The Loreley's Grasp

This was a nice discovery of a lost or at least unknown movie for me. 'The Loreley's Grasp' was released with a German dubbing for the first time in 2014, and because the director is famous for the 'Blind Dead' series, I bought the Blu-ray disc blindly (no pun intended).

Sigurd (Tony Kendall) is requested to save a boarding school from a mad killer that stalks the village at the Rhine. Elke (Silvia Tortosa, known best for 'Horror Express' with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing) is the young teacher who walks alone in the night a lot, so Sigurd is getting a chance to save her. Of course she could stay inside, knowing that a killer is outside, but then we wouldn't get any chase sequences. A blind musician tells everyone in the village about his suspicion that the killings are related to the Loreley legend, but when Sigurd meets a mysterious woman introducing herself as Loreley (Helga Liné), he is not suspicious at all and falls for her tricks, until it is almost too late...

Not a very clever script, rather dumb characters, cheaply made (the school has about 6 students), very free interpretation of the original myth, but never mind, you get a lot of darkness, a monster with green claws and big teeth, screaming girls and typical 70s sleaze. The killings are rather bloodthirsty - I personally prefer the old-fashioned, black and white 60s style over the graphic violence in the much too colorful 70s style, but it is a sign of the times.

Spanish horror from director Amando de Ossorio (Tombs of the Blind Dead). When a bloodthirsty reptilian creature attacks a German town, Elke (Silvia Tortosa), a teacher at an exclusive all-girls school, hires big-game hunter Sigurd (Tony Kendall) to protect the premises. As all of the students (and some of the faculty) pine over the handsome hero, a mysterious woman named Lorelei (Helga Line) arrives in town. Could she be connected to the horrible monster terrorizing the countryside?

The creature effects are laughable, and the gory attacks are undercut by the amateurish craftsmanship, but I liked the unusual story, and the bevy of beauties in the cast certainly didn't hurt. Helga Line was over 40 in this but still looked phenomenal, while Silvia Tortosa is one of the most beautiful women that I've seen in a film in some time. Also released as When the Screaming Stops.

"The Lorelei's Grasp" is sadly hard to find at the moment. The awful re-release "When The Screaming Stops" makes a mockery of the heart of the film, dressing it up as drive-in trash. In it's original version, it's still a bit cheesy, but I think it's a pretty good horror film. The plot centres on beautiful girls at an exclusive school who are being terrorised by a killer...some of the girls are already dead and so the school calls on the help of a handsome bodyguard called Sirgurd to protect the rest of them. Sirgurd has his hands full as all the schoolgirls soon develop a crush on him, but he also has to work out who is responsible for the gruesome murders.

Although the English version has terrible dubbing and most available versions are bootleg copies with a poor picture, it's possible to see that there is a good film hiding in here somewhere. The Lorelei creature itself is a bit hokey, but it doesn't hold back on the violence, with lot's of gory chest ripping shots(the Lorelei likes to rip people's hearts out). It also features some beautiful actresses of the period, notably Silvia Tortosa as the heroine, and the fabulous Helga Line as the mysterious beauty who seems connected with the murders somehow. It also has a poetic ending of sorts, and a great dreamy musical soundtrack. This film could gain a lot more appreciation if it was given a re-mastered DVD release. As they have recently done a make-over for the director Amando De Ossorio's "Blind Dead" series, maybe this one could be next?

This movie is almost as good as Ossorio's blind dead movies (I must add it's even better than Ghostship of the blind dead). It is interesting that it consists of only one man, among many girls. Unusual in films of any genre (except porn).

The two best things about this movie are:

The monster and its attacks. You really get the picture that the monster is VERY aggressive, and the attacks are FURIOUS! Later on, you will also see a kind of sad twist to the monster's entity.

The atmosphere and the setting. There are many intriguing scenes with dreamlike landscapes; a magic and mysterious counterpart to the violence at the mansion.

I give this 10 out of 10.

According to ancient tradition of seven moons , a horrible creature called Lorelei emerges from river Rhine to eat human hearts . Every night when the moon is full, she turns into a reptile-like monster craving for human blood and begins her criminal rampage . Lorelei is attended by a bouncing and tall servant called Alberic (Luis Barboo) . The monster appears causing wreak havoc on the village , horrifying and torturing the rural population . She makes a brutal massacre in the little town and the protagonists are surrounded in a house . Later on , one girl after another of a nearby boarding school is being killed by her . Then , the Mayor (Luis Induni) and the Doctor (Sergio Mendizabal) hire a hunter named Sirgurd (Tony Kendall who recently died at age 73 from cancer) who is engaged to kill the monster . Meanwhile , the starring attempts to save the damsel in disgrace , the boarding school ruler (Silvia Tortosa) , and falls in love with Lorelei.

This atmospheric horror movie contains terrifying scenes when appears the monster and takes place the brutal killings . Based on legendary Lorelei , a known German legend dealing with a monster that has been living for centuries in a grotto beneath the river Rhein in Germany and in which rises from undersea to wreak havoc upon some beautiful Euro-babes and unfortunate victims . Plenty of lots of blood and gore , including repellent images when Lorelei removes hearts to feed herself . The fable is sometimes silly and laughable ,though the effects and action are well made . It's a slight fun with acceptable make-up , special effects , passable set decoration and functional art direction . In the film appears known Spanishtrash actresses as Helga Line , Loreta Tovar , Silvia Tortosa and uncredited Barbara Rey . Creepy and frightening musical score especially when the Lorelei appearance , being well composed by Anton Garcia Abril, author of the four eerie soundtracks of Templars living dead and composed in similar style . Colorful and evocative cinematography filmed on location in El Carcán, Madrid, Torrelodones , river Alberche, Madrid, Spain and Rhine, Germany .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Amando De Ossorio . Amando began in films as a writer and assistant director and continued his career by making short films and industrial documentaries . He was one of the main directors of the Spanish horror boom in the 70s, specially for his quartet of films about the living dead templars which started with his first great success and immensely popular ¨Tombs of the Blind dead¨ which to be continued by a trilogy : ¨Return of evil dead¨ , ¨Ship of Zombies or Blind dead 2¨ and ¨Blind dead 3 or The night of the sea gulls¨ . Amando owns his own studio and created and/or designed many of the simple special effects sequences you see in any of his many imaginative undertakings . He displayed a varied career and specialized on all kind of genres as Western in "Rebels in Canada" and "Grave of the Gunfighter" , Historical as ¨Los Cantabros¨ , Monster movie as ¨Serpent of sea¨ and , of course, Terror as ¨Malenka¨ , The possessed¨ and ¨night of witches¨ . Ossorio also studied painting and photography , moreover, he also made his living as a painter of creepy images of the Knights Templar in his later years.