Dans les replis de la chair

Well there's a homicidal 35 year old woman (I think they're trying to pass her off as 20-something and it really does not work out) and she's completely mentally incompetent. She has an incestuous relationship with her artistic brother, and while the mother looks continually disapproving she just allows all of the murder and mayhem to go on, even bothering to clean up the bodies for her kids. And as I've pointed out, she must have had her daughter when she was 9, because she can't be more than ten years older than the murderous loony in the blonde wig.

There are hints of giallo in the flashbacks and the death of the father at sea, but I do not consider this a giallo at all. It's some weird cult film from the late 1960s that took a bunch of ideas and threw them together in a salad of shame. It kind of reminds me of how The House of Exorcism is an inferior version of Lisa and the Devil. I honestly wish there was a coherent, superior version of In the Folds of the Flesh in the same manner of the ludicrous House of Exorcism, but I guess this is it.

This movie is completely over the top! Why and how it escaped getting played around the world, on the midnight circuit, is beyond me. It's like someone made a soup out of a Spanish Soap Opera, a Giallo, Gothic Thriller, and a Film Noir... It's loaded with ridiculous double crosses, kinky incest (is it incest?), countless decapitations, pet vultures, plot twists that make little to no sense, random Freudian Psychology, and extraneous WWII Concentration Camp flashbacks! The score is over-dramatic, as is the acting, and just about everything else. It certainly can't be taken seriously, but that's what's so appealing. Don't be fooled though, if it's the Classic Bava, Martino or Argento-esque formula you're looking for, that's not what you'll get. Despite that it is often listed and cited as a Giallo. This movie came out in 1970, when the genre was just beginning to take root, so while it's certainly got all of the necessary elements to be classified as 'Gialli', the elements are scattered, appearing in different places in the plot than is common to the traditional Giallo formula. That said, it could be of interest to hardcore fans in that respect. That's how I came upon it, and I'm not upset. Think something along the lines of Luciano Ercoli's "Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" or even Lucio Fulci's "Perversion Story," only much more ridiculous! Wonderfully ridiculous, psychedelic and melodramatic. Wow.

This is one strange movie - it combines Nazi elements, a police procedural, a giallo, a psychological examining of identity and even comes close to a Last House on the Left vibe.

Severin released this film several years ago, but it's sadly out of print. It's certainly one of the oddest entries in the genre and one you should track down. I've only barely touched on the many twists and turns of the plot because I believe that you should enjoy them for yourself.

an above-average mystery/suspense thriller (almost a 'giallo') by Sergio Bergonzelli, with an engrossing story, dubious characters galore (including a main role played by the late Pier Angeli, credited here as Anna Maria Pierangeli), by turns wacky & stylish direction, and a half trippy/half creepy atmosphere about it. kept me guessing almost till the very end, always coming up with a twist, a revelation, or a grabbing visual up it's sleeve (it's even got a scene with WW2-era featuring Nazis!). gotta love a movie that begins with some Freud psycho-babble text, and immediately cuts to a shot of a severed head on a carpeted floor! somebody needs to release this crazy film on DVD pronto (hello Blue Underground, NoShame, Synapse, etc...). anyone with even a passing interest in this kind of film would be well adviced to check out this little known gem.

rating: 8/10

'In The Folds of the Flesh' is Spanish/Italian Giallo flick from 1970 that is completely outrageous and over the top with its rather convoluted storyline, non-stop plot twists and cool psychedelic visuals that will keep you entertained and confused throughout its quick paced runtime. The movie is a bizarre experience that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's a rather fascinating oddity that you'd have to see for yourself.

The plot takes place at a villa that is run by a woman named Lucille (Eleonora Rossi), her son Andre (Alfredo Mayo) & another woman named Falesse (Pier Angeli) where guests turn up only to get killed by their hosts.

That above is probably the best way to try and describe this plot without giving away any spoilers as there's a lot thrown at you in its 82 minute runtime. The opening sequence was very confusing as you don't know what the hell is going on or who these people are as the movie takes its time establishing things and that's one of the main problems of this movie, its narrative structure is very lacking and the over reliance on shock value and twists is nonsensical at best. But there are plenty of fun moments in this flick to enjoy such as the violent murder set pieces, the decent cast and plenty of outlandish and strange visuals that are pleasing to the eye. But other than that this movie is definitely style over substance.

The performances are melodramatic but decent with Eleonora Rossi providing a decent screen presence and plenty of intriguing character moments. Alfredo Mayo gives a fun and over the top performance that suits the production quite well and Pier Angeli gives a wonderfully strange and hammy performance as the disturbed Falesse and a definite standout. Fernando Sancho was also solid and looked the part in his role.

Overall 'In The Folds of the Flesh' is not a great film by any means, but it's directed with enough visual flair to at least be entertaining.