The Night of the Scorpion

I watched this film last night and was absolutely astonished by it - so you can imagine my surprise when I saw two bad reviews as its only representation here on IMDb. Firstly if you are the type of person who expects there to be graphically gruesome gory killing every 5 minutes then I have two things to say to you: 1. you will be disappointed by this and 2. why in the world are you watching a movie like this?!

If however you are a fan of this period of Spanish/Italian horror films - you know who you are and you know what you want - this movie delivers in spades. It's got a creepy Gothic castle, very unusual spacey Spanish babes (a la Helga Line or Rosalba Neri), strange sexual relationships, a supernatural element, and all the ingredients that make you love these things.

A newlywed couple arrives back at his castle which he shares with his butterfly taxidermying sister and overly flirty stepmother. The new bride find out the the old bride didn't die exactly the way it was explained to her and soon new bodies start piling up. Great performances all around, and nice location, photography and direction make this a high note in the Spanish Giallo Horror subgenre.

Starting with a beautiful opening credit sequence, the viewer knows that they are in for a classic Giallo. This is perfect midnight viewing. It looks great, has a good soundtrack and has a plot which actually makes sense and keeps the viewer guessing until the end.

The whole movie takes place almost in one location, a grand Spanish mansion, which gives it a claustrophobic atmosphere.

There are also a bevy of Spanish beauties, all of them give great performances.

This movie relies more on suspense than shocks, but there are moments of blood as the body count slowly rises.

The best print is the Spanish language version with English subtitles.

Gee, there are very favourable reviews on another site but its the guys on this one that have it right. Despite featuring some lovely girls, some fantastic costumes that nail this as 1972 for absolute certain, so little, so very little happens. At least for the first hour, that it. There is some activity towards the end but we are worn out by then keeping up with what did happen, what might happen, what was dreamed to have happened and what someone might have imagined happened.

The fact that this looks so good is the only reason I stayed with this, plus the fact that the performances are so persuasive that you are convinced this is going to leap into life. But by the end, however good looking and even though the blood begins to flow, I'm afraid I was well passed caring who did what to who and why.

I found this gallio to be very mediocre, although I also saw a dubbed washed out copy which isn't ideal, the real problem lies in the telling of the story itself which in my opinion is so obvious it makes the movie more like a bad soap opera with great sets.

There are also silly elements like flashing the suspects photos on the screen more than once, suggesting this was some sort of Beta Max home movie version of the board game Clue (and yes such a thing exists except on VHS in the 1980s). I honestly couldn't shake the feeling of watching a poor attempt at Cluedo.

This is not the worst giallo I've ever seen but it's forgettable.

This Spanish-Italian co-production tells the story of a man who feels deep guilt for the death of his wife: He, an alcoholic, is convinced that he accidentally caused her lethal fall in their villa while he was drunk. He finds a new wife, but he's incapable of coping with his first wife's death. Moreover, the maid and his sister don't seem to accept the new woman in the household. After some time, suddenly bodies are piling up ... and the tomb of the man's first wife is empty!

The plot may sound interesting, but the whole film proceeds too slow: The first hour of the film (two thirds of the running time) is more relationship drama than Giallo horror. It's also tediously talky, and the only thing delivered in this first hour is some nudity. Then, suddenly, the film becomes a standard Giallo with a razor swinging gloved killer murdering almost everybody the tormented man has contact with. Is there a razor wielding ghost in the house? The solution to all this isn't very convincing either.

Even though the final 30 minutes make up for the first hour, it's still a rather boring film as a whole that doesn't really deliver. Interesting for Giallo and Italian horror completists only.