monster of the Opera is notable for having boundary-pushing titillation with highly suggestive dancing, gorgeous cast members dressed in sheer, wispy outfits and underwear, and a pretty horny vampire who likes to poke his female victims with his fangs and his pitchfork! His on-screen demise made me raise my eyebrows a little bit because he basically dies of fright when surrounded by the theater trouble who threaten to burn him to death … he turns into ashes before he’s actually burned, which was just bizarre. From director Renato Polselli.
The Seventh Grave (1965) Plot:
Inheritors of an estate are stunned when they gather to read a will, but find that their relative’s grave is empty!
Review:
Katy (Stefania Nelli) is informed that a distant relative in Scotland has died, leaving her a portion of his castle estate. Traveling with others – including two brothers from America – who are set to inherit from the same relative, Katy arrives at Sir Reginald’s estate, a sprawling Scottish castle. They’re gathered by a man named Martin (Armando Guarnieri) who has summoned Reginald’s relatives for the reading of the will, but first they conduct a séance! It turns out that leprosy might’ve been the cause of Sir Reginald’s death, and when after the spooky séance freaks everybody out and concludes with the shocking death of one of the participants, police inspectors are called in to question the gathered inheritors. Is this a whodunnit? Indeed it is! One of the gathered individuals isn’t who they say they are, and when Reginald’s grave turns out to be empty, is the dead returning from the grave … or is the truth even more sinister?
A spooky mystery in the style of the Agatha Christie stories with a very slight supernatural twist, The Seventh Grave is a pretty obscure little Italian horror / thriller from one-time-only filmmaker Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo, who might’ve made a good filmmaker if he’d kept at it, but it’s tough to gauge his skills from just this one effort. The movie is engaging to a point, is swiftly paced at only 77 minutes, and leaves a tingling impression, but little else.
Lady Frankenstein (1971) Plot:
Frankenstein’s daughter takes up her father’s mantle and creates a monster … she can love!
Review:
Dr. Frankenstein (Joseph Cotton) and his assistant pay ghoulish gravediggers to unearth corpses to provide them with flesh to experiment on. Soon, they have all the parts – and a suitable brain – they require to create a monster that is brought to life using electrodes, unholy alchemy, and evil genius. The thing they create is a hideous thing, horribly scarred and with the intellect of a snail, but it is also a berzerker, raging out and killing anything it touches, including the good doctor Frankenstein himself. With the man-beast on the loose, killing as it goes, it has no direction or hope of redemption, which leaves room for Frankenstein’s daughter (Rosalba Neri, very lovely) to take on her father’s mantle and resume his experiments. She has a idea: She’ll use her father’s assistant’s brain and insert it into a handsome dimwit’s skull so that she can love both the brain and the body! But the pitchfork-wielding horde comes knocking on her door when her father’s ugly monster ends up back where it was created! Will Lady Frankenstein get the man she desires, or will her father’s sins catch up to her first?
Colorfully garish and bloody, with plenty of nudity throughout, the Italian-produced (along with Roger Corman, who came in to rescue the film with some cash when it was nearly shut down), Lady Frankenstein is every bit as fun as a Hammer-style production, but with gloopier makeup effects and much more eyebrow-raising nude scenes. In other words, it’s a fun time at the movies! It doesn’t reinvent the wheel and tells (more or less) the same old story with a little bit of a twist, and it’s got a knee-slappingly hilarious ending, so you really can’t go wrong with this one. Director Mel Welles gave audiences a winner here, and it’s the highlight of this collection from Severin films.
Severin’s first of four (so far) box set collections entitled Danza Macabra is a strong indication that Severin really bet on this series becoming a mainstay in their catalogue of lesser-known but fairly essential genre films. The transfers are of the best possible qualities, with hours of bonus features for each individual disc and a hard box that encases all four titles in a snug fit, this collection is an ideal place to begin for a collector of Italian horror films that might not be as “classic” as the studio films of the era. They’re every bit as fun and worth discovering, and collectors of physical media might do very well to begin here. Severin’s meticulous treatment of these films is truly a testament to preserving the fringes of genre films for generations to come.
THE MONSTER OF THE OPERA
- Commentary With Kat Ellinger
- Interview With Ernesto Gastaldi
- Interview With Mark Thompson-Ashworth
- Archival Audio Interview With Renato Polselli
THE SEVENTH GRAVE
- Commentary With Rachael Nisbet
- Interview With Fabio Melelli
- Video Essay By Rachel Knightley
SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER
- Commentary With Rod Barnett & Robert Monell
- Interview With Erna Schurer
- Video Essay By Stephen Thrower
LADY FRANKENSTEIN
- Commentary With Kat Ellinger & Annie Rose Malamet
- Commentary With Alan Jones & Kim Newman
- Featurette With Rosalba Neri & Fabio Melelli
- Piecing Together LADY FRANKENSTEIN
- Documentary Short On Mel Welles
- German TV Documentary
- Clothed Insert Shots
- Video Short Illustrating BBFC Censorship Cuts
- Italian Opening Credits
- Italian LADY FRANKENSTEIN Photo Novel
- And More!
Media
Bonus Materials
- Audio Commentary For THE MONSTER OF THE OPERA With Kat Ellinger, Author of Daughters Of Darkness
- Terror At The Opera – Interview With Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
- Capodimonte Gothic – Interview With Italian Film Devotee Mark Thompson-Ashworth
- Radio Polselli – Archival Audio Interview With Director Renato Polselli
- French Trailer for THE MONSTER OF THE OPERA
- Audio Commentary For THE SEVENTH GRAVE With Rachael Nisbet, Film Critic And Co-Host Of Fragments Of Fear
- Seven Graves And A Mystery – Interview With Film Historian Fabio Melelli
- English Aesthetic With Giallo Blood – Video Essay By Gothic Scholar And Author Rachel Knightley
- Audio Commentary For SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER With Rod Barnett, Film Historian And Co-Host Of NaschyCast, And Robert Monell, Writer And Editor Of I’m In A Jess Franco State Of Mind
- Scream Erna Scream! – Interview With Actress Erna Schurer
- In The Castle Of Blood – Video Essay By Stephen Thrower, Author Of Books On Jess Franco And Lucio Fulci
- SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER Trailer
- Audio Commentary For LADY FRANKENSTEIN With Kat Ellinger, Author Of Daughters Of Darkness, And Annie Rose Malamet, Film Scholar And Host Of Girls, Guts, Giallo
- Audio Commentary For LADY FRANKENSTEIN With Alan Jones, Author Of Dario Argento: The Man, The Myths & The Magic, And Kim Newman, Author Of Nightmare Movies
- Meet The Baroness – Featurette With Actress Rosalba Neri And Film Historian Fabio Melelli
- Piecing Together LADY FRANKENSTEIN
- The Lady And The Orgy – Documentary Short On Director Mel Welles
- The Truth About LADY FRANKENSTEIN (2007) – German TV Documentary
- Clothed Insert Shots
- Video Short Illustrating BBFC Censorship Cuts
- Italian Opening Credits
- Bigfilm Magazine (1971) – Italian LADY FRANKENSTEIN Photo Novel
- Extensive Image Gallery
- Home Video Gallery
- Radio Spots
- TV Spot
- Trailers for LADY FRANKENSTEIN
