O Hotel do Medo

It feels like two different movies. The first 2/3 is an incredible film! Leonora Fani is great as the lead. The supporting cast play sleazy very well. Damn near everyone here is a sleazy monster. The is incredible tension. Great character moments. A real mystery afoot. And it's all directed and filmed with incredible style.

In the last third of the film, it all falls apart. It abandons everything that came before it and blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. Even worse, it squanders all the intrigue that had come before. Barilli is a skillful director. I just wish he could have gotten his hands on a good script.

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 an interesting giallo from the director of "Perfume of the Lady in Black". It has a period World War II setting and greatly resembles the Salvatore Samperi film "Scandalo". The story centers on a mother (Lidia Bondi) and daughter (Leanora Fani), who are trying to run a pensione (hotel) after their husband/father has disappeared while fighting in the war. The mother is hiding her army-deserter lover (Francisco Rabal) in the attic while Fascist soldiers are encamped nearby. Meanwhile, a perverted couple staying at the hotel, older woman (Jolene Fierro) and her studly younger lover (Luc Merenda), are conspiring to get their slimy hands on the teenage daughter. This latter subplot is especially reminiscent of "Scandalo", but where the mother was the main protagonist there, the daughter is here, and this eventually takes a decidedly gialloesque turn with a series of mysterious murders. The ending is also quite different (and actually kind of ridiculous).

The historical setting makes this somewhat unique as a giallo, but it's quite possible this movie was merely aping "Scandalo" there. It's principal strengths though are definitely Luc Merenda and Leanora Fani, who also appeared together in "The Last Round". They have similar roles here as, respectively, a handsome but vicious brute and his young, seemingly vulnerable victim. Merenda usually rates below other handome, more famous Italian leading men like Franco Nero (who was in "Scandalo") and Fabio Testi, but he was actually better than either when it came to playing an out-and-out villain. Leanora Fani was similarly underrated as an actress. She was one of the many Italian "lolitas" of the era, but unlike a lot of the others (Gloria Guida, Eleanora Giorgi, etc.) she actually looked like a teenage girl (even though she wasn't), and she generally specialized in playing vulnerable victims as opposed to predatory vixens.

Francisco Barilli does a good job of creating a dark, moody atmosphere. The off-the-wall ending topedoes any real pretensions this movie might have had to be a serious historical drama like "Scandalo", but it certainly succeeds as a giallo (where bizarre endings are common). I actually thought this was better than Barilli's somewhat overrated "Perfume of the Lady in Black". It's definitely worth a look.

"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.