Maniac mansion

Watched this film titled as Murder Mansion on sub-cheapo Brentwood DVD set called Hell In the Family. Must originally have been from a TV print, because there is no nudity and almost no violence to speak of. Most annoying are the choppy jumps in the film where the violence and nudity belong.

Pity, because the filming of "Mansion of the Fog/Cloud" is really top notch. Fantastic saturated colors ala Mario Bava. Great sets. Decent budget. Decent acting. Great looking damsels in distress. But that is about it.

Too much of the film is missing for the movie to flow well. Too many plot holes. Too many scenes that are suddenly cut.

On the plus side though, Murder Mansion is still a very nice looking movie - lots of atmosphere, and still fairly interesting despite the chopped scenes. Buying the Brentwood DVD set costs less than renting. Bonus in the set is another weird Spanish film - A Veil for the Devil - which is presented as It Happened At Nightmare Inn - also missing the violence and nudity, but still pretty creepy. Both films would be good little cult flicks if someone could scare up intact prints.

1972's "The Murder Mansion" aka "Maniac Mansion" is a coproduction between Spain ("La Mansion de la Niebla" or The Mansion of the Mists) and Italy ("Quando Marta Urlo dalla Tomba" or When Marta Screamed from the Grave), exterior shooting outside Madrid, impressive fog shrouded interiors on Italian sets. A rather protracted opening with five people in three vehicles engaged in a spot of highway chicken before the narrative thrust centers on Analia Gade's Elsa, whose wealth is the only thing that binds her to faithless husband Ernest (Alberto Dalbes). Hard drinking Porter (Franco Fantasia) picks up comely hitchhiker Laura (Anna Lisa Nardi), only to lose her to motorcyclist Fred (Andres Resino), while Elsa's attorney Tremont (Eduardo Fajardo) and wife (Ylena Samarina) insist on a late night journey through a treacherous fog that finds all six stuck together in a desolate mansion near an abandoned cemetery. The owner is a beautiful young woman, Martha Clinton (Evelyn Stewart), relating tales of how a series of vampire attacks drove off all the local villagers, and how her own grandmother (whose portrait hangs above the fireplace) died with her chauffeur in a car crash 30 years earlier. None of this sits well with an increasingly agitated Elsa, who first met Fred and Laura while running away from specters approaching through the mist, the apparent ghosts of the long dead duo. We also see flashbacks to Elsa's student days, jealous of her father's affair with a schoolmate and still harboring a certain incestuous resentment that eventually plays out in unexpected fashion. Before that climactic burst there's atmosphere to spare but little spark until the final third, when Fred's opportune snooping reveals a haunting being conducted with tape recordings and a number of disguises, but who's doing it and why? A distinct lack of real supernatural forces may prove a letdown for first time viewers, but on this occasion patience has its reward with plenty of corpses piling up in the final reel. Better known in Italy as Ida Galli, Evelyn Stewart was no stranger to Mario Bava, in both "Hercules in the Haunted World" and "The Whip and the Body," then a costarring role opposite John Drew Barrymore in "War of the Zombies," while German-born blonde Ingrid Garbo contributes some eye candy in an almost naked cameo that can't compare with her fanged femininity in Paul Naschy's "Count Dracula's Great Love" (as Elsa's elderly father, Jorge Rigaud was just coming off "Horror Express," opposite Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing).

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.

Fine Italian-Spanish Giallo packed with thrills , chills ,intrigue and twists and turns . Entertaining Giallo full of vicious killings , suspense and eerie events . This genuinely mysterious story deals with a couple (Andres Resiono , Lisa Lombardi), lost in thick fog, take refuge in an old manor next to a cemetery . In the mansion strange things start to occur and happens several murders with bloody and gruesome executions. There someone is killing people and some clues seem to implicate about anybody are dieing . Before their unfortunate accident wreck , rich heiress, weak-hearted Elsa( Analía Gadé), recently recovering from a nervous breakdown due to the death of her daddy (George Rigaud) . In addition ,wealthy Elsa's husband (Albert Dalbes) is away frequently, so she usually thinks for him . Meanwhile another coupled called Mr & Mrs Tremont (Eduardo Fajardo & Yelena Samarina) also runs off the road and into an embankment near the graveyard , encountering two mysterious, enigmatic zombie-alike shrouded in darkness, one corpulent man dressed in chauffeur style and a pale-face woman slightly behind him . The trio encounters the mansion , discovering that the Tremonts inside, having been in a car crash with another driver , a sex-obsessed , drunk Mr. Porter(Franco Fantasia). This group finds that the mansion has an owner, the sinister Martha Clinton (Evelyn Stewart or Ida Galli), who bears remarkable resemblance to her deceased aunt condemned for vampirism and witchcraft . Meanwhile the series killer goes on a real massacre on various unfortunate victims as a woman is hung , another attacked in the graveyard . Slowly more people are found dead and Fred (Andres Resino) investigates the strange killings with numerous suspects .

Successful Giallo is compellingly directed with well staged murders plenty of startling visual content , though was submitted to limited censorship in Spain . This is a customary Giallo where the intrigue, tension, suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and luxurious interior and exterior . The picture packs atmospheric blending of eerie thrills and creepy chills combined with a twisted finale . It displays lots of guts and blood but it seems pretty mild compared to today's gore feasts . It's a solid movie , a thrilling story plenty of suspense and intrigue in which the victims seem to be continuous . The staged killings are the high points of the movie , they deliver the goods plenty of screams, shocks and tension . The intriguing moments are compactly made and fast moving ; as the film itself takes place from various red herrings . It packs tension, shocks , thrills, chills and a little bit of blood and gore . There's plenty of moments of excitement and a number of scenes that are quite thrilling , resulting to be definitely the spotlight of the film the surprising ending situation . Well filmed in location in Madrid and Guadalajara surroundings . Good ambiance design and acceptable production design by Perez Cubero who along with Galicia created lots of sets in several Western filmed in the 60s and 70s . Colorful and brilliant cinematography in Maria Bava style by Mancori . Frightening and thrilling musical score by the Italian Marcello Giombani.

The picture is professionally directed by Francisco Lara Polop in his first and the best film along with the prolific filmmaker Pedro Lazaga . Francisco Lara's so-so direction is well crafted , here he's less cynical and more inclined toward suspense and lots of killings , he's an expert on comedy though directed another terror film as ¨The monk¨, his last movie . Talented and versatile writer/director Pedro Lazaga has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres but especially comedies starred by Spanish comedian Paco Martinez Soria and made a successful Peplum , ¨The seven Spartans¨. Rating: Acceptable and passable , this is one more imaginative Giallo pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills. This is a bewildering story , funny in some moment but falls flat and it will appeal to hardcore Gialli fans