A family of 4 makes a long drive to Aunt Martha's house to visit her for the first time in years. Only she isn't there. Just the caretaker and his message that she will appear the next day..... Read allA family of 4 makes a long drive to Aunt Martha's house to visit her for the first time in years. Only she isn't there. Just the caretaker and his message that she will appear the next day...if they survive the night.A family of 4 makes a long drive to Aunt Martha's house to visit her for the first time in years. Only she isn't there. Just the caretaker and his message that she will appear the next day...if they survive the night.
- Georgia Hamilton
- (as Jessica Moore)
- Aunt Martha
- (as Sacha M. Darwin)
Featured reviews
The benign inclusion of a tantalizing shower scene luridly exposing the gratifyingly buxom assets of super-starlet Jessica Moore effectively increases the film's more aggressively voyeuristic content! 'The Murder Secret' is no less bemusing a proposition than many of the Fulci/Lenzi helmed horror films from the same era, and might be more essential to those obsessive B-Movie mavens compelled to watch every gonzo, blood-spattered Italian horror made in the 80s! Happily, there is just enough warped, schlocky shenanigans in 'The Murder Secret' to merit a single viewing, and the distractingly zesty electronic score by maestro Gianni Esposito certainly didn't go unnoticed! Perhaps it might be time for a comprehensive Bianchi Blu-ray horror box set? In addition, ardent Lucio Fulci fans might care to note that this was one of the six films that had its bloodier elements edited into his audaciously skewed splatter masterpiece 'A Cat in The Brain'.
The film is rather slow for the first hour and not a great deal happens. I actually have no problem with this in theory as a good build up can only be an asset to a mystery film; but unfortunately this build up can't really be considered good as nothing really happens. Lucio Fulci's "influence" kicks in at about the hour mark when the murders finally start happening, and they're fairly bloody - a decapitation with a chainsaw is a particular highlight. The plot itself isn't bad really, but the characters let it down as not a single one of them is interesting and we really just end up waiting for them to be picked off. The film has no style to speak of and the look of the film is extremely bland - a shame considering that atmosphere tends to be one of the best things about good Italian horror. The dubbing is atrocious also, and the soundtrack is one of the worst I've ever heard in an Italian horror film. It all boils down to a terrible ending, which is a shame because it was starting to look like it might finish well. Still, I don't want to totally condemn to the film; it does have its moments and to be honest I'm a sucker for this sort of stuff. Italian horror fans may find something to like...but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to find it.
Did you know
- TriviaOne of six films that director Lucio Fulci edited into his very own feature Nightmare concert (1990). The other ones are Bloody Psycho (1989), Hansel e Gretel (1990), Massacre (1989), Il fantasma di Sodoma (1988) and Soupçons de mort (1988).
- GoofsOn the drive to Zia Marta's, one of Nora's lines is heard, but her mouth doesn't move.
- Quotes
Aunt Martha: [to Richard, Title] Don't be afraid of Aunt Marta ... Your mother left you with me a lot when you were little, until the day she decided to steal my fortune and arranged to have me shut up in that horrible place for more than 30 years! 30 years of terrible suffering. And you, you, oh yes, you! You could have gotten me out. Why didn't you? Why did you leave your aunt like that, my angel? Why did you choose to leave her there?, Those years have been an eternity. So then why? Why did you do it?
- ConnectionsEdited into Nightmare concert (1990)
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Don't Be Afraid of Aunt Martha
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro