Baiser macabre

Macabre a.k.a. Frozen Terror is the debut feature from Lamberto Bava, the son of famed horror director Mario Bava. Fans may recognize the name from his later collaborations with Dario Argento, Demons and Demons 2. Unlike those two films, which relish in their over the top grue and violence at hyper kinetic speed, Macabre is a slow build film that tends to lean more towards the slow build school of creating suspense. The story is simple and actually based around a true story from New Orleans in the 70s. A woman is in a car accident with her adulterous lover and the lover is decapitated. One year later, the woman is released from the mental asylum and returns to the apartment where her and her lover would rendezvous. Not a lot happens until the final third of the film, but it goes by quick enough and there is the air of dread that Bava creates quite effectively. When the reveal is made, its not much of a shock but the film is handled well enough that that fact can be overlooked. What truly brings the film down however, is some horrid dialogue and some equally atrocious acting by the young girl who plays the woman's daughter. All in all, considering the subject of the film, it is a quite restrained effort and a notable debut.

You gotta admit, the idea is ingeniously twisted in its simplicity...

Jane (Bernice Stegers), an adulterous New Orleans housewife, is involved in a car crash that decapitates her lover. One year later, she is discharged from a mental hospital and returns to her lover's former residence, where she is lusted after by blind caretaker Robert (Stanko Molnar) and plagued by visits from her Greyhound-faced daughter Lucy (Veronica Zinny).

Questions arise: What is the explanation for those lustful, lovemaking noises coming from the upstairs apartment? Why is Jane so protective of her freezer? Will Robert ever get a chance to tap that action? Will Lucy ever shut the f*ck up? With strong location shooting in New Orleans and an accompanying jazzy score, you can practically feel the sweltering menace in the air.

True to its title, "Macabre" is generally restrained in tone, instead opting to create a very effective mood of overall bizarro. At its best, it has the feel of a polished anthology entry (such material would be right at home on "The Twilight Zone" or even "Masters of Horror"); at its worst, it feels overlong and silly. The third-act twist, while pretty predictable, works because the cast is so ravenously committed to the material. As a result, "Macabre" is a finely polished debut from Lamberto Bava (son of Mario), suspenseful and mysterious (in a supernatural kind of way), but just too overdrawn.

It's not Fulci's The Beyond but Macabre is a solid old fashioned horror flick where pretty much everyone is wacko, which is one hundred percent accurate for the deep South.

I wouldn't say this flick frightened me but it is genuinely creepy, not to mention completely gross towards the end. Macabre lives up to its name and fortunately, unlike Lamberto's second project, this film has many of the stylistic elements of Italian films from the 1970s. I definitely would not call this a giallo, though.

The girl who plays Lucy is legitimately hateable and that's no small feat for a child actress. I also genuinely felt for poor Robert.

The events happen in New Orlans where a middle-aged woman named Jane Baker(Bernice Stegers)is traumatized by a car crash in which died his adulterous lover Fred Kellerman(Robert Posse) and she's interned into a mental hospital. Years later she moves at New Orleans boarding house whose proprietary is a blind young named Robert Duval(Stanko Molnar). The situation comes towards an incredible final, genuinely highlights plenty of horror, terror, quirky sex and macabre happening which arise some memorably horrific set-pieces.The film is reportedly based on real deeds.

This macabre final packs tension, mystery,chills, thrills and scabrous scenes on its ending part.Gloomy and sinister plot with final'tour of force' is written by Pupi Avati, also terror movies director .First feature picture by Lamberto Bava is surprisingly made and startling visual content of his shockers. His camera stalks in sinister style throughout the Jane's room, Robert's room, up-stars and down-stars . Strikingly shot for the most part in a traditional mansion from New Orleans and are also well photographed streets, slums, wheel-ship and cemetery of the city . Very atmospheric color with shades of ochre and deep translucently orange-red by Franco Delli Colli , cameraman of ¨Last man on Earth, and Django kill¨. Compelling direction by Lamberto Bava, a terror films expert, such as he proved in ¨Demons 1, 2, A blade in the dark, Shark: red on the ocean¨, though today he only directs television movies : ¨Fantaghiro and following, Caribbean pirates¨ among others. Acceptable and passable atmospheric film-making from genre master Bava's son. A must see for horror fans

When it is indicated that a movie is based on a true story I always am very hesitant to watch such a movie. True stories can be more shocking but most of the time it often is exaggerated. So I always try to ignore the true story angle in order to enhance the viewing experience. "Macabro" is in fact a very simple story with only one mystery. While it has the illusion of being so much more there is no depth at all. The background on the characters is very minimal and in this case much needed to intensify our empathy towards them. Without it most of the main characters seem a bit off. The buildup in tension is decent. The problem is the mystery itself. It just isn't compelling enough to sit through 90 minutes. I agree with the comments given on this board that it would have suited more as a 30 minute episode part of an anthology film or series like "Tales of the unexpected","Twilight Zone" or something similar. The ending is pretty interesting to say the least but hardly surprising although it was intended to. And it can be debated if it was necessary to end like this. I am not out on that one. "Macabro" isn't your typical giallo and will therefore disappoint many fans of this genre. But overall this movie can be entertaining.