Flashback - Mörderische Ferien

* minor spoiler * The director of this movie apparently helmed a lot of TV-movies in Germany and it sure shows. This German slasher tries very hard to be stylish looking in a "gallic" way, but seldom succeeds. The look is distinctly like a German TV-movie with harsh lighting in the night scenes and a rather flat look in the daytime scenes. The plot however is very "giallo" with twists and turns. The screenwriters really try to fool the viewer, but since everything is telegraphed in advance in different ways, I was rarely surprised and saw the outcome miles away in advance.

Also hurtful is the way the characters are presented. We can feel no sympathy for these young spoiled brats as they meet their bloody ends. The awful dubbing on the DVD I saw was also a big drawback. At best it's amusing, for the most part it's irritating. However, everything is not bad. The scenery is awesome, we get some nice killings with a sickle and Elke Sommer does a quite nice turn as the stern housekeeper (it would have been nice if she had been the villain of this movie, but alas...), still looking quite good for her age.

This movie also contains quite a few comedic scenes, rarely found in American or Italian slashers. They mostly involve some bumbling cops and if you like that or not is a matter of taste. Quite a few scenes border on farce actually, even a few bloody ones. Especially as they are accompanied by some really strange and in-appropriate music.

So "Flashback" is a decent time waster, but I wouldn't pay too much to see it.