Evil Eye

Although this movie is categorized by some as a giallo, it goes beyond having a plot that is merely delightfully absurd, like most films in the genre, to one that is almost completely non-sensical, including even several possibly supernatural nods to "The Exorcist". The plot involves a wealthy playboy and swinger who begins to have strange dreams where he murders people (one of whom actually calls him up at the beginning of the movie and tells him SHE had a dream that he was going to murder her!). When the same people actually end up dead, he begins to think he is going crazy or is being controlled by a satanic cult (or something), so he checks himself into a psychiatric clinic under the care of a doctor (Richard Conte) who bears more than a little resemblance to Dr. Caligari. But then he runs off with a pretty nurse to her isolated villa. . . There is all manner of other weirdness happening, including things moving by themselves a la a low-grade version of "The Exorcist". There's also a cop (Anthony Steffens) investigating, but he seems to be in a completely different movie. I don't want to spoil the ending (although it spoils itself pretty well), but it's both a cliché and a cop-out.

The lead actor (Jorge Rivero) is a good-looking guy, which ALMOST explains why every woman he meets immediately throws herself at him, even if they are married, they have just had a dream he murdered them, or he just checked into their clinic as a potentially homicidal schizophrenic. As typical for the genre there are a lot of pretty women on display including former Miss Italy Daniela Giordana, who's virtually unrecognizable (and spends all her screen time NOT quite getting naked), and Lone Fleming, a fixture in Amando Ossorio "Blind Dead" and Paul Naschy horror films.

I'm not really sure whether or not I'd recommend this. Oh well, I've reported, you decide.

Reporting in to note that I tried my best to like THE EVIL EYE and have failed. The movie has a lot in it to like: Spaghetti Western favorites Anthony Steffen & Eduardo Fajardo, the beloved Luciano Pigozzi, deliriously sexy Daniela Giordano, Pia Giancaro, Eva Vanicek & Pilar Velázquez, plus Lone Flemming, nothing to sneeze at herself. Music by genre film legend Stelvio Cipriani. Story & screenplay by Julio Buchs and Federico De Urrutia, who had graduated from the Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent school of Spanish Spaghetti Westerns themselves, and had previously collaborated on the under-appreciated A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL.

So the film bombards viewers with all sorts of fantastic elements, including some great Italian urban & rural scenery, a feast of cavorting nude women, some hunky Euro Manbeef for the ladies (or whoever -- is this movie gay?) and a couple of truly bizarre scenes that are difficult to explain ... Like the scene where a 2 ton pallet of cinder blocks are dropped on somebody, but when the camera goes in for the medium angle it looks like someone had tossed a few bricks into a pile. Was it a gaffe due to the film's tight budget or a surrealist touch meant to make you stop for a minute and say "Wait, did I see that right?"

The problem is that the film never really gels. It seems hesitant to tell its story and pads out the scenes which do move the narrative along with excessive travelogue photography, or just small scenes thrown in that have nothing to do with the story. I would also single out the lead Jorge Rivero, a fine actor from Mexico, with being totally wrong for the role. He doesn't come across as tortured or even involved in his story no matter what language his voice voice dubber was speaking. Roles like this need a tortured soul to wander through the film looking for answers -- Fabio Testi, George Hilton, Farley Granger, even cast mate Anthony Steffen, they could all do it in their sleep. Rivero comes off poorly but it isn't his fault.

It does have Anthony Steffen though, made up & costumed to look like Dirty Harry right down to the corduroy tie. The problem is that the film doesn't come up with anything for him to do that required the role to be filled by Anthony Steffen, who was a very special presence. They don't even do anything with the Dirty Harry angle, which would have made sense given how Steffen was marketed as Italy's own answer to Clint Eastwood. He isn't wasted in the role because he's just one of those actors where every performance is always pretty decent, the script just wasn't sure if it wanted to tell its story and subsequently doesn't really give him anything to do.

It also kept Daniela Giordano cruelly encased within her clothing, while lingering many a flattering camera angle on Jorge Rivero and his hunky roommate buddy -- who apparently share bathrobes -- lounging around in various states of semi-dress. Which led me to wonder if the film had a quietly gay subtext to it, which would be fine and can be the basis for some interesting results (look up a little number called ROOM OF CHAINS sometime). But the story dances around the idea clumsily, parading out the usual quota of bared breasts in a manner that comes across as perfunctory. The real passion is in showing Jorge Rivero lying in bed with his shirt off, and that in itself makes the film somewhat unique.

4/10; Euro Horror fans will be more sympathetic than others.

Peter Crane (Jorge Rivero, star of the later "Conquest") is a rich womanizing playboy who suffers from a string of vivid nightmares. Peter may or may not also be a murderer in this strange, off-beat, and wildly disjointed Grindhouse curiosity. While a tad hard to follow simply for the logic (or rather lack of), the movie is strangely compelling none the less and is probably best viewed as a product of a bygone era. It more than made up for the sheer tedium that I had experienced when I sat through the previous "Black Candles" skin-flick fiasco.

My Grade: B-

Region 1 DVD Extras: Trailers for "Pick Up", "Legend of Eight Samurai", "Don't Answer the Phone", "Prime Evil", & "Sister Street Fighter" (also the same DVD holds a second feature movie "Black Candles")

This Italian-made copycat EXORCIST mixes in a bit of "Oedipus Rex."

"Satan is present and active in the world," a narrator intones in the opening shots, as the camera travels through a group of blank-faced extras gathered near a nameless Italian square. The action moves without explanation to a Black Mass ceremony in a cave, where a robed disciple declares in a badly-dubbed voice, "Fill thy hearts with violence and perversion," inciting his followers to gambol in an R-rated orgy.

When the story proper begins, Peter, a young archaeology student, finds an evil medallion that burns his skin at the touch, but he wears it anyway. Gradually, his complexion and eyes change color, and he begins acting bedeviled.

Director Pannaccio adds what he can to the tired devil-possession plot. For example, during a disco sequence Peter's girlfriend is gorily killed on the dance floor by unseen hands, while at the same time Peter is off killing one of the females seen earlier in the Black Mass sequence. After Peter torments and murders his mother (Francoise Prevost), his nun sister summons a priest (Richard Conte) for exorcist duties. In the inane non-ending, the nun takes the medallion and jumps to her death.

Recommended only for devil-movie completists, EVIL EYE contains some diverting nonsense -- a possessed dart board, actors staring into space while the soundtrack blares spooky music, and an insane asylum sequence that looks pilfered from another movie.

A very uncomfortable looking Conte probably wished he were back in THE BROTHERS RICO or THE GODFATHER. This quickie was also shown in U. S. theaters as NAKED EXORCISM.

The handsome Jorge Rivero ("Rio Lobo") is cast as a playboy named Peter Crane, who loses his grip on reality, often believing himself to be murdering people. Determined to get some help, he checks into a hospital where he's watched over by psychiatrist Dr. Stone (Richard Conte of "The Godfather"). Stones' associate Dr. Sarah Turner (the stunning Pilar Velazquez, "The Flower with Petals of Steel") falls in lust with him, and they run off to a cabin together, despite his predicament.

Co-writer / director Mario Siciliano ("Lions of St. Petersburg") doesn't concern himself very much with the story making *sense*, really. Where he succeeds the most is in creating a very lurid, and very *surreal* atmosphere, designed to have viewers thinking, "WTF?" on numerous occasions. One scene near the end is particularly indicative of this style, and that involves slimy butler Walter (Eduardo Fajardo, "Django") and a frog.

"Evil Eye" starts out as if it is going to be more of a horror film, with a decidedly creepy feel. But, by and large, it takes place in a "reality" that keeps shifting. An inspector on the case (Anthony Steffen, "Viva Sabata") is kind of off in his own movie, but he experiences some of the weirdness, too: like a moment involving a body buried under rubble.

Aided and abetted by a wonderful soundtrack by Stelvio Cipriani ("A Bay of Blood"), Siciliano gets solid performances out of his cast, which includes other familiar faces such as Luciano Pigozzi a.k.a. Alan Collins ("Yor: The Hunter from the Future") and Daniela Giordano ("Violent Rome").

The film is loaded with sexy ladies, and bare female flesh, but never gets all that gory, making it fairly sleazy but never all that unpleasant. It's recommended to fans of Euro genre features who want something a little off the beaten path. The only real disappointment lies in that ending.

Seven out of 10.