Il bosco 1

This movie would would be totally lame and would never receive a 9 star rating if it didn't have such rad gore. sure it's nowhere near as sweet as EVIL DEAD but what is? plus what do you expect from the French? Italy can often make up for it's lame attempts at ripping off American films by offering lots and lots of gore but i've never heard of the French doing the same. anyway that's what happened with EVIL CLUTCH... the movie itself totally sucks but there the gore is so rad that it doesn't matter. basically if you love gore and can get past the goofy French accents then this baby is not to be missed; but if you're looking for a well thought out original plot than run for it. hey it's got cool zombies and lots of splatter and that always rates good in my book.

Having seen this film as the director intended by way of a fully restored and remastered Blu-Ray from Oblivion Home Movies, I was thoroughly impressed with the movie.

Low budget aside, Evil Clutch (IL Bosco 1, in Italy) mostly accomplished what it set out to achieve. Abstract, disturbing and violent at times, this knockoff of Raimi's The Evil Dead is probably the best of its kind. And there are quite a few clones of this well known franchise one may seek out. Few others manage to reach this undeniable level of creativity and charm.

Many of the older reviews are low because finding a great print of this movie was next to impossible or because the critic simply didn't give it a real chance at all.

Go in with the right headspace and fans of obscure horror should find much here to celebrate.

I like analyzing films like this because they're simple in style, but challenging to separate the faults and things the filmmakers did right from one another. The good things first: "Evil Clutch" tries to take itself seriously and does okay at it MOST of the time, has some good gore, gets pretty weird and imaginative at times (even if it is in that school of "Evil Dead" rip-offs, that being a film that ripped off the 1971 "Equinox" itself), and has almost non-stop scenes that are fun to watch when you're in a very anti-yuppie mood (which I always am). Leave it up to yuppies to not listen to the only likeable character when he warns them about the demonic happenings abounding in the woods, including one of the greatest lines of dialogue: "Do you really think that you're so far from horror?" Now for the not-so-good things: What would have been a good, dark splatter film is spoiled by some very laughable creature effects that are on par with Ed Wood's octopus from "Bride of the Monster", the stupid idea that we're supposed to believe that the wussed-out yuppie heroine can make a bunch of torches before a zombie walking toward her can come about seven inches closer to her, and a slow pace that would have been more interesting if the viewer were only given some people to root for other than the sadly under-used weird guy who warned those yuppie jerks not to go out into the woods in the first place. A fair movie, not terrible, but not even close to great by any means. Out of curiosity, I would like to check out the uncut version, but I've got to wonder if a bloodier version would elevate the quality of the film in any way other than a higher gore quotient.

An American woman played by Italian actress Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni of "Opera" fame is vacationing in Venice and decides to go with her local boyfriend on trip to the Alps.They run into a witch who says she was attacked and they give her a ride into town.There they meet a crazy guy on a motorcycle who speaks using a electrolarynx.They hike into the mountains and run into both of these people again up there.They also meet a zombie,who is chasing 'em without reason and promptly uses a fishing pole to catch a girl.The funniest thing is titular 'evil clutch'-a giant bloodthirsty claw protruding from witch's vagina.Hell yeah!This cheap and silly Italian "The Evil Dead" clone offers few amusing moments and plenty of grue.Lovers of bad cinema will be pleased with such oddity.

Weird and dark. Dark and weird. Weird and dark. Weird film. Dark lighting. I usually fall asleep while watching it. But it's pretty cool. Just weird and dark.