Ballad in Blood

Ballad of Blood (2016)

* (out of 4)

It's the night after Halloween and Lenka (Carlotta Morelli), Jacopo (Gabriele Rossi), Duke (Edward Williams) and Elizabeth (Noemi Smorra) have been having sex and a wild time. Duke wakes up and discovers the dead body of Elizabeth but none of the three survivors know what happened. Pretty soon they try to uncover how Elizabeth ended up with a slashed throat but the tension begins to make all three crack.

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST director Ruggero Deodato is back in a film that is being sold as a horror movie but it is in fact a murder mystery and sadly a very bad one at that. It's clear that Deodato was working with a very small budget and I must admit that the film looks a lot better and a lot more professional than 99% of the digital movies that I watch. With that said, there are some deadly flaws in the picture with one being the screenplay itself. This film was obviously inspired by the Meredith Kercher murder but that's a whole 'nother story.

The main issue with BALLAD OF BLOOD is the screenplay, which is just downright confusing at time and it never really grabs you and holds your interest. The fatal flaw of this film is that you've got three characters constantly talking, fighting and losing their minds and yet, as the viewer, you just don't care. You don't care about the characters. You don't care how Elizabeth died. You simply don't care about anything you're watching and it's impossible to stay focused on the film because there's just nothing there that makes you pay attention to what is happening.

Out of the cast I'd say Williams and Morelli come off the best. All of the actors are okay in their roles and I'd argue that they are good enough for a horror film but I don't think they're convincing enough for a murder mystery like this. Of course, the lack of anything to work with probably also played a factor. Deodato at least filled the movie with a lot of full frontal nudity as well as some bloody violence at times but this certainly didn't save the picture.

BALLAD OF BLOOD should have been so much better but sadly everything is lost in the screenplay and there's just not much in the film that actually works.

If you thought that Cannibal Holocaust was the most traumatic film from director Ruggero Deodato, think again, because Ballad in Blood is far more upsetting, albeit for a very different reason: it marks a career low point for one of Italy's most infamous exploitation directors. In fact, it's so excruciatingly terrible that it even makes Dial: Help (1988) look good.

The film revolves around three wild revellers, Jacopo (Gabriele Rossi), Lenka (Carlotta Morelli) and Duke, who wake up following a heavy night of drink and drugs to find the dead body of friend Elizabeth (Noemi Smorra), her throat cut. Unable to recall the events of the night before, the trio try to work out what the hell happened, their frayed nerves slowly stretched to breaking point.

What sounds like a decent premise is told in such a disjointed manner, with zero attempt to explain characters' motivation, that it all proves extremely irritating. The central trio are all obnoxious, as are the supporting characters (which include a midget and a camp bloke wearing angel wings, and four cartoonish punks), and with the international cast mangling the English language, I frequently had the urge to give up and watch something else instead. Like a fool, though, I watched to the bitter end hoping it would get better; it didn't.

Deodato throws in plenty of gratuitous T&A—there's full frontal female nudity from the word go—and chucks in just a bit of splatter towards the end, but none of it helps. Ballad in Blood is a complete and utter mess of a movie from a once great director. Sad, really.

Also a lot of nudity too. You make of that what you want to. It either scares you off (no pun intended) or it ... well I am not sure I can get off/away with a euphimism here. Some people may be offended. But Ruggero always tries to offend - if you know his filmography you should be aware of that already.

That being said, the movie is quite out there. And if you are offended by what I write, the movie will be even worse if you watch it. The premise is simple: waking up not knowing what happened, trying to reconstruct how they got there and who did what to whom. A lot of drugs are involved and many other things that you would call evil I reckon. Also Ruggero has a Hitchcock cameo in this. A weird one that was not necessary, but you can find it annoying, others will celebrate it.

The main problem for most will be the lack of likeable characters or traits. I have seen worse movies, but I also have seen better movies. This is for the horror movie fans, that like sleaze and do not mind to get down and dirty ... watching movies that is.

When I met Ruggero Deodato at a film convention and we talked about his movies I thought that this one couldnt be that good just because of his age. And of course this is worse than Cannibal Holocaust by far. But his own style and sense of humor in this movie was actually good in my opinion. Many times I was surprised about absurd-seeming plots, but espacially these where what made the movie funny and interesting.

It's the day after Halloween. Jacopo and Duke wake up in the apartment of two girls: Lenka and Elizabeth. The dawn of that new day brings with it a big problem: Elizabeth died. But there's more, because none of the three remember what happened that night.

And you won't care because this is one of the worst movies ever made. You have to wonder who greenlit this garbage and who hired the "talent." That word is used very loosely in that there is no talent within 60 miles of the sets.

The acting is atrocious. This is so unprofessional I again have to ask, who thought this was a good idea and who paid to make it?