In the Folds of the Flesh

This is one strange movie - it combines Nazi elements, a police procedural, a giallo, a psychological examining of identity and even comes close to a Last House on the Left vibe.

Severin released this film several years ago, but it's sadly out of print. It's certainly one of the oddest entries in the genre and one you should track down. I've only barely touched on the many twists and turns of the plot because I believe that you should enjoy them for yourself.

'In The Folds of the Flesh' is Spanish/Italian Giallo flick from 1970 that is completely outrageous and over the top with its rather convoluted storyline, non-stop plot twists and cool psychedelic visuals that will keep you entertained and confused throughout its quick paced runtime. The movie is a bizarre experience that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's a rather fascinating oddity that you'd have to see for yourself.

The plot takes place at a villa that is run by a woman named Lucille (Eleonora Rossi), her son Andre (Alfredo Mayo) & another woman named Falesse (Pier Angeli) where guests turn up only to get killed by their hosts.

That above is probably the best way to try and describe this plot without giving away any spoilers as there's a lot thrown at you in its 82 minute runtime. The opening sequence was very confusing as you don't know what the hell is going on or who these people are as the movie takes its time establishing things and that's one of the main problems of this movie, its narrative structure is very lacking and the over reliance on shock value and twists is nonsensical at best. But there are plenty of fun moments in this flick to enjoy such as the violent murder set pieces, the decent cast and plenty of outlandish and strange visuals that are pleasing to the eye. But other than that this movie is definitely style over substance.

The performances are melodramatic but decent with Eleonora Rossi providing a decent screen presence and plenty of intriguing character moments. Alfredo Mayo gives a fun and over the top performance that suits the production quite well and Pier Angeli gives a wonderfully strange and hammy performance as the disturbed Falesse and a definite standout. Fernando Sancho was also solid and looked the part in his role.

Overall 'In The Folds of the Flesh' is not a great film by any means, but it's directed with enough visual flair to at least be entertaining.

Italian gialli are famous for their ridiculously complicated (and frequently absurd plots)and their "pop", late 60's pseudo-Freudian psychology. This movie though pushes both of these to the most extreme limits. The basic plot here involves a rather dysfunctional family consisting of a trouble woman (Pier Angeli), her governess, and her governess' equally troubled son all of whom may have been involved in the murder/disappearance of the family patriarch. Several different people show up and try to blackmail them for money and sex and wind up being killed in ways that are both gruesome (lots of decapitations)and increasingly ridiculous (there's a rather tasteless subplot involving Nazi gas chambers). The finale involves several sudden twists, each more preposterous than the last. There are several quotes from Freud in intertitles (complete with English-language misspellings) and the usual liberal sprinkling of sexual psychopathology--incest, Elektra and Oedipal complexes, borderline pedophilia, etc. This movie will probably confound newcomers to the giallo film, but people more familiar with the genre will no doubt appreciate it.

Pier Angeli is especially good in a dual role, or actually a triple role considering that she plays one of the characters as both an adult woman and an adolescent girl (the latter no mean feat considering the actress was in her late 30's at the time). Tragically, she would commit suicide not longer after this movie came out. The co-writer Mario Caiano would direct the very similar "Eye in the Labyrinth" and, not surprisingly, some of the other people behind the camera were later involved in the indefensibly trash Italian Nazi sexploitation cycle.

Oh, and by the way, the title "In the Folds of Flesh" actually refers to the folds in the brain, not what some of you dirty-minded folks out there might think.

After being released from prison, a criminal intending to blackmail the family of a suspected murder he witnessed years earlier only to find the family a far more demented bunch than he expected while a mysterious killer running complicates his quest and forces his plans to change.

This was quite the interesting yet silly giallo. Part of the film's appeal lies in the dual nature of the film which starts right at the beginning with such a goofy and nonsensical setup. In order to buy into the film in general, the utterly contrived storyline at the heart of the film has to be taken into account and that presents this with a daunting challenge off the bat by being forced to accept this idea. This setup does spring forth plenty of typical giallo fun so it does have a lot of worth with the way it brings this together in order to fulfill the genre requirements which is what makes for a decent enough time here. The constant shadiness and general air of sleaziness usually found in these films is in full effects here, from the madness and paranoia at the beginning over what the body being buried really means, the childhood trauma at the center of the rampage and the remaining scenes of just outright odd behaviors they all indulge in that ranges from the dancing and incest just combines together into one utterly odd effort. This makes what happens in the end when the efforts of the family finally get revealed in a series of utterly ludicrous setups that attempt to explain the actions of the plot which piles on more twists and surprise reveals than an entire season of a regular soap opera. It is clear that these various twists and turns are meant to come as a complete shock which is only because it's downright incredible that anybody would ever see them coming as the material is so haphazardly put together this never comes close to jelling into a whole. That these manage to drive the film away from being a typical giallo with the incredibly overwrought sequences found within that just don't make any sense with all the different revelations being brought out in the endless series of flashbacks that reduce the kill-count significantly by having dispatched of the killer earlier in the film. That this spares us having to watch more of the utterly atrocious special effects is perhaps a blessing with the film running through such a truly atrocious series of special effects work that is completely comical rather than shocking due to the painfully obvious mannequin heads. Although there's some brutality to mention in there with the intent behind it, these here are what hold it down somewhat.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, Language, a rape scene and drug use.

an above-average mystery/suspense thriller (almost a 'giallo') by Sergio Bergonzelli, with an engrossing story, dubious characters galore (including a main role played by the late Pier Angeli, credited here as Anna Maria Pierangeli), by turns wacky & stylish direction, and a half trippy/half creepy atmosphere about it. kept me guessing almost till the very end, always coming up with a twist, a revelation, or a grabbing visual up it's sleeve (it's even got a scene with WW2-era featuring Nazis!). gotta love a movie that begins with some Freud psycho-babble text, and immediately cuts to a shot of a severed head on a carpeted floor! somebody needs to release this crazy film on DVD pronto (hello Blue Underground, NoShame, Synapse, etc...). anyone with even a passing interest in this kind of film would be well adviced to check out this little known gem.

rating: 8/10