The Hanging Woman

Firstly everyone expecting gory bloodbath will be sorely disappointed,because this film is almost completely bloodless(however there's some mild violence like quick decapitation,but not too much).Secondly,if you like Euro-horror you'll certainly appreciate "The Hanging Woman".Why?Because it's well-made and there are some lovely atmospheric bits.The acting is surprisingly good and Paul Naschy as a necrophiliac servant Igor simply steals the show!The film reminds me early Hammer horror movies,mostly because it features some elements typical for English horror like tunnels,secret passages,tombs etc.There's also a little bit of sleaze(both ladies have a nude scenes),so fans of nudity will not be disappointed.Of course "The Hanging Woman" has its faults:it's overlong,quite boring and some scenes are rather stupid,but if you like Spanish horror give this one a look.

I saw this dubbed Spanish film as The Hanging Woman, on Gorgon Video. The box promised scenes of brutality, rape, and humiliation beyond Last House on the Left. Just to clear the record, this is not true. There is no rape, and the closest thing to humiliation is when an innocent virgin bares her breasts. There is violence and graphic gore, but it really doesn't kick in until the climax. And what a climax! Bloody zombies rampaging in the best Night of the Living Dead fashion, with the luridness increased in typical European style. The final shot is chilling and almost Bergman-esque. However, the rest of the movie is pretty uneventful. Despite a strong beginning and creepy atmosphere--with the dirtiness of the period perfectly captured by grainy, washed-out color photography--most of the film is like an overlong episode of Dark Shadows. Sexy Dyanik Zurakowska has some powerful nude scenes, and her sex scene with Stelvio Rosi helps spice things up...but not much else happens. Paul Naschy, the reason many people seek this out, has a small role as a red-herring necrophile. On the whole, I think The Hanging Woman is worth seeing--but you should know what you're getting into. If you want your Naschy fix, see one of his werewolf movies.

Trivia: La Orgia de los muertos originally hit the States in 1974 as The Hanging Woman. International Artists promoted the film with a Last House-inspired campaign: "For the squeamish, keep repeating: It can't be true, can't be true, can't be true, can't be true, can't be true." Stelvio Rosi was billed as Stanley Cooper.

This one combines the old Gothic Horror with a bit of giallo, throws in necrophilia, black magic and weird science and tops it off with zombies. That's called knocking it right out the park, right there. We start off with a mysterious lady rooting around a cemetary, trying to find a certain tomb which contains an old man. Once she finds him, she pulls out a document from his corpse and is immediately set upon by a strange, unseen figure. Wha'gawan?

Shortly afterwards, our hero Serge turns up. He's a big jerk and it's his uncle that's just been buried. Serge can't understand why the locals won't get him a taxi up to the creepy village just because it happens to be on the 'cemetary road'. Serge gives it the old 'pish posh' routine and gets his gun out, stiffens his upper lip and promptly shits himself when he stumbles upon the hanging corpse of a young woman with a look of terror on his face.

Turns out that this woman was his cousin and now that she's dead he's the sole inheritor of the entire estate, which includes of course a huge creepy mansion full of secret passageways. This doesn't make him look too good in the eyes of the police however, who quickly establish that the girl was probably murdered, but then they also suspect that insane graveskeeper that everyone hates (Paul Naschy, doing a lovely loopy turn as Igor). They discover that Naschy is some sort of necrophile who loves taking pictures of dead women, but that's not tasteless enough for this film so hold your horses, because we haven't met the residents of the creepy mansion yet.

There's seemingly innocent maid Doris and her father Prof. Leon and his experiments with electricity. Then there Nadia, highly suspicious stepmother who dresses up as a corpse and tries to get Naschy to get it on with her, leading him to run off and apologise to his corpse collection. That's better. Nadia is an opportunist so it doesn't take long for her to run up Serge's trouser leg like a ferret in order to prevent him selling the mansion. Oh, and she also practices black magic into the bargain.

Long story short - someone's up to something regarding the house and is willing to kill for that undisclosed reason. If it were a straightforward gothic horror it would still work fine, what with the secret passageways and vanishing corpses, and as a giallo it would still work fine, but to throw some zombie action in the last half an hour, that's putting in overtime.

Yes, zombies rise up and we find out all that's going down. Paul Naschy may not be the star here but he still stands out as the (literally) drooling madman who is the key to everything that's happening. This one has been sitting on Youtube for years so it's easily obtainable, and recommended by me, if that means anything at all. Wait - this is meant to be set in Scotland? in toil we krimber

Set in 19th-century in Scotland, when a count dies, his nephew named Chekov : Stelvio Rossi comes to the mansion located at a village in a mountain location. But then the daughter of the recently deceased count appears hanged. At his house a group of people reunite to know the inheritance to be supervised by a notary. There join the following ones : the disgraced widow : Maria Pia Conte , a Doctor : Gerard Tichy who worked with the dead man, his beautiful daughter : Dyanik Zurawoska and assisting them a suspicious butler : Charles Quiney . Along the way here also shows up a Police Inspector : Paquale Basile to investigate the strange death of the hanged woman . Scariest than you worst nightmare! . We dare you take one step beyond the grave!

A horrific and terrfying Zombie movie that at the time had a certain success and being nowadays well considered. Spanish Gothic with chills, horrifying set pieces, thrills, ghastly scenes, beheading and nudism in charge of two Eurotrash beauties : Maria Pia Conte, Dyanik Zurawoska . This is a mixed bag in which there are all kinds of elements and characters of terror genre as living dead, voodoo, psych people, creepy undertakers , sinister caves and anything else. The film is full of familar faces of the B-Spanish/Italian genres from Spaghetti, Sex comedy, Macarroni Combat, Horror to Giallo such as : Stelvio Rosi, Gerard Tichy, Charles Quiney , Maria Pia Conte, Dyanik Zurawoska. Special mention for the great Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina who in a brief role gives one of his best interpretations as a really deranged gravedigger.

It contains a thrilling and suspenseful musical score that fits perfectly to the frightening scenes. As well as an atmospheric and dark cinematography with strong shades by Rizzolo. Being shot on location in the Pyrenees mountains, Huesca. The picture was professionally directed by Jose Luis Merino who recently passed away. This Spanish craftsman had a long career making all kinds of genres : adventures, comedy, Musical, action, Paella Western and Horror. Outstanding his films about Robin Hood, El Zorro, Tiger of Kyber and his Terror movies as Ivanna and La Orgia de los muertos 1973. Rating 6/10. Acceptable and passable but not for squeamish.

There's plenty of skullduggery in store for Serge Chekov when he travels to a gloomy estate to collect an inheritance bequeathed him by his late uncle. Not only does he have to contend with witchcraft, sexual seduction, and a séance upon his arrival, the guy also stumbles upon gratuitous necrophilia and just when you think the plot can't get any sillier, he's shown a laboratory where the dead are secretly reanimated...

Resembling an Italian horror film from the '60s (like the ones with Barbara Steele, only in color), TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD is all about atmosphere even though there's an actual mystery (later explained through flashbacks) going on right under the nose of a none-too-bright police inspector puffing a Sherlock Holmes pipe. Like Amando de Ossorio's trilogy, the dead are blind here, too, and there's also bare breasts and a woman's heart removed but I don't know what (if anything) can be inferred about audience tastes at the time. Filmmaking in Franco-era Spain obviously didn't shrink from explicit gore (there's an autopsy and a nice beheading here) but they were rather squeamish about nudity, it seems. There's a spinning montage as our hero gets drugged and seduced by the femme fatale and they're in bed together but he's got his pants on while she's completely nude. That's not the only thing weird; the film is set in nineteenth-century Scotland but I'm not sure the filmmakers knew where that was since the characters all have names like Chekov and Nadia and the fine-looking locations resemble Eastern Europe. Genre icon Paul Naschy plays a gravedigger who likes his ladies ice cold and he looked a lot like John Belushi in some scenes. A WTF? film, for sure.