El colegio de la muerte

Other and more intelligent reviewers have already mentioned it as well, and I can only concur. "School of Death" (original title: "El Colegio de la Muerte") tries really hard to look a lot like that other Spanish cult classic "The House that Screamed" (original title: "La Residencia"). Hey, I don't blame the makers, because the 1969 landmark by Narciso Ibáñez-Serrador still is and will forever remain one of the greatest European horror movies ever made. But I also admire co-writer/director Pedro Ramirez for his effort, especially since "School of Death" mixes gothic horror with sleaze and mystery elements that were typical for Krimi-thrillers based on the work of Edgar Wallace.

The story takes place in the year 1899 in London, in an orphanage/institute for young girls run by the strict headmistress Wilkins. She allegedly finds deeply Catholic and God-fearing foster families for her girls, but the disturbing reality is they're being lobotomized by a psychotic doctor (whose scarred face looks like a national Spanish dish of paella) first, and then introduced in a sleazy prostitution network. The lovely Leonore seeks for help when she stumbles into her previous roommate Sylvia, but the latter doesn't recognize her, and walks by like a zombie.

Granted, the glorious heydays of goth-horror with mad & deformed scientists and Victorian damsels in distress were perhaps long finished in 1975, but "School of Death" is nevertheless a fun and morbid piece of Spanish horror. It's often atmospheric, for instance the sequences at the cemetery or when Sylvia is transported in a creepy carriage around London at night, and there are a few bloody murder scenes. The script serves several "surprise"-twists in the finale, of which some are very good, and others are either silly or predictable. Overall, though, "School of Death" is a cool and warmly recommended mid-70s Euro-horror flick.

School of death or El Colegio De La Muerte is set in London , 1899 , it deals with a boarding house called ¨Saint Elizabeth Refuge¨(managed by Norma Kastel) of abandoned girls (Sandra Mozarowski , Victoria Vera) . The girls are tyrannically governed under three rules : Silence , discipline and obedience . But some of them are being kidnapped and lobotomized by a disfigured mad scientist and turned into zombie slaves . At the refuge arrives a doctor (Dean Selmier who provides the most exciting scenes when he's buried alive) to heal the orphans . Meanwhile , two Police Inspectors (Estanis Gonzalez , Angel Menendez) are investigating the strange deeds and murders .

This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , high body-count , plot twists and glimmer color in lurid images with acceptable results . Intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and creepy interior and exterior . Interesting and suspenseful screenplay by the same director , Pedro Ramirez , the producer Alfonso Balcazar and the prolific Italian writer Sandro Continenza . Adequate make-up on a badly burned mad doctor who provides the screams , twists and turns . Functional , appropriate sets , being well filmed in the medieval city of Toledo and in Hammer style , full of foggy streets and bright night scenes. Colorful cinematography in Maria Bava wake realized by Antonio Ballesteros Jr , son of other magnificent cameraman , Antonio L. Ballesteros Sr . The motion picture was professionally directed by Pedro L. Ramirez , including a startling visual content and adequate narration , though being sometimes slow-moving. Ramirez was an expert on comedy , filming vehicles for the Spanish comic named Jose Luis Ozores such as ¨ El Gafe¨, ¨El Tigre Chamberi¨, ¨Los Ladrones Somos Gente Honrada¨, ¨Recluta con Niño¨ and directed two Chorizo Western for Alfonso Balcazar (who was screenwriter and producer of ¨School of dead¨) such as "Watch Out Gringo! Sabata Will Return" and "None of the Three Were Called Trinity" starred by Tito Garcia and Chris Huerta , both of them playing secondary roles in ¨School of death¨ . Rating : 5,5/10 . Acceptable and passable .

This film somewhat resembles the much more famous Spanish film "La Residencia" made several years earlier. Like that film it is set in the 19th century Victorian Era, but at a very strict British orphanage as opposed to a very strict French finishing school. It has a similar plot with various nubile female students of the school mysteriously disappearing. But in this case they're being lobotomized by a badly burned mad scientist and turned into zombie sex slaves (or something). But while "La Residencia" was quite racy for its late sixties era with shower scenes and everything (OK, so all the girls wore gowns in the shower, but still...), this movie made five years or so later seems very tame for mid-70's Europe. I suspect it might have been one of the last films made under the repressive Franco regime (a year or two later Spanish movies like "The Adolescents" and "Satan's Blood" would become at least as racy as anything else in Europe and that time). Still, the old-fashioned flavor doesn't hurt the film that much. It's not really graphic, especially as far as sex or nudity go, but it is enjoyably warped.

The cast consists mostly of unknowns. One of the leads, Victoria Vera, would appear in "The Adolescents" the next year with Cristina Galbo (from "La Residencia") and Koo Stark. The most interesting actress perhaps though is the principal lead, Sandra Mazurowsky. Mazurowsky had a memorable cameo in "Blue Eyes of a Broken Doll" and also appeared a couple of other Paul Naschy flicks. She played a potential virgin sacrifice in Amando Ossorio's last "blind dead" film "Night of the Seagulls". The virgin role became a familiar one for her--even in sleazy movies like "Hell Train" she fills out her outfits very nicely, but never really takes them off. This stunning dark-haired, blue-eyed beauty had the same kind of "girl-next-door" appeal as Cristina Galbo or Koo Stark, and I'm sad to learn (if the IMDb info. can be trusted) that she ended up committing suicide a few years after this film.

This movie isn't in the same class as "La Residencia", of course. But as far as Spanish horror of the 1970's goes it's certainly above average.

Going to a girls' boarding school, a detective attempting to find the cause of a number of strange disappearances finds the cause to be a disfigured doctor creating monstrosities out of the girls and tries to stop him from continuing his plans.

This here was quite the enjoyable sleazy effort. Among the more enjoyable aspects here is the fact that there's quite an enjoyably varied atmosphere present that works incredibly well here. That this one features such a wide-ranging series of influences, turning from Gothic chamber-piece to school-girl exploitation and then wrapping it all within the confines of a sleaze-riddled grindhouse effort makes this initially appear chaotic and schizophrenic but comes together so well that it becomes incredibly engaging. The scenes of the girls in the school, complete with the tyrannical overlord resorting to vile whipping, stabbing and other forms of punishment that's enhanced by the scenes of them in their school-girl outfits and less, give this the kind of grimy feel in conjunction with the other story lines throughout here. Bringing in the mad scientist who's also quite deformed with a hideous facial scar is a solid answer to the mystery about their disappearances, and the scenes of him strapping them down and operating on them in order to turn them into zombies offers a series of exploitation-style confrontations utilizing the wild machinery amidst all the crazed screaming. Once we learn the truth about the purpose of the operations to turn the girls into obedient zombiefied slaves for their owners' pleasure, it makes this fall nicely into the exploitation realm while the central investigation causes this to remain smooth and fast-paced weaving all the various plot lines along. Even the action scenes are fun here, with a great Gothic-flavored chase through the house as she tries to escape his clutches in various rooms to do so, the henchmen attacking the doctor at various points including burying him alive in a coffin or the big finale in the laboratory where everyone converges on the true mastermind behind their ploy which leads into a wild and chaotic sword-fight and chase through the building to get away which is all rather fun and exciting. While these here work well for the film, it does have one minor flaw running throughout here in that the disjointed and wildly careening storyline doesn't really give this one any real sense of identity. Incorporating so many elements and ideas from so many different sources is nice in that it manages to make it entertaining through it's unpredictability yet it also manages to go off into so many tangents that it doesn't come together clearly. There's little here that makes sense due to throwing so many different ideas together, and they fit together so loosely it's almost hard to tell what the original point was as it drops elements from one story to place another into it so on the whole this one is really disjointed. Still, it's really the only thing really wrong here.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language and Nudity.

"El Colegio de la Muerte" aka "School of Death" is an obscure horror/mystery obviously influenced by Serrador's masterful "La Residencia" aka "The House that Screamed".A beautiful orphans in boarding school Saint Elizabeth Refuge are captured by badly disfigured doctor and then lobotomized and turned into his slaves.The film is slow-moving and too tame-in fact "La Residencia" is much better and more gruesome film.There is very little blood in "School of Death" and absolutely no nudity.The action often drags,but the twists are genuinely surprising and the fog-shrouded mood is nice.Unfortunately the lead actress Sandra Mozarowsky of "Night of the Seagulls" fame committed suicide two years after "School of Death" was made.6 out of 10.