Pensione paura

"Pensione Paura" is a brilliant and a little bit surreal giallo from director Francesco Barilli,whose "Perfume of the Lady in Black" was one of the genre's most haunting and original films.The film takes place in 1945 somewhere near a lake.Some guests are staying in the "Pension of the Sirene" led by Marta with the help of her daughter Rose.The girl knows that the mother has a lover hidden away in the attic.She waits for the return of her soldier father and cultivates a simple friendship with the guide,the grandson of the parish priest.In the pension stays also a violent criminal named Rodolfo who lays a trap on Rose.One day Marta is murdered and the girl is assaulted and raped by Rodolfo and his companion.Both are dispatched by a mysterious black-gloved killer..."Pensione Paura" is a stylish and overlooked giallo.There is enough violence and wonderful visuals to satisfy fans of Italian cult cinema.The film is finally available on Italian DVD without English subs.

Pensione Paura (Fear Hotel on the print I saw) is a decent, slow-burning thriller.

Set toward the end of WWII, Leonora Fani plays Rosa, a girl living in a hotel owned by her mother. Her father is away in the war and Rosa writes letters she cannot send to him. The hotel's guests are a strange and unlikeable group hiding out from the war. There is a pimp with his two prostitutes, a widower with an unhealthy fixation on Rosa, an older rich woman with a younger lover named Rudolph (Luc Merenda). This gigolo has his eyes on Rosa. In addition, hidden away in an upstairs room is the lover of Rosa's mother. He deserted the war and is rumored to have caused some tragedy to his fellow soldiers. Right from the beginning, there is a sexual tension between these guests and Rosa. Then, Rosa's mother dies in an accident. Rosa is left alone to run the hotel with only one drunken, unhelpful servant. The viewer knows something bad is going to happen. Further suspense comes with the arrival of two last guests, both men dressed in black, one carrying a switchblade. Both have the look of professional killers. Have they came for the lover hidden away or for some other reason?

Fear Hotel does a surprisingly good job at building a tense atmosphere. Little happens for most of the movie but, thanks to the actors and the evocative cinematography, the viewer keeps watching. However, there are some problems. The film's attempt to become a murder mystery in the last third does not work. The finale, while appropriately grim, has a denouncement that did not work for this viewer.

Having acknowledged these, Fear Hotel was better than expected. Leonora Fani, the attractive star of Kyra (aka House by the Edge of the Lake), was the reason I watched Fear Hotel. In addition to her physical charms, Fani convinces as an innocent teenager, even though she was in her early twenties at the time of filming.

This is the second film I've watched from little-known director Barilli; like the first – the slightly superior THE PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK (1974) – it can be labeled an arty horror film…though, frankly, there's much more of the former than the latter this time around! In fact, it's set during World War II in a downtrodden Italian hotel run by a woman (whose husband is a flyer) and her innocent young daughter.

Apart from the somewhat wasted Francisco Rabal (as a partisan informer hiding out in the titular hotel and a paramour of its owner), the casting looks rather unimpressive on paper but, surprisingly, we get a couple of excellent performances from the two nominal leads – 23-year-old Leonora Fani (as the harassed daughter who is an object of desire to several of the hotel's guests!) and an unheralded sleazy turn from usual 'good guy' Luc Merenda (as a shady stud living off a rich mature keeper). Both Merenda and Fani are involved in several nude scenes and, in the latter's case, looking much younger than her true age makes for some disturbing viewing (particularly her rape by Merenda himself – witnessed by the latter's mistress and by which she's visibly aroused!).

The film has a memorably sinister soundtrack by one Adolfo Waitzman which may best be suited to accompany a bona-fide giallo, but it certainly elevates the end product considerably; the composer's name didn't register with me at first, but a quick check on his IMDb resume' soon revealed him to also be the man behind the music for (at least) two other significant "Euro-Cult" efforts – Jess Franco's THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR (1973) and Claudio Guerin Hill's A BELL FORM HELL (1973). Also notable in PENSIONE PAURA, the film's original title, is the atmospheric lighting – where the adoption of various color gels for disquieting effect was, in all probability, directly influenced by Dario Argento' contemporaneous classic of supernatural horror SUSPIRIA (1977).

As with most efforts from this genre, the major liability would have to be its deliberate pacing – however, since the film is a mood-piece first and foremost, I guess it was to be expected and, well, unavoidable. Still, the shock moments (when they come) certainly deliver the goods – with the most effective being the double axe-murder of Merenda and his lover (with its slimy aftermath), and the last-minute rescue of the heroine (about to be victimized yet again) which turns into a machine-gun massacre of the hotel's entire guest list by an as-yet unidentified character (soon revealed to be a partisan companion of Fani's reportedly deceased father). The latter scene actually leads immediately into the unexpected and ambiguous conclusion – which seems to be a particular thorn with most viewers discussing the film on an Italian forum; then again, a happy ending would have been highly unlikely for an essentially somber piece such as this!

Until the fairly recent Italian DVD release, this was considered a very rare item even on its home turf; hopefully, the film's reputation will soar in future…even though it's one the director himself seems not to like much at all (undeservedly, if you ask me)!

This long neglected, erotically charged Gothic-singed Giallo from Francesco Barilli is not only entirely undeserving of such ignominious treatment, its recent HD restoration was long overdue, and richly deserved! In addition, I have noticed that Luc Merenda is frequently given short shrift as an actor, which is an opinion I resolutely do not share, but even his harshest sceptics might need to momentarily retract their claws, as devilishly handsome, charismatic Merenda nastily manifests a strikingly sordid performance as the unleavened sleazebag Lothario Rodolfo, a super-skeezer abuser, rakishly replete with a slimline scumbag 'tash and oily, slick-backed barnet! Much of Barilli's deliciously voyeuristic, sin-suffused chiller's oppressive atmosphere is optimised by the fantastic score, maestro Adolfo Waitzman creates a subtle sense of unease that complements the increasingly debased activities within this benighted locale. I adore Francesco Barilli's stylish, darkly degenerated, enjoyably off-kilter thriller 'Pensione Paura', and I am quite sure that this needlessly obscure Italian thriller will soon find a great number of fresh admirers, especially since it towers above much of the tepidly recycled terror tedium produced today.

This is a kind of hard to define film, which is set during World War Two, and is more of a mystery with elements of Eurocrime that decides to turn into a giallo right at the very end.

Rosa has got a life you wouldn't wish for. Her father is off fighting in the war somewhere, and Rosa has to help out at the hotel her mother runs that is host to some of the worst guests ever. For one, there's the smarmy, chain smoking gigolo (Luc Merenda) who is really pro-active in adding Rosa to his list of conquests, much to the annoyance of his older girlfriend. Then there's the man whose family were killed in a bombing raid, who also seems to have his eye on Rosa. There's a pimp and his two hookers who aren't too fussy on who drops in on them. Plus, there's a mysterious man in the attic (Francisco Rabal) who is hiding from unknown persons.

Rosa's mother is aware of how awful the guests are, but can't get rid of them because they are the only paying guests they have, and there's a war going so Italy isn't exactly the current holiday destination. Constantly trying to avoid Merenda in particular (she has to lock her door at night and he asks her to look through the keyhole for a surprise. Thankfully, she doesn't), the plot thickens as Merenda's girlfriend has something he really needs, two shifty looking guys move into the hotel, and Rosa's mother falls down a flight of stairs and dies, leaving Rosa no protection from the weird guests...

Just like his earlier The Perfume of The Lady In Black, Francesco Barili gives us a something full of mystery that doesn't let on to the audience what's actually happening until near the end of the film, and just like Perfume, this one comes wrapped in strange visuals with an emphasis on violets, pinks and purples. Even though this is mainly thought of as a giallo, no one is murdered until well over an hour has passed, with the bulk of the film detailing Rosa's struggle with what is basically a hotel full of Harvey Weinstiens. That said, it kind of felt like Barili didn't quite know how to tie up all those loose ends.

Luc Merenda is the standout here as the absolutely vile gigolo with the pencil moustache. He spends about the half the film either naked or half naked as he attempts, and finally succeeds in raping Rosa (the grimmest part of the film by far, but it was part of the plot as it opens up the giallo part of the film. Merenda shows once again that he's got the versatility to plays other roles than the usual crime films he ends up in.