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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.

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

Well there's a homicidal 35 year old woman (I think they're trying to pass her off as 20-something and it really does not work out) and she's completely mentally incompetent. She has an incestuous relationship with her artistic brother, and while the mother looks continually disapproving she just allows all of the murder and mayhem to go on, even bothering to clean up the bodies for her kids. And as I've pointed out, she must have had her daughter when she was 9, because she can't be more than ten years older than the murderous loony in the blonde wig.

There are hints of giallo in the flashbacks and the death of the father at sea, but I do not consider this a giallo at all. It's some weird cult film from the late 1960s that took a bunch of ideas and threw them together in a salad of shame. It kind of reminds me of how The House of Exorcism is an inferior version of Lisa and the Devil. I honestly wish there was a coherent, superior version of In the Folds of the Flesh in the same manner of the ludicrous House of Exorcism, but I guess this is it.

'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.

On a dark and stormy night an escaped convict on the run witnesses a beautiful woman burying a body while a young boy looks on. He is captured by the authorities and returned to jail. Flash forward to several years later where the boy, now a young man, lives in a villa with his Mother and a girl who is either his lover or his sister, it's hard to say. His Mother was the mistress of a criminal who disappeared years before. Or is that "disappeared"? Is everything as simple and straightforward as it first appears? A guest arrives claiming to be a long lost relative. Are they telling the truth or do they suspect something about a hidden secret? So begins 'In The Folds Of The Flesh' an almost forgotten Spanish exploitation thriller that continually twists and turns. Full of surprises, trippy imagery, and an unexpected Nazi flashback, this is recommended to fans of Jess Franco's classic 'Succubus' and similar 60s/70s European sexploitation. It may not reach Franco's over the top absurdity and sheer strangeness, but it has a lot of fun trying, and I enjoyed it a great deal.