Sexo sangriento (1981)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Spanish giallo is a rare title that has gained a rather notorious reputation over the years for its graphic sex and violence but what's actually here isn't too naughty. In the film, a woman takes her lesbian lover and best friend on a trip where they end up staying at a creepy home ran by a weird woman and her even weirder son. Soon the murders begin. I was really impressed with this film but not for the reasons I was expecting. I went into this movie expecting something extremely sleazy and dirty and while there are some kinky moments these aren't the only thing going for the film. What impressed me the most was the dark atmosphere created by director Esteba and this here is what really stands out. I thought the director did a very good job at building up this atmosphere and the settings perfectly fit in with this as did the music score (taken from various CAM catalogue titles). This film is pretty hard to see and I think its rareness has caused its reputation to get a lot more credit for being violent. The film's violence is in a sexual term as the killer likes to stab women in the crotch during sex but this here is done in a non-graphic style as we really only see the stabbing and then some minor blood. The sex scenes on the other hand are a bit more graphic but they're also extremely erotic, which is a major plus. It certainly doesn't hurt that the lead actress and her lesbian lover and very hot but the sex scenes don't leave anything to the imagination even though they never enter the hardcore level. Performances are about on the mark for a film like this and the better than average direction really keeps everything moving at a nice pace. To date there's never been any English subtitled or dubbed release so I'm sure I missed some information for the Spanish dialogue but it's still an impressive little film.
