Maniac mansion

Lost in a sudden, thick fog, various motorists end up stranded at the MANIAC MANSION (aka: THE MURDER MANSION) for the night. Weirdness ensues, with lumbering specters and the apparent absence of geographic location.

Once inside the manor, things get even more odd, when the travelers meet Martha Clinton (Evelyn Stewart) who spins tales of local vampirism and ancestral witchcraft. There's also her giant chauffeur lurking about the grounds! Just where have these people wound up?

MM is a wonderfully creepy movie, with the perfect setting. There's a cemetery right outside, and labyrinthine catacombs beneath the sprawling estate.

Filled with an atmosphere of perpetual gloom, it plays like an extended episode of Rod Serling's NIGHT GALLERY. This is also the movie's biggest weakness, as it could have had about 20 minutes shaved off. It tends to go down some rabbit holes, like over-long flashback sequences and supernatural angles that don't add up.

Otherwise, it's a highly enjoyable cavalcade of ghoulish goulash with a nice double cross, double twist ending!

Co-stars the breathtaking Lisa Leonardi as Lisa...

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

One of my alltime favorite movies to obsess over in the darkened wee hours of the morning has always been MURDER MANSION, or La Mansión de la niebla, a 1972 Spanish/Italian co-production encompassing elements of the supernatural thriller, giallo-style murder mystery, and a delicious take on the old Haunted House formula that continues to deliver the intoxicatingly arty, atmospheric thrills more than thirty years later.

THE PLOT: A seemingly diverse group of couples and ne're do wells end up sharing a deserted mansion in the middle of nowhere to escape a fog-bound night that effectively traps them in a setting totally cut off from the outside world. Andres Resino, his hair grown in hippie-style after playing a globe trotting Interpol agent in the Paul Naschy classic WEREWOLF VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN, makes a convincing lead as a thrill-seeking motorcyclist traveling with the always delightful Evelyn Stewart through the mountains of southern Italy when a shortcut through a legendary, mysterious valley takes a turn for the worse and the pair find themselves stranded at the aforemention mansion with an otherwise improbable collection if cult Eurohorror supporting actors & actresses [Alberto Dalbes, Analie Gade, Analise Nardi and frequent Jess Franco actor Eduardo Fajardo] who, for one reason or another, have found themselves in a similar pickle. They bicker, split up into handily furnished bedrooms and retire to wait out the foggy night.

Fortunately, the mansion is situated right next to a creepy, terminally fog-enshrouded graveyard where not all of the corpses seem content to rest in piece, and mayhem ensues as the ghosts of the sole survivors of a vampire massacre start to walk the earth to harrangue the impromptu guests of their former mansion. To say anything more specific about the plot would ruin the fun for those who have never seen it: Rest assured, however, that MURDER MANISON does indeed live up to it's name & reputation, weaving together such elements as a creepy family legend, a bodiless head, a hanging corpse, the zombie Oddjob like cheauffer of a deceased aristocratic Contessa, and a brutal finale that results in madness & a respectable body count in what is essentially a bloodless shocker who's parts add up to far more than you might expect.

I am especially drawn to the film's tight, spare but visually rich cinematography & camerawork. There is quite simply not a single unnecessary shot or scene in the film [at least in the forms that still exist], with a prowling camera that draws the viewer into the story in a way that goes beyond merely documenting Luis G. de Blaine's wonderful screenplay -- another one of those lower budgeted Eurohorror efforts that seems to have been inspired by a SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU? cartoon of one sort or another. Indeed the movie has the look of the panels of a "graphic novel" or cartoon, with each scene dripping with atmospheric set decoration & camerawork stressing color compositions and mood. The film has a modern day setting but is total Gothic Horror at it's best, with delightful touches like the horrifying artwork festooning the walls of the various bedrooms that only a thoroughly tranquilized person could sleep next to, a gorgeous duplicitous femme fatale with lesbian overtones to her concerns for one of the "guests" in particular, and above all else, FOG.

What MURDER MANSION's makers may have had to skimp on budget-wise as far as technical or location expenses is more than made up for in the foggiest & most beautifully lit spaces filled with fog that I have ever seen. MURDER MANSION is a great study on how to use fog, actually, in a way that contributes to a movie's production design rather than obscuring it -- Whole scenes are dominated by an almost suffocating murkiness that you could metaphorically cut with a knife, yet even with the plot's emphasis on using the fog as a device it never becomes a cheapended, gimmicky effect. There's fog outside, inside & under this old house, and as one character literally phrases it, they all seem to have entered a different world that is unreal or supernatural in nature.

Of additional cult interest is the presence of the mysterious Ingrid Garbo, one of the famous "Greek Chorus" of sexually vivacious Vampire Playgirls featured in the likewise Paul Naschy fanger COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE, though sadly her bedsheet stays firmly in place during her one scene ... But she still exudes the seedy sluttiness that made her such a delightful presence in Naschy's movie, and it looks to me as though some of the interior shots from MURDER MANSION were staged in the same house used to film that classic favorite. Dunno though: after a couple hundred movies some of these houses start to look identical or hard to tell apart, and that is kind of the point of how the mansion is used by Polop & company: It is an archytipical setting for what starts out as a very stereotypical Eurohorror, but changes gear in the fourth act & throws the viewers a curve ball that spins off of the conventions they are used to from similar efforts populated by fog, undead vampire victims & femme fatale female vixens.

And the best part about MURDER MANSION is that it is a FUN movie; watching it is a wonderful study in Eurohorror, adding elements from so many different sources that what it ends up as has little or nothing to do with the different conventions employed to tell it's story -- Some viewers may be disappointed with the literal resolution of the story, but I think it just plays into the SCOOBY DOO nature of the story's origins, complete with Meddling Kids who work as sort of Mystery Investigators, if you like, who just want to get to the bottom of the story. Well cast and brimming with memorable images & moments, this is a Eurohorror effort that stands apart from the rest by being so plot & visual-oriented, with no outrageous sex or violence sequences for viewers to dwell over and otherwise distract them from the sheer enjoyment of just watching this movie and letting it happen onscreen as it will.

While this may be partly the result of the English language form that is most commonly known being cut, there doesn't really have seemed to be a lot of room in the script for bizarre violence & sex, and for my money this movie is suitable as-is for viewers of any age who like good movies, horror buff or no. MURDER MANSION is readily available in what I have found to be two distinctly different versions: Both are full frame presentations, the first apparently sourced from masters derived from the 83 minute version released in 1986 by Charter Video on VHS and available from Incredibly Strange Film Works on an excellent Codefree DVD release, with a similar transfer also found on Brentwood Home Video's HELL IN THE FAMILY two DVD box set, backed with the infamous US edit of IT HAPPENED AT NIGHTMARE INN by the great Sergio Martino. Both versions run about 83 minutes and look fabulous, appearing to have been sourced from actual studio master reels and not an old VHS tape. But the standout release is another surprise from our acid eatin' freakazoid buddies at Something Weird Video , who have their own 16mm film print that clocks in at 85 minutes & 30 odd seconds, and has some additional lesbian innuendo and some additional creepy footage from the movie's shock sequences that Charter apparently found inappropriate for their likewise unrated release. At most this film would garner a PG rating even with what is present, but the possibility of other excised footage does exist, and doubtlessly there is longer Spanish and/or Italian language release that may or may not have been prepared for home video at some point, though none is described.

Seek out that Something Weird Video VHS! But even if only one of the DVD releases or an old Charter video is within your grasp, you are guaranteed a movie that will demand repeat viewings & is guaranteed to become a favorite, even if the vampire fangs stay off in this one.

The Bottom Line: ***1/2 [out of a possible ****] SQ040703

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.

Watched this film titled as Murder Mansion on sub-cheapo Brentwood DVD set called Hell In the Family. Must originally have been from a TV print, because there is no nudity and almost no violence to speak of. Most annoying are the choppy jumps in the film where the violence and nudity belong.

Pity, because the filming of "Mansion of the Fog/Cloud" is really top notch. Fantastic saturated colors ala Mario Bava. Great sets. Decent budget. Decent acting. Great looking damsels in distress. But that is about it.

Too much of the film is missing for the movie to flow well. Too many plot holes. Too many scenes that are suddenly cut.

On the plus side though, Murder Mansion is still a very nice looking movie - lots of atmosphere, and still fairly interesting despite the chopped scenes. Buying the Brentwood DVD set costs less than renting. Bonus in the set is another weird Spanish film - A Veil for the Devil - which is presented as It Happened At Nightmare Inn - also missing the violence and nudity, but still pretty creepy. Both films would be good little cult flicks if someone could scare up intact prints.