Il buio macchiato di rosso

Edith Evans was one of the greatest actresses of the last century.So why did she demean herself by appearing in this rubbish.It is a huge cringe worthy minute when she is scared by Jack Palance with a silly mask on.He really didn't need the mask.His face was enough to frighten anyone.His features were as mobile as Chuku.Probably the low point of everybody's career.

A nutty antiques dealer (Jack Palance) starts to sacrifice women in different scary methods ,as he executes them in honor to an African idol named Chuku , whom he believes will reward him with immense power . He's reluctantly helped by his young helper (Martin Potter) . Meanwhile , two Police Inspectors (Detective Constable Michael Jayston and Percy Herbert) start investigating the strange events and along the way , things go wrong .

Tongue-in-cheek and offbeat tale of a crazed antique dealer who slays a number of women , as he sacrifices in honor of an African God . The story is uneven paced , suffering from some weak incidents and of varying quality , packing nice as well as fleeble moments. The main amusement results to be to guess the kind of murder to carry out by the creepy killer , ranging from impalement , stabbing , burning , to scaring people to death with an ooga-booga fright mask . Here stands out Jack Palance playing as a demented art dealer & antique-shop owner who performs nightly rituals thinking of being rewarded with unimaginable wealth if he merely offers up human sacrifice , as Jack gives an overacting but attractive performance . He's well accompanied by a great support cast formed by a lot of familiar faces , giving brief but charming performances , such as : Martin Potter , Michael Jayston , Percy Herbert , Diana Dors , Julie Ege , Edith Evans , Trevor Howard , Hugh Griffith , David Warbeck , Suzy Kendall , Kathleen Byron , among others .

The picture was regular but professionally directed by Freddie Francis , as it has somes flaws , shortcomings and failures . Freddie studied engineering but changed his career direction when he developed an interest in photography and cinema. Became a clapper boy at Elstree Studios in 1935, eventually working his way up to camera assistant at Pinewood. Wartime service with the Army Kinematograph Unit, then became camera operator at London Films. Worked on several films for Powell & Pressburger and John Huston. Full lighting cameraman from 1956. A noted exponent of British 'New Wave' cinematography . Started to direct from 1962, particularly horror films for Hammer and Amicus. Accepted many assignments to make a name for himself, but regretted this later when he became somewhat typecast in the genre. However, he was a stylist who created superior visuals for several poorly written films. After reading a script, he would 'photograph the film in his mind'. One of his personal favorites among his work as a director was The Skull (1965) and he replaced Terence Fisher as director on Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968) . As this craftsman director made several horror fims, such as : Dark tower, The Doctor and the devil, The Ghoul, Craze, Legend of the werewolf , Tales that witness madness, The creeping flesh, Tales from the crypt , The vampire happening, Dracula has rising from the grave, They came from beyond space , Torture garden, The skull, Hysteria, The evil of Frankenstein, Day of the triffids, Nightmare, Brain, Paranoic, among others . Rating : 5.5/10 . The flick will appeal to Jack Palance fans.

Jack Palance as an insane antiques dealer who worships an African deity in his basement and offers it human sacrifices? That's the kind of film that just can't lose! And it doesn't, although the copy I watched tries it's best with the worst sound ever, forcing me to up the volume on the DVD player to max and still struggle to hear some of the dialogue.

Now Jack can do these off-kilter roles in his sleep and this NOT being a spaghetti western, he's actually required to be there on screen for most of the film. It's a joy to see him in his Primark devil robes with his coven, worshipping this African statue while a chick dances nude and then cuts herself. It's all harmless fun until some ex-coven member turns up and accidentally impales herself on the statue's trident, and the subsequent windfall gets Jack all thinking that maybe he should be upping his game when it comes to demented statue worshipping.

In his non-insane life, Jack owns a shop with a weedy assistant who knows what he's up to but doesn't want to turn Jack in and lose his job (because he'd have his benefit cut when trying to claim Unemployment Benefit as technically he would have quit) so he just goes with the flow while Jack stuffs American tourist's heads into his Argos basement oven. By this point the cops are sniffing around and Jack isn't exactly putting them off the trail.

So just when you're thinking we're getting a stalk and slash film Craze takes a side road into an elaborate plot to bump off Jack's rich Aunt which involves getting Diana Dors drunk and him jumping out of a cupboard wearing a Poundland horror mask. Will Jack get away with his plan to continually offer sacrifices to his statue? Or will his assistant get fed up being paid minimum wage? Will David Warbreck do anything when he finally shows up near the end of the film? I ain't saying, but it's as daft as you would expect.

I seem to own rather a lot of Jack Palance films (Man in the Attic, It can Be Done Amigo, Brothers Blue, Portrait of a Hit-man, Welcome to Blood City etc) and he's a lot more animated than usual in this one. Not an essential film, but a good time waster thanks to the daft plot.

I hardly recognized Freddie Francis in this movie, not in terms of directing, with exciting camera angles and moves, but because of a so lousy script where poor Jack Palance does his best to save the whole. Freddie Francis gave us worst, with the awful - or funny, that depends of your taste and opinion - TROG, where it was Joan Crawford instead of Jack Palance as the lead. But I am sure that many viewers will appreciate this film, that looks like a TV movie for me. Freddie Francis was more inspired during the sixties, let's admit it. Remember his first part of career, but maybe was it because of a budget matter, not talent.

I had heard not too good reports of this and with particular reference to 'dark scenes' and poor prints. Well, glad to say, nothing wrong with my bright and colourful print and cannot imagine what scenes had seemed so dark to some. This starts very well and I had to pinch myself to convince that this was a 70s British film, such was the uncompromising nudity and violence. Indeed it carries on in this vein, with Jack Palance turning in a rather effective and restrained performance. Things are fine till about halfway and while all the sacrifices to Chuku have thus far been in house as it were, we now go on the most convoluted exercise to achieve killing and alibi. Quite ridiculous. Had probably been okay in the original book but clearly film doesn't have to be so slavish. Still, we get back on track and all ends fairly well with Palance at last letting go and show his truly demented side. Julie Ege, Suzy Kendall and Diana Dors all put in an appearance but only the latter to particularly good effect.