Labyrinth des Schreckens

Highly ridiculous and campy, cheesy dialogue and low production values but fun as hell. This is one of the giallo that falls more on the same side stylistically as the American slashers despite proceeding that whole movement by half a decade. Less flair and more gore but it's still a lot of fun. Still, this is one you'll probably enjoy more as a fan of giallo than of 80s slashers or anything like that. Watch at your own risk.

Eyeball (AKA Red Cats in a Glass Maze)

Italian/Spanish co-produced giallo/slasher, written and directed by Umberto Lenzi, and starring John Richardson, Martine Brochard, and Andrés Mejuto. A group of American tourists are on a bus/coach tour of Barcelona. However, before long female members of the coach party are being picked off by a mysterious figure dressed all in red when the party stops for sightseeing attractions or overnight stayovers. But the women aren't just being killed; the left eyeball of each victim is gouged out - sometimes prior to death. The lead detective retires in one week, and is keen to solve the killings before he leaves, whilst the rest of the party just try to survive.

The plot of this is actually bonkers, the number of red herrings is ridiculous, and the murderer's motive is one of the most utterly stupid ever - none of which stops it from being a load of fun! The cast are good (plenty of faces from other Italian genre films), there's a lot of blood plus severed eyeballs, all the nudity you'd expect from a 1975 Italian exploitation film, and a good helping of so-bad-it's-good dialogue. Having said all that, unlike with a lot of these films, the plot - whilst insane - is at least followable (often with these you end up abandoning any hope of coherence, and just watch for the crazy spectacle). Real OTT fun. Oh, Bruno Nicolai's funky score - bizarrely at odds with some of the carnage - deserves special mention! 7/10.

Let's face it, there is a finite number of giallos and I have yet to see one with a plausible story line (Anyone see "Watch Me When I Kill"?). Isn't that a prerequisite of the sub-genre, along with the gloved villain and the stylized killings? So why skip this one? Are you waiting for 'The Ultimate Giallo'? This one is alright. Maybe Lenzi has made some crap, especially his latter stuff (Black Demons, Hell's Gate,House Of Witchcraft), but a lot his work kicks ass(Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, Man from Deep River, Gang War in Milan, Almost Human, Syndicate Sadists, Rome Armed to the Teeth, Violent Naples, The Cynic, the Rat & the Fist, Eaten Alive, Nightmare City, Cannibal Ferox). This is not his best, but definitely not his worst. Most likely only giallo fans are going to watch this anyway, so if that is you, go ahead, you won't be disappointed.

Acceptable Gialli dealing with a group of American tourists travelling on a coach with a maniac killer . There appears ordinary series killer roaming here and there while committing several murders and various usual suspicious characters . Along the way the murderer in a red cape and hood is killing off the American tourists by slashing their eyeballs . Meanwhile , Inspector Tudela (Andres Mejuto) , fearlessly chasing the mystery despite his career nearing its end due to his imminent retirement, being assisted by commissioner (José Maria Blanco) , both of whom are investigating the killings of pretty young girls but the case results out to be far more difficult than it would first seem . The luxury coach is plenty of tourists , among them is a killer , and every single person acts suspiciously . There are the following ones : a joker tour guide (Raf Baldassarre) , the Alvarado marriage (Silvia Solar , Daniele Vargas) , a father (John Bartha) , travelling with his daughter (Veronica Miriel) , a priest (George Rigaud) who lost his daughter in a strange death , there's a lesbian couple (Ines Pellegrini, Mirta Miller) and an executive called Mark Burton (John Richardson and his secretary Paulette Stone (Martine Brochard) who is having an affair with her chief while deceiving his wife (Marta May) who is on the edge of a breakdown . And the already traumatized Paulette seems likely to be the next victim when take place strange events .

This is an allright Giallo where intrigue, tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking on a tour bus and in every room , corridors and luxurious hotels and exteriors from Barcelona and Sitges , with numerous suspect people , all of them seem to be suspicious travelers . This suspenseful movie is plenty of intrigue , thrills, chills , high body-count and well staged murders . The main premise results to be to guess who's the killer among a lot of suspect people . The movie belongs to Italian Giallo genre that was invented by Mario Bava (the first seems to be : The girl who knew too much) along with Riccardo Freda (who made classic terror as Secret of Dr. Hitchcock, The ghost , I Vampiri) , they are the fundamental creators . Later on , it appears Dario Argento (Deep red , Suspira , Inferno) , another essential creator of classic Latin terror films . These Giallo movies are characterized by overblown use of color with shining red blood , usual zooms, originally staged crimes with seemingly fascination by razors and knifes , use of images-shock and a lot of plot twists .Umberto Lenzi's direction is well crafted , here he's less cynical and more inclined toward violence , brief nudism and lots of killings . Lenzi first Giallo was ¨Orgasmo¨ (1969) with Carroll Baker and during the 1970s , he filmed a number of Giallos , among them : ¨So Sweet, So Perverse¨, ¨Seven Blood-Stained Orchids¨ and this ¨Eyeball¨ . It's a co-production Italian- Spanish , that's why there shows up Spanish actors , such as : Andrés Mejuto , Mirta Miller , Verónica Miriel , George Rigaud, Silvia Solar , Marta May José María Blanco and Italian ones : Raf Baldassarre , Daniele Vargas , John Bartha , Ines Pellegrini , Laura Trotter ; most of them usually played in Spaghetti/Paella sub-genre. Colorful and adequate cinematography by cameraman Antonio Millán who photographed splendidly Spanish outdoors . The Spanish photographer to get the best sightseeing by adequate filming , using nice cameras to capture the flavor of urban , though shamelessly reducing Spain to stereotypes , Flamenco dancing and bullfighting squares included , providing gorgeous local colour with its monuments , sculptures , noisy streets , among others . In addition , thrilling and suspenseful score by Bruno Nicolai who was usual collaborator to Ennio Morricone .

The picture was well directed by the prolific filmmaker Umberto Lenzi , though it has some flaws and gaps .Talented and versatile writer/director Umbert Lenzi has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres as horror, comedy, Western, science fiction and Giallo in a career that spans over 40 years . Umberto Lenzi used the pseudonym Hank Milestone and Humphrey Logan . Umberto made his directorial debut with ¨Queen of the Seas¨ (1961) . Other pirate/sword flicks followed, starting with ¨Pirates of Malaysia¨ (1964) starred by Steeve Reeves, which was part of the height of the career of fictitious tales of historic legendary characters including Robin Hood , Catherine the Great, Zorro , Sandokan and Maciste . He subsequently directed a ¨Fumetti¨ titled The mask of Kriminal (1966) . Lenzi turned to the police thrillers called ¨Polizieschi¨, which rejuvenated his confidence and his popularity . Titles like ¨Almost Human¨ , ¨Free Hand For a Tough Cop¨ and ¨Brothers Till We Die¨ were the most popular and brutal of the thrillers . Lenzi is an expert on wartime genre such as he proved in ¨Desert commandos¨ , ¨Battle of commandos¨ , ¨From hell to victory¨ , ¨Young Lions¨ and ¨Bridge to hell¨. Prior to the Polizieschi, Lenzi directed ¨Man from Deep River¨ , which was the start of the Italian cannibal sub-genre . Later on , he directed two very gory jungle cannibal features , ¨Eaten Alive¨ and ¨Make Them Die Slowly ¨which was banned in 31 countries, made Lenzi distance himself from the cannibal genre . Then Lenzi directed ¨Nightmare City¨ (1980) , a zombie flick , and ¨Iron Master¨(1983) . In the 90s his films were extremely low-budgeted and failed at box-office .

Fans of Giallo might already know this. "Normal" horror fans might have not had it on their radar. It's always good if companies like 88 Films, Arrow Video and so many others put obscure movies like this out. There is always a gem or at least a decent movie to find there.

So this isn't the best movie ever by far. But it is quite an enjoyable Giallo. And I say that not really being a fan of the ... "genre". Effects are decent for the time and the budget they had at the time I reckon. The mystery is ok too ... some will guess the killer earlier than others ... nothing wrong there. There's also a decent amount of nudity, which was normal for the time, whatever that means to you ... is up to you.