In den Krallen der Leidenschaft

Tom and Alex move into a new apartment, which was vacated suddenly by the suicide of the previous owner. Tom is visited by a friendly, black cat, but finds himself seduced by the beautiful, but deadly Lilith.

I don't think anyone will change my mind when I say that the early 90's was a pretty lame period for horror, and this is a gleaming example of my reasoning.

Lifeless, wooden, drab and boring, I can't really think of any positives, this film is laboured and long drawn out, the scares are thin on the ground, and it takes so long to open up, when it does you'll already be dosing.

There's not much I can think of to say, other than save yourself the time and effort.

Very poor.

3/10.

Here we have one of those nice young couples who have found the apartment they've been searching for, only it has a sinister past. But heck, they say, so what if a guy killed himself and wrote some strange words on the wall. We'll just throw a mirror over that. But there are also a few amenities they didn't count on, like a multitude of vaguely menacing cats. Plus the apartment comes equipped with its own sexy succubus--not what every wife would want for her husband.

There is more sex than scares in this movie, though neither will have you on the edge of your seat. But things do pick up a little toward the end. Jeff Fahey, B-movie vet, stars as the husband and Lisa B (didn't she used to play for Prince?) is the bedeviling demon lady. Taylor Nichols ('Metropolitan' and 'Barcelona') also has a small role.

Released in 1995, considering the subject matter, is actually quite tame, and boring in parts. A man, Steven, kills himself in an apartment, and sets a fire. Later, Alex and Tom move into the apartment. There are still burn marks and red writings on the wall. And there is a black cat that seems to want to make their place his home. The cat manages to trip Alex down the stairs and sends her to the hospital. By this point, the music used really detracts from the film, not an asset to the film. Anyway, along comes Lilith, says Steven was her brother, and she is there to collect his things. The number of cats around increases, and so does the ardor of Lilith for Tom, and the make up used is quite good showing that his strength is being drained away, along with other things from him. She is a succubus, but will Tom be able to resist her long enough to survive? The copy I streamed was not particularly sharp.

Tom (prolific actor Jeff Fahey) and wife Alex (Heather Medway) move into an apartment, its previous occupant was a guy called Steve who was into demonology and committed ritual suicide there. They adopt a female black cat which shows affection towards Tom but it quite nasty to Alex. Whilst she is in hospital (the cat caused her to have an accident) Steve's sexy sister Lilith (there's a clue in the name!) turns up at the apartment to pick up his stuff but soon casts a spell over Tom (cue "Omen" style music). From now on Lilith (model/singer/actress Lisa B) and cheating Tom engage in a lot of noisy passionate sex, there's a bit of topless nudity and bare bums but nothing to get too excited about. This erotic supernatural horror/thriller is set in an unnamed American city though it was filmed in Romania, much of the architecture is obviously European as are the motor vehicles (mainly East European makes at that). I thought that the various tenants gave the movie, coupled with the occult angle, a touch of "Rosemary's Baby." The film's title may be derived from an impressive serpent water feature in the courtyard. This was my second viewing and despite a few flaws I found it engaging , well paced and enjoyable. Certainly worth a watch.

SERPENT'S LAIR is ostensibly a horror movie on paper (with shades of ROSEMARY'S BABY in the set-up) but it plays out as one of those late night softcore thrillers of the kind that Shannon Tweed made a career of starring in during the 1990s. This one has Jeff Fahey, one of the more underrated stars of the era, playing one half of a couple who buy a new apartment only to find it haunted by a succubus with designs on the hubby. All of this leads to the usual gamut of softcore fumblings and nude sequences, which quickly become tiresome to all but the hungriest of erotic film fans. Fahey does his best, but I found this one tiresome before long.