...hanno cambiato faccia

This is less like Gothic horror or Giallo and more like bland, post-modern dystopian sci-fi. All of the buildings are boxy, tan or white, blank and spare, nothing new to residents of the 21st century who are all too familiar with ugly strip malls and corporate office buildings, as well as the scourge of beige moms. I get that they were making a point but it makes it less enjoyable for someone with my interest in atmospheric Italian horror.

I also don't consider this ahead of its time, Henry Miller wrote The Air Conditioned Nightmare in the 1930s, already sounding the alarm about chain motels with no character and the stifling, uncreative conformity of creeping capitalism in the United States.

I might try it another time in a different mood, but I started then re-started it twice, only to abandon it by about 40 minutes in. There's nothing escapist about this, it really drives on things that are still problems right now.

When searching for ways to describe "They've Changed Faces", I can only come up with opposites and contradictions. It's obscure and little known, but simultaneously it might be the most original and unique film ever to come out of Italy. I wouldn't label it as a horror film, and yet it features some of the most atmospheric and unsettling moments you'll ever witness. The plot and the characters are extremely weird and overall impossible to sympathize with, but the film is fascinating from start to finish and you do develop care for everyone. The whole thing is senseless and basically just a bunch of nonsense, however a lot of thought went into the script and it's full of clever and downright intelligent metaphors. And so on.

Alberto Valli is an inconspicuous employee in a large automobile company. His modest job status is perfectly illustrated by the floor he works on. One morning, he hears from the CEO that none other than the company's founder and Vice President, Giovanni Nosferatu, has summoned Alberto to his mansion in a remote mountain area. With a name like that, Alberto should know better than to accept, but he's honored and undertakes the journey. He meets up with a half-naked hitchhiker and a whole bunch of dead-silent mountain villagers before arriving at the estate. Nosferatu is a strange fella, or what else did you expect, but he does make some very impossible-to-refuse offers to Alberto.

There are many bizarre gimmicks in "They've Changed Faces", and the fact they remain unexplained only makes the film more intriguing. What is a topless hippie girl doing in the middle of nowhere? What is the meaning of Nosferatu's mute henchmen driving around the estate in white Fiat 500s? Why does Alberto leave behind a gorgeous naked girl and sleeps around with a creepy, asexual secretary instead? How brilliant is the idea of playing advertisements when sitting down in a chair or stepping into a shower?

The essence of the film, namely that old-fashioned Gothic vampires have evolved and now form the elite members of the business, media, advertisement, sports,religious, artistic world, is truly unique. Adolfo Celi is fantastic, as usual, but I would have preferred he had more screen time. The musical score by Amadeo Tommasi (also known for his excellent work for "The House with Laughing Windows) is the best thing in an already very good movie. Writer/director Corrado Farina's other cult-horror flick "Baba Yaga" might be more popular and better known, but personally I think this one is a much better film.

This Italian horror film is one that is most certainly coming at us from a decidedly different angle. Its director Corrado Farina was also responsible for the more well-known Baba Yaga but for my money They Have Changed Their Face is the better film. It's an adaption of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula but with some serious differences. In it the Dracula substitute is a powerful businessman called Giovanni Nosferatu. Like the book, he also lives in a remote mountainous region of Eastern Europe and the storyline also follows a hapless businessman who has been sent to see him. But aside from a similar basic story structure this film takes the material into very unusual places. Atypically for an Italian horror film this is a somewhat satirical movie. It's an allegory on capitalism, where the modern vampires have moved with the times and now prey on the public differently. Instead of sucking their blood, they suck the life from them with soul-destroying commercials and generally prey on the population with ruthless capitalism.

All this is well and good but what takes it up a level is the overall strangeness of the presentation. The vampire's house is a crumbling old building but inside it is very chic and modern. His henchmen drive around in white minis while sporting jump suits and helmets. While inside the house the hero is exposed to commercials; cumulating in an excellent later scene where a selection of newly developed adverts are shown to Mr Nosferatu in his board room. It's all very disconcerting and, to be honest, it's very hard predicting where this one is going to go. This is very inventive genre film-making that's for sure. The soundtrack by Amedeo Tommasi is great as well, with a variety of tones and themes. It helps set the atmosphere, which is one of real mystery. There is also a good cast too. Adolfo Celi is well suited to the role of Giovanni Nosferatu. But perhaps most interesting of all is Geraldine Hooper who was most famous for her turn as a male homosexual in Dario Argento's Deep Red. Frankly, it was only due to this film that I was even aware that she was not a bloke!

This is one of the most original Italian genre pictures from the 70's. It's one that certainly needs to be seen by a far wider audience.

Vampires are the real BAD guys (i.e. corporate honchos feeding on much more than blood) in this satirical, quirky outing. Visually stunning, with a main character who goes by the name of Giovanni Nosferatu... not to forget an army of white, man-eating utility cars from hell (just forget wimpy, musty ole bats!)... I mean, how can you go wrong?

(1971) They Have Changed Their Face/ ...hanno cambiato faccia (In Italian with English subtitles) DRAMA HORROR

Co-written and directed by Corrado Farina that has regular office factory worker, Alberto Valle (Giuliano Disperati) ordered by his superior to meet the president of the corporation, Giovanni Nosferautu (Adolfo Celi) of "Auto Avio Motors" comp. And during his drive he then notices he is running low on gas and tries to communicate with the villagers with the only person who reached out to him is a female wearing a thick coat with no bra and topless, Laura (Francesca Modigliani) coincidentally heading toward the same direction. And by the time he reaches the villa, and tries to ring himself in, there is no one there to greet him by the fence's gate. And when a door is finally discovered, he then decides to walk the rest of the way with Laura deciding not to to walk with him. He would then hands her the keys, she tells him she will wait for him. As he is walking toward the villa, two cars are driving alongside with him. And when Alberto tries to make conversation with them, they act unresponsive as if they are dead. He is then greeted by Giovanni Nosferatu's secretary, Corrina (Geraldine Hooper) and she tells him he will not be able to see him until dinner which is weirdly served at 10 PM. It is during then Alberto does some snooping around that does not really does anything. It just resorts to more weird stuff happening.

The name Nosferatu was mentioned on purpose and although I did not see the ending the way that it happened, the entire set up was routine and boring. To which if anyone were to watch many vampire movies the approach is still the same for I would have liked it more had it been shortened to 45 minutes both the impact and message of capitalism would still be the same.