Les Nuits de l'épouvante

'Murder Clinic' is an Italian Giallo horror flick from the 1960's tinged in a cool gothic atmosphere with a stylish period setting, gorgeous set designs and a colourful visual palette and an interesting mystery element, this obscure Giallo was a decent viewing experience with a good plot but could have done with a bit more flavour which could have made this a top tier entry of the genre.

The plot = Set in 1870's England at an isolated clinic run by Doctor Vance (William Berger) where patients and staff start getting killed by a hooded maniac who stalks the halls at night.

The movie is incredibly well shot with bold cinematography and the clinic itself looks effectively creepy with the long dark hallways and constant shadows which instantly evokes a sense of dread throughout as the various characters wander through them. But there are a couple of things that lets this movie down firstly the pacing is really off with too much time spent on melodrama aspect and not enough on the mystery and much in the way of tension or kills and talking about the death scenes they were really lacklustre. The big reveal at the end was also disappointing as it was way too easy to figure, but there were enough interesting red-herrings thrown into the mix to sustain interest.

The cast were thankfully strong, and the interesting array of characters does make this flick worthwhile. William Berger gave a compelling performance as the disgraced Dr Robert Vance and carried the movie incredibly well. Barbara Wilson was decent as the new nurse Mary compassionate and breathtakingly beautiful. Mary Young was also great as the jealous and bitter wife as well as Delphine Maurin who gives a standout performance as the tragic disfigured sister-in-law Laura. Then there's Francoise Prevost as scheming and mysterious Giselle who arrives at the clinic and really spies the story up with a blackmail subplot.

Overall 'Murder Clinic' is fairly routine, but still watchable and you could tell that the genre was still in its early days as the tropes weren't yet perfected at this early stage as the Giallo's that would come out in the 1970's.

I'm really amazed that there aren't more comments on this Giallo (OVERUSED TERM) from 1968. Creepy opening credits really set the mood in motion as a hooded fiend slithers around a Baroque private clinic for the mentally unstable.

Set in Norfolk, circa 1840/1870, this neat little Belgian-French-Italian flick, in my opinion, seems to have influenced those string of Harry Towers' Edgar Allan Poe adaptations that were shot in South Africa around the late 1980s/early 1990s. You remember them? They were simultaneously gaudy & Gothic and were definitely an extension to the '60s renaissance of period psycho-chillers that were spearheaded by all of those Euro shockers and Corman's E.A.P flix. But back to this film, without giving anything away, all is not what it seems and the initial denouement, or wrap up explaining all of the craziness that transpired beforehand, would later be haphazardly copied in many slice and dice movies from the slasher craze of the '70s & '80s. In other words: Very well done for it's time. Also of note: I first saw this on Creature Feature in Florida in the '80s and the print was clear as day but the only version I have been able to procure is dark and muddy. Owning it is better than not having it in my book anyway. Worth checking out for the 'Giallo' buff and of note to collectors/researchers: the version I have runs approximately 82 minutes.

"Murder Clinic" is one of them obscure and early (mid-60's) Gialli that you'll probably never see, unless you're willing to purchase a prehistoric VHS copy or – even worse - a bootleg DVD ripped from the aforementioned prehistoric tape. You know those things that are practically unwatchable because the original colors faded and the picture is constantly fuzzy? In other words this Giallo is only meant for the eyes of avid Giallo-buffs, as I sincerely doubt a proper release on disc will ever follow. "Murder Clinic" is a very passable Italian horror effort, but nevertheless amusing and it certainly contains a handful of potentially good ideas. It was the sixties, so Gialli movies still leaned towards Gothic settings and darkly sinister filming location. But, on the other hand, the Giallo-formula was still relatively new and thus the screenplay (penned down by veterans Ernesto Gastaldi and Luciano Martino) is very straightforward with clear twists and logical red herrings. The year is 1870 and the sinister events take place in a private clinic run by the demanding Dr. Vance and his obnoxious wife Liz. The movie doesn't waste too much time, as there quickly pops up a hooded killer who waves around a sharp razor and butchers patients as well as staff members. There are a number of possibilities for whom the killer might turn out to be, and the least you can say is that the denouement is acceptable. The murders sequences are decent, obviously not outrageously gross but definitely bloodier than I anticipated for a 60's film. There are some tedious parts and the acting performances – with the exception of William Berger as the Doc – are very much below average. The music is atmospheric and luckily the film only ran for a good 80 minutes. Not so much because I was bored to death, but because the incredibly poor bootleg disc hurt my eyes and ears.

"The Murder Clinic" (1966) is a fairly obscure Italian-French Gothic that first aired on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1979, and repeated only once four years later. It was also part of a notorious triple bill that frequented drive ins in the early 70's (under the name REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD), shown with CURSE OF THE LIVING DEAD (Mario Bava's KILL, BABY, KILL!) and FANGS OF THE LIVING DEAD (Amando De Ossorio's MALENKA, NIECE OF THE VAMPIRE). The print I have runs 83 minutes and looks to be a third generation copy, with English dialogue and foreign subtitles. William Berger, later the star of Mario Bava's "5 Dolls for an August Moon" (1970), plays the handsome doctor working on skin grafts that all the women swoon over, with a jealous invalid for a wife, and a mysterious woman on the third floor who refuses to see or be seen by anyone. Murder by razor plagues the clinic, but only one victim is completely innocent of her fate. Nothing terribly memorable, but fondly recalled in the 30 years since. The blonde actress who plays the nurse Mary is not the same brunette Barbara Wilson who appeared in 1957's "Blood of Dracula" and 1962's "The Flesh Eaters."

I saw this for the first time recently aft reading Coventry's glowing review n indeed this one's a very obscure one.

The plot in short - Patients and staff of an isolated mental hospital are being killed off by a hooded figure who stalks the halls. While a doctor is busy experimenting skin grafting on animals, his wife gets concerned when a beautiful guest arrives.

I feel the Korean movie A Tale of Two Sisters n its remake The Uninvited (2009) borrowed from this movie.

Even Beneath (2007) borrowed from this one.