Das Haus im Nebel

Fine Italian-Spanish Giallo packed with thrills , chills ,intrigue and twists and turns . Entertaining Giallo full of vicious killings , suspense and eerie events . This genuinely mysterious story deals with a couple (Andres Resiono , Lisa Lombardi), lost in thick fog, take refuge in an old manor next to a cemetery . In the mansion strange things start to occur and happens several murders with bloody and gruesome executions. There someone is killing people and some clues seem to implicate about anybody are dieing . Before their unfortunate accident wreck , rich heiress, weak-hearted Elsa( Analía Gadé), recently recovering from a nervous breakdown due to the death of her daddy (George Rigaud) . In addition ,wealthy Elsa's husband (Albert Dalbes) is away frequently, so she usually thinks for him . Meanwhile another coupled called Mr & Mrs Tremont (Eduardo Fajardo & Yelena Samarina) also runs off the road and into an embankment near the graveyard , encountering two mysterious, enigmatic zombie-alike shrouded in darkness, one corpulent man dressed in chauffeur style and a pale-face woman slightly behind him . The trio encounters the mansion , discovering that the Tremonts inside, having been in a car crash with another driver , a sex-obsessed , drunk Mr. Porter(Franco Fantasia). This group finds that the mansion has an owner, the sinister Martha Clinton (Evelyn Stewart or Ida Galli), who bears remarkable resemblance to her deceased aunt condemned for vampirism and witchcraft . Meanwhile the series killer goes on a real massacre on various unfortunate victims as a woman is hung , another attacked in the graveyard . Slowly more people are found dead and Fred (Andres Resino) investigates the strange killings with numerous suspects .

Successful Giallo is compellingly directed with well staged murders plenty of startling visual content , though was submitted to limited censorship in Spain . This is a customary Giallo where the intrigue, tension, suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and luxurious interior and exterior . The picture packs atmospheric blending of eerie thrills and creepy chills combined with a twisted finale . It displays lots of guts and blood but it seems pretty mild compared to today's gore feasts . It's a solid movie , a thrilling story plenty of suspense and intrigue in which the victims seem to be continuous . The staged killings are the high points of the movie , they deliver the goods plenty of screams, shocks and tension . The intriguing moments are compactly made and fast moving ; as the film itself takes place from various red herrings . It packs tension, shocks , thrills, chills and a little bit of blood and gore . There's plenty of moments of excitement and a number of scenes that are quite thrilling , resulting to be definitely the spotlight of the film the surprising ending situation . Well filmed in location in Madrid and Guadalajara surroundings . Good ambiance design and acceptable production design by Perez Cubero who along with Galicia created lots of sets in several Western filmed in the 60s and 70s . Colorful and brilliant cinematography in Maria Bava style by Mancori . Frightening and thrilling musical score by the Italian Marcello Giombani.

The picture is professionally directed by Francisco Lara Polop in his first and the best film along with the prolific filmmaker Pedro Lazaga . Francisco Lara's so-so direction is well crafted , here he's less cynical and more inclined toward suspense and lots of killings , he's an expert on comedy though directed another terror film as ¨The monk¨, his last movie . Talented and versatile writer/director Pedro Lazaga has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres but especially comedies starred by Spanish comedian Paco Martinez Soria and made a successful Peplum , ¨The seven Spartans¨. Rating: Acceptable and passable , this is one more imaginative Giallo pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills. This is a bewildering story , funny in some moment but falls flat and it will appeal to hardcore Gialli fans

The main ingredient in a Giallo film I like best is the story. Usually, these are well thought out revenge thrillers, with loads of twists, red-herrings, and a hint of the supernatural. This film has all the above and more.

I liked the way the writers, Luis G De Blain and Antonio Troiso, pull the attention of the audience into the story from the first frame. The hook of the Biker and the Hitchhiking Damsel snags you right away. You start thinking, what will happen? This interesting and intriguing segue is only to introduce the characters to each other... and the audience.

Then we meet a group of friends who have urgent business to conduct. They journey out of their home for the meeting and drive straight into the thickest fog they've seen. Around this time, the Biker and the Damsel ride into the same peasouper. This is where the writers start to throw in some supernatural - or not - elements. A man walking along the roadside. Nothing unusual there, except he wears a wide-brimmed hat and is carrying a long staffed scythe. Shot in silhouette, he is a spooky character indeed.

This is only the start. Things get stranger and darker as we progress through the film. If this story cannot keep your interest, then you have ADD. This is one of the better and more intricate Giallo films I've watched.

The one thing I wasn't fond of in the story was the ending. If I had written the tale, I would have opted to go for more of a horror style climax and not the thriller ending. For me, it wasn't as satisfying as the rest of the movie.

I was thankful that the director, Francisco Lara Polop, was skilled enough to keep the story smooth. It would have been easy to create confusion. This adds another great ingredient. Unlike the horror films and thrillers being shot in America and England, the Spanish and Italian liked to play with the rhythms of the pacing. This variation allows for the creation of tension and excitement within the film's atmosphere. Though Polop isn't a master at this, he does enough to keep it engaging.

The cast does their bits admirably and keeps their characters believable, relatable, and a little mysterious. You're never too sure what's happening or who is to blame, if anyone. I will also pay respect to the voice talents and the dubbing masters. Most Giallo films are dubbed into English and luckily for the audience, the voices match the actor. At times, it's the actual actor or actress who voices their character in English. At other times, it's a different actor or actress. The main culprits of bad dubs, from this era, were Japan and China. Some pair-ups and voiceovers were risible. Though I have yet to find an Italian or Spanish production with such low dubbing production values. So don't let the fact it's dubbed put you off watching this screen gem.

Though this isn't a horror film, as such, I would recommend it to all horror fans as well as the Giallo aficionados, Thriller followers, and Chiller fans. This is well worth a watch, and it has made it onto my watch again pile. So turn off the lights, settle down with a warm drink, and enjoy.

Ratings: Story 1.5 : Direction 1.5 : Pace 1.25 : Acting 1.25 : Enjoyment 1.5 : Total 7 / 10

Now bike on over to my Killer Chiller Thrillers and The Game Is Afoot lists to see where this spooky picture ranked.

Take Care and Stay Well.

Despite its hoary silent-era plot, this is a nicely atmospheric minor chiller from Spain. Actually, it's as much a mystery-thriller as a horror pic, having some stylistic elements in common with the Edgar Wallace series, but the spooky mansion and cemetery sequences would not be amiss in a Margheriti or Corman classic. The director and art director fill the screen with significant details and the brooding color cinematography is suitably eerie, if a mite garish (it was the 70s, after all). The cast is attractive, particularly Lisa Nardi, who's quite a dish in shiny leather jacket and tight bellbottoms; unfortunately, it looks like a few nude scenes were clipped for the American release. There's no gore to speak of, nor much Rollinesque artiness, just good old-fashioned gothic chills. Definitely worth a look for connoisseurs, but not quite a "keeper".

Surprsingly well-directed "gothic" tale of a group of people that "accidentally" get together in an old house in the middle of nowhere one creepy night only to find that, one by one, people start to disappear and/or die. Yep, this kind of story has been done over and over again, but this version works well for a number of reasons. The acting is pretty good from the all foreign cast. The lassies are lovely and have some talent. The characters that are meant to be creepy pull that off as well. The director Francisco Lara Polop creates a good deal of tension and breathes a lot of life into some otherwise stale plot contrivances. The mysterious old woman and the gigantic bald chauffeur popping up here and there really added some scares to the film. The story, even when it became clear what was going on, was nurtured in such a way as to still keep you involved. I liked Murder Mansion quite a bit. It is a great film to watch alone at night. Just remember that the road less taken sometimes is the road one should avoid.

Unusual and likable Spanish/Italian co-production that plays something like a seventies Spanish, Old Dark House with giallo elements. Split more or less into three parts, the beginning takes place on the road, the middle introduces us to all the varied peoples holed up in the mansion in the fog and the final 25minutes are pretty wild action all the way. In truth there is nothing particularly violent or sexual but all the ladies are lovely, we really don't know what's going on any more than they do and we care enough to stick with it to find out. Worth it? Yes, I reckon so, it's just that little bit different and even the 'posh' English dubbing seems to help the strangeness that permeates the whole film.