Latidos de pánico

This is a typical Paul Naschy movie and as such is difficult to describe to someone who hasn't seen one. On one hand, it is very old fashioned movie hearkening back to classic American thrillers like "Gaslight" or classic European thrillers like "Diabolique". On the other side, it opens with the scene of a completely naked women being chased through the woods by a knight on horseback and then brutally maced (in the medieval sense)into bloody pulp. (People who complain about the sexism and violence toward women in American films ought to take a gander at this).

Naschy has a way of combining disparate horror themes and subgenres in what seems like a very random, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink manner (his werewolf films, for instance, have involved everything from Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde to Countess Elizabeth Barthory to a Himalayan yeti). In this film he uses the evil Count Marnac he created for an earlier movie, "Horror Rises from the Tomb", but rather than making a conventional sequel he freely re-writes the legend making the knight an avenging figure who punishes unfaithful women (in "Horror" the count's wife was a conspirator in his crimes, here she is his first victim). Then he proceeds to ignore the supernatural elements of the story until the very end to tell a "Gaslight"-like tale of a man (Naschy himself, natch) who is only using the legend to frighten his wife to death. He wants to be with a mistress, of course, but just to needlessly complicate things he has TWO mistresses--the very sexy "bad seed" niece of his housekeeper(insert audible drooling sounds here) and another woman (who seems to only exist to provide additional nudity and and another gory killing, but oh well). The whole thing really shouldn't work, but somehow it does.

The recent Mondo Macabre disc this comes on is one of their best with a very interesting (but lamentably short) documentary that serves as an excellent primer for Spanish horror in general, and a longer, equally interesting interview with the erstwhile Spanish werewolf himself. This is neither the best or the worst Naschy movie I've seen, but this new disc should be a must-have for any Naschy/Spanish horror fan.

Panic Beats (1982)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Paul Naschy plays a man trying to care for his ill wife while carrying on affairs with two other women. All three women are causing him problems but thankfully there's a family curse that has a Knight return from the grave a kill anyone who dares harm him. Naschy also wrote and directed this film that has a very nice premise that goes back to his Horror Rises From the Tomb film. As usual, there are plenty of beautiful naked women but Naschy also adds some nice atmosphere, gory death scenes and some tense moments. However, like many other Naschy films, this one here eventually drags in a few spots but it's still well worth watching especially for a couple nice twists in the story.

This is out on DVD from Mondo Macabro, and I confess I own every DVD they've put out, even the UK-issued PAL ones. Well, one exception: I did not get O Ritual dos Sádicos (1970) AKA Awakening of the Beast, since I'd seen it already in Image Entertainment's Coffin Joe box set and I absolutely hated it. I'll also admit to the fact that I get a kick out of watching horror movies that have relatively few user ratings on the IMDb (less than 100, less than 20). So of course I bought Panic Beats when it came out!

The lead in Panic Beats is played by Paul Naschy AKA Jacinto Molina, a very prolific Spanish actor specializing in horror. In spite of his many films, I think the only ones I'd seen previously were La Orgía de los muertos (1973) and Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972), the latter of which was one of Mondo Macabro's PAL DVDs. So far, I don't see the appeal of him as an actor. He looks a little like the late John Belushi, but seems to lack the humor and charisma. Naschy's acting, particularly in Panic Beats is very stoic, very nearly expressionless.

Panic Beats starts off energetically, with a scene set in the past with a knight chasing down a fully nude woman and killing her with a mace. The knight is Alaric du Marnac, a Gille de Rais-type character Naschy'd played before in Espanto surge de la tumba, El (1973).

After that, it's in the present day. Naschy is married to a nervous woman prone to nightmares. He takes her to an isolated home owned by his family, and their trip is not without incident. At the home is an old family servant and a pretty young relative of hers. The movie's pace is pretty slow for some time after their arrival, and it becomes evident that Naschy intends to "gaslight" his wife (Naschy, as the film's writer/director was consciously drawing from Gaslight, and Rebecca, the novel of which is mentioned by a character). Also being referenced is Les Diaboliques (1955), particularly in one scene stolen from that film, and poorly imitated here.

Much of the terror of the film is supposed to come from what is supposed to be a ghost of du Marnac, dressed in armor. Naschy, as writer/director again thought the idea of a knight moving like a tank through a modern home to be terrifying in itself. Given the incongruity, perhaps it could have been, but it is not here. It doesn't help, for example, that the house is already filled with several sets of armor; gone the incongruity - this is no "clown at midnight" to borrow Robert Bloch's phrase. The armor is also quite plain and shiny, which I didn't think helped either. And for myself, I'll add that I more or less immediately thought both of the knight in Scooby Doo, and the rubber-chicken wielding knight in Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series. An example of a terrifying knight in a modern context that worked would be the knight in Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King, so the idea is not without potential.

Naschy has lovers, and confidants, and people outside his plot yet within his circle, so there is the potential for things to start going wrong. The movie gets more interesting when this happens. There is some gore, but really not a lot. There is some full frontal nudity, and you also get to see rather a lot of Naschy who for an ex-weightlifter looks more burly than muscular.

I found the movie to be disappointing. I did like the special features, though. There is one on Spanish horror films, making particular mention of Naschy, Jess Franco, Jorge Grau, and Amando de Ossorio. There is another that is an interview with Naschy. Both are quite interesting, and made the movie not seem like such a bad purchase.

Paul Naschy films can be more than just a little bit hit and miss - and unfortunately there's a lot more misses than hits, but every now and again you happen upon a good one and this flick is certainly among the better Naschy films that I've seen. The film is directed by Naschy himself, and true to form (considering how a lot of his films are rather similar to each other) this one takes a hell of a lot of influence from Naschy's earlier works, particularly the boring Horror Rises from the Tomb. It's not original by any stretch of the imagination, but Panic Beats works well thanks to its atmosphere, gore and plot twists - it's almost verging on being a Giallo! The plot focuses on Paul; a rich descendant of a legendary knight named Alaric de Marnac. The knight has his own legend, and apparently he reappears every 100 years to batter any unfaithful women around his house. Paul decides to move his rich, but terminally ill wife up to the castle where the knight is reputed to have lived. Strange things start happening, and it appears the legend may be true...

The film gets off to a great start as we watch the knight chase down and slaughter a young woman. The film slows down from there and focuses more on the plot and characters. I won't say that it's all that interesting, but the film never gets boring and the way that we focus on the legend of the ancient knight is good. The film really picks up around the middle when the twist in the tale is revealed and it becomes obvious what the film is actually about. Naschy packs this flick with plenty of gore which is nice and the way that it's dished out is often unpleasant, which of course is also nice. There's a fair bit of bloodshed and the budget constraints were obviously a problem as it looks rather cheap - but it's still nice to watch. There's not as much nudity on display as some Euro-horror fans will be used to but Naschy is nice enough to cast some beautiful women and we do get some nudity. It all boils down to a predictable but well worked ending and while I cant say that Panic Beats is right up there with the best that Euro-horror has to offer - it's certainly a decent little film and above average for Naschy flick so I can recommend it.

"Panic Beats" or "Latidos de pánico" is a movie made just well enough to be an OK watch. However, storywise, it's more reminiscent of an episode of soap opera than a horror movie, which isn't necessarily bad, but it's surely not an achievement. Horror parts of the movie are nothing special and rely on gore to be shocking. There are no tense moments and there are no cool chase scenes and the opening and ending music theme of the movie absolutely doesn't fit into a horror movie. However, the movie looks and feels OK, there is some decent nudity thrown in the mix and, all in all, there are far worse movies for a horror movie genre fan to spend time on. I give it 6/10, but I recommend it only to the most hardcore genre and Naschy fans, because the rest won't find anything worth their trouble here.