Mal de ojo

People around Peter Crane (Jorge, ¨George¨, Rivero) begin dying in mysterious circumstances . Peter starts having nightmares dealing with grisly killings . The police authorities have to face some really brutal murders. A hard-nosed police inspector (Anthony Steffen) and a deputy (Alvaro De Luna) start investigating the case , they have to find out if the wealthy playboy Peter Crane is involved in the bizarre crimes . He suffers from terrible nightmares that make him believe that he is responsible for these murders . As psychiatrist Dr. Stone (veteran Hollywood actor Richard Conte) and his helper Dr. Turner (Pilar Velazquez) place Paul in a hospital for a deep observation . As Crane maybe really possessed by malevolant dreams until a surprising and astonishing final . Along the way , Peter falls in love for the beautiful Dr. Sarah Turner .

This terrifying and chilling Italian/Spanish exploitation displays creepy images , disturbing frames , eerie scenes , nudism and horror . This is pretty entertaining fantastic stuff about a young playboy turns possessed from a strange cult , while seeks answers from his astonishing nightmares . This is the Spanish/Italian/Mexican answer to American horror hit , The Exorcist by William Friedkin . Atmospheric and oddball horror movie contains terrifying scenes when appears a weird magic circle with a lot of naked people , possession scenes and taking place cruel killings , terror , and confusion around Peter Crane and other people around him . The movie is running out of ideas a lot ; however , being still good enough to be fun . Although there are some lousily made scenes , including primitive special effects . It's a slight fun with so-so make-up , naive FX , adequate set decoration and functional art direction . The fable is sometimes silly and laughable , though a few effects and intriguing set pieces are professionally made . Some illogical parts in the story are more than compensated for the excitement provided by some bizarre images , though sometimes are a little bit cheesy . Main and support cast are acceptable . The Mexican Jorge Rivero plays the unsettling playboy trying to unravel the mystery suffering from the effects caused by his nightmares . Pilar Velazquez plays a gorgeous psychiatrist who helps him , along with veteran Richard Conte as a suspicious shrink . Being a Spain/Italy co-production here shows up a number of familiar faces as Spanish actors : Eduardo Fajardo, Terele Pavez , Alvaro de Luna , Lone Fleming , as Italian players : Spaghetti Western star Antony Steffen , Daniela Giordano , Luis La Torre and Luciano Pigozzi , nicknamed the Italian Peter Lorre . All of them starred several exploitation films during the 60s, 70s and early 80s.

The Exorcist by William Friedkin spawned countless imitations , rip-offs , and clones all around the world ; in fact Malocchio (1975) its Spanish title is ¨Más allá del exorcismo¨, meaning "Beyond the Exorcism" in English , and it features no exorcism . And it pretended to be a spin-off to The Exorcist (1973) , a sub-genre who abounded in Italy and Spain in the Seventies , hoping in getting some successes from the original movie , such as : ¨House of exorcism¨ by Mario Bava , ¨L'anticristo¨ by Alberto de Martino , ¨Holocaust 2000¨ by Alberto de Martino , ¨La bimba di Satana¨ by Mario Bianchi , ¨Malabimba¨ by Andrea Bianchi ; and likewise in Spain with others knock-offs , there was made four at the same time , such as : ¨Devil play¨ by Jorge Darnell (74), ¨Demon Witch Child¨ or ¨La Endemoniada ¨ by Amando De Ossorio (74) , ¨The Spiritist¨(1975) and ¨Exorcismo¨ (1975) by Juan Bosch .

Malocchio(1975) packs an agreeable and groovy musical score by Stelvio Capriani by composing blending some smooth funky and lounge sounds . As well as atmospheric and functional cinematography by Vicente Minaya , being shot in Spain and Italy , RPA - Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio . This bewildering picture was middlingly directed by Mario Siciliano . He was an Italian professional who wrote , produced, directed various films in all kinds of genres . As he directed s the following ones : Wartime (Seven red berets , Overrun) ,Terror (Evil eye) , Adventure (Lions of St Petersburg , Wild geese attack) , Adult and Western (Alleluja and Sartana strike again ; Trinity and Sartana are coming) . Rating 4.5/10 . Inferior Giallo/Horror movie , containing some images being near unwatchable at times . This terrror movie is appointed exclusively for Eurotrash hardcore fans .

This film is often said to be a Giallo; I would say it just about qualifies, but it's really very much on the borderline. Eroticofollia is just as strange and surreal as its nonsense title suggests it is; and generally makes just about as much sense too! The film could be described as a psychological horror film, and it's clear that director Mario Siciliano wanted to put more focus on the imagery than the storyline, and as such the film is very thin in terms of plot. Luckily, the imagery is rather good and the director creates a good atmosphere for the film. The plot focuses on a playboy named Peter Crane. He is plagued by terrible nightmares, and this leads him to murder - his first victim being a girl that has dreams of him murdering her! As his grip on sanity slips further, Peter decides to seek help from his doctor; however, the murders continue. Peter's problems increase when he receives an anonymous phone call from someone saying they've seen him committing the crimes...

This film reminded me somewhat of the classic Giallo The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave in terms of style, characters and content. However, this one is nowhere near as good as the earlier film. Eroticofollia gets off to a good start that promises it might lead somewhere worthwhile, but it then gets overloaded with its own bizarreness and things soon get rather tedious. The way that it delves into supernatural territory certainly doesn't help proceedings either, and it's an ill-advised twist. The film could have been quite decent if it tried harder to stay on the straight and narrow. To the film's credit, lead actor Jorge Rivero is rather good in the lead role and always holds the audience's interest well. He gets good back-up from Richard Conte and the beautiful Daniela Giordano; though Anthony Steffen does not get an opportunity to deliver his best performance. Despite its shortcomings, the film does stay just about decent for most of the duration; but then completely spoils itself with a very ill-advised twist at the end.

Reporting in to note that I tried my best to like THE EVIL EYE and have failed. The movie has a lot in it to like: Spaghetti Western favorites Anthony Steffen & Eduardo Fajardo, the beloved Luciano Pigozzi, deliriously sexy Daniela Giordano, Pia Giancaro, Eva Vanicek & Pilar Velázquez, plus Lone Flemming, nothing to sneeze at herself. Music by genre film legend Stelvio Cipriani. Story & screenplay by Julio Buchs and Federico De Urrutia, who had graduated from the Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent school of Spanish Spaghetti Westerns themselves, and had previously collaborated on the under-appreciated A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL.

So the film bombards viewers with all sorts of fantastic elements, including some great Italian urban & rural scenery, a feast of cavorting nude women, some hunky Euro Manbeef for the ladies (or whoever -- is this movie gay?) and a couple of truly bizarre scenes that are difficult to explain ... Like the scene where a 2 ton pallet of cinder blocks are dropped on somebody, but when the camera goes in for the medium angle it looks like someone had tossed a few bricks into a pile. Was it a gaffe due to the film's tight budget or a surrealist touch meant to make you stop for a minute and say "Wait, did I see that right?"

The problem is that the film never really gels. It seems hesitant to tell its story and pads out the scenes which do move the narrative along with excessive travelogue photography, or just small scenes thrown in that have nothing to do with the story. I would also single out the lead Jorge Rivero, a fine actor from Mexico, with being totally wrong for the role. He doesn't come across as tortured or even involved in his story no matter what language his voice voice dubber was speaking. Roles like this need a tortured soul to wander through the film looking for answers -- Fabio Testi, George Hilton, Farley Granger, even cast mate Anthony Steffen, they could all do it in their sleep. Rivero comes off poorly but it isn't his fault.

It does have Anthony Steffen though, made up & costumed to look like Dirty Harry right down to the corduroy tie. The problem is that the film doesn't come up with anything for him to do that required the role to be filled by Anthony Steffen, who was a very special presence. They don't even do anything with the Dirty Harry angle, which would have made sense given how Steffen was marketed as Italy's own answer to Clint Eastwood. He isn't wasted in the role because he's just one of those actors where every performance is always pretty decent, the script just wasn't sure if it wanted to tell its story and subsequently doesn't really give him anything to do.

It also kept Daniela Giordano cruelly encased within her clothing, while lingering many a flattering camera angle on Jorge Rivero and his hunky roommate buddy -- who apparently share bathrobes -- lounging around in various states of semi-dress. Which led me to wonder if the film had a quietly gay subtext to it, which would be fine and can be the basis for some interesting results (look up a little number called ROOM OF CHAINS sometime). But the story dances around the idea clumsily, parading out the usual quota of bared breasts in a manner that comes across as perfunctory. The real passion is in showing Jorge Rivero lying in bed with his shirt off, and that in itself makes the film somewhat unique.

4/10; Euro Horror fans will be more sympathetic than others.

Although this movie is categorized by some as a giallo, it goes beyond having a plot that is merely delightfully absurd, like most films in the genre, to one that is almost completely non-sensical, including even several possibly supernatural nods to "The Exorcist". The plot involves a wealthy playboy and swinger who begins to have strange dreams where he murders people (one of whom actually calls him up at the beginning of the movie and tells him SHE had a dream that he was going to murder her!). When the same people actually end up dead, he begins to think he is going crazy or is being controlled by a satanic cult (or something), so he checks himself into a psychiatric clinic under the care of a doctor (Richard Conte) who bears more than a little resemblance to Dr. Caligari. But then he runs off with a pretty nurse to her isolated villa. . . There is all manner of other weirdness happening, including things moving by themselves a la a low-grade version of "The Exorcist". There's also a cop (Anthony Steffens) investigating, but he seems to be in a completely different movie. I don't want to spoil the ending (although it spoils itself pretty well), but it's both a cliché and a cop-out.

The lead actor (Jorge Rivero) is a good-looking guy, which ALMOST explains why every woman he meets immediately throws herself at him, even if they are married, they have just had a dream he murdered them, or he just checked into their clinic as a potentially homicidal schizophrenic. As typical for the genre there are a lot of pretty women on display including former Miss Italy Daniela Giordana, who's virtually unrecognizable (and spends all her screen time NOT quite getting naked), and Lone Fleming, a fixture in Amando Ossorio "Blind Dead" and Paul Naschy horror films.

I'm not really sure whether or not I'd recommend this. Oh well, I've reported, you decide.

The handsome Jorge Rivero ("Rio Lobo") is cast as a playboy named Peter Crane, who loses his grip on reality, often believing himself to be murdering people. Determined to get some help, he checks into a hospital where he's watched over by psychiatrist Dr. Stone (Richard Conte of "The Godfather"). Stones' associate Dr. Sarah Turner (the stunning Pilar Velazquez, "The Flower with Petals of Steel") falls in lust with him, and they run off to a cabin together, despite his predicament.

Co-writer / director Mario Siciliano ("Lions of St. Petersburg") doesn't concern himself very much with the story making *sense*, really. Where he succeeds the most is in creating a very lurid, and very *surreal* atmosphere, designed to have viewers thinking, "WTF?" on numerous occasions. One scene near the end is particularly indicative of this style, and that involves slimy butler Walter (Eduardo Fajardo, "Django") and a frog.

"Evil Eye" starts out as if it is going to be more of a horror film, with a decidedly creepy feel. But, by and large, it takes place in a "reality" that keeps shifting. An inspector on the case (Anthony Steffen, "Viva Sabata") is kind of off in his own movie, but he experiences some of the weirdness, too: like a moment involving a body buried under rubble.

Aided and abetted by a wonderful soundtrack by Stelvio Cipriani ("A Bay of Blood"), Siciliano gets solid performances out of his cast, which includes other familiar faces such as Luciano Pigozzi a.k.a. Alan Collins ("Yor: The Hunter from the Future") and Daniela Giordano ("Violent Rome").

The film is loaded with sexy ladies, and bare female flesh, but never gets all that gory, making it fairly sleazy but never all that unpleasant. It's recommended to fans of Euro genre features who want something a little off the beaten path. The only real disappointment lies in that ending.

Seven out of 10.