La mansión de la niebla

You no doubt have run into this theme time and time again- some people get stranded on a VERY foggy night, and they're forced to seek refuge in this spooky ol' house. Of course, the house is in an isolated locale. Of course, it's located next to a cemetery. Of course, the owners are creepy people. Of course, the house is rumored to be haunted. And, of course, the guests' stay and slumber are disturbed by the strange and haunting goings-on that we've come to expect in stories like this. We've seen it all before, from Scooby Doo cartoons to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. And so the cast goes through the motions while the audience goes through the motions of watching them and pretending not to know what will happen. The closing scene is ludicrous- how many pistols can fire 17 shots without being reloaded? However, it's not a total loss. The acting is marginally better than usual for a low-budget film like this. The production and sets are fairly good-looking, the background music is satisfactory, and there is some atmosphere of eerie calm which actually works. So I would recommend this film to people who really like haunted house movies.

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...

The main ingredient in a Giallo film I like best is the story. Usually, these are well thought out revenge thrillers, with loads of twists, red-herrings, and a hint of the supernatural. This film has all the above and more.

I liked the way the writers, Luis G De Blain and Antonio Troiso, pull the attention of the audience into the story from the first frame. The hook of the Biker and the Hitchhiking Damsel snags you right away. You start thinking, what will happen? This interesting and intriguing segue is only to introduce the characters to each other... and the audience.

Then we meet a group of friends who have urgent business to conduct. They journey out of their home for the meeting and drive straight into the thickest fog they've seen. Around this time, the Biker and the Damsel ride into the same peasouper. This is where the writers start to throw in some supernatural - or not - elements. A man walking along the roadside. Nothing unusual there, except he wears a wide-brimmed hat and is carrying a long staffed scythe. Shot in silhouette, he is a spooky character indeed.

This is only the start. Things get stranger and darker as we progress through the film. If this story cannot keep your interest, then you have ADD. This is one of the better and more intricate Giallo films I've watched.

The one thing I wasn't fond of in the story was the ending. If I had written the tale, I would have opted to go for more of a horror style climax and not the thriller ending. For me, it wasn't as satisfying as the rest of the movie.

I was thankful that the director, Francisco Lara Polop, was skilled enough to keep the story smooth. It would have been easy to create confusion. This adds another great ingredient. Unlike the horror films and thrillers being shot in America and England, the Spanish and Italian liked to play with the rhythms of the pacing. This variation allows for the creation of tension and excitement within the film's atmosphere. Though Polop isn't a master at this, he does enough to keep it engaging.

The cast does their bits admirably and keeps their characters believable, relatable, and a little mysterious. You're never too sure what's happening or who is to blame, if anyone. I will also pay respect to the voice talents and the dubbing masters. Most Giallo films are dubbed into English and luckily for the audience, the voices match the actor. At times, it's the actual actor or actress who voices their character in English. At other times, it's a different actor or actress. The main culprits of bad dubs, from this era, were Japan and China. Some pair-ups and voiceovers were risible. Though I have yet to find an Italian or Spanish production with such low dubbing production values. So don't let the fact it's dubbed put you off watching this screen gem.

Though this isn't a horror film, as such, I would recommend it to all horror fans as well as the Giallo aficionados, Thriller followers, and Chiller fans. This is well worth a watch, and it has made it onto my watch again pile. So turn off the lights, settle down with a warm drink, and enjoy.

Ratings: Story 1.5 : Direction 1.5 : Pace 1.25 : Acting 1.25 : Enjoyment 1.5 : Total 7 / 10

Now bike on over to my Killer Chiller Thrillers and The Game Is Afoot lists to see where this spooky picture ranked.

Take Care and Stay Well.

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.

Unusual and likable Spanish/Italian co-production that plays something like a seventies Spanish, Old Dark House with giallo elements. Split more or less into three parts, the beginning takes place on the road, the middle introduces us to all the varied peoples holed up in the mansion in the fog and the final 25minutes are pretty wild action all the way. In truth there is nothing particularly violent or sexual but all the ladies are lovely, we really don't know what's going on any more than they do and we care enough to stick with it to find out. Worth it? Yes, I reckon so, it's just that little bit different and even the 'posh' English dubbing seems to help the strangeness that permeates the whole film.