Massacre

Massacre is a film directed by Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground) and produced by legendary Italian horror director Lucio Fulci. Now with this mix of great talent you would think this movie would have been a true gore fest. This could not be further from that. Massacre falls right on its face as being one of the most boring slasher films I have seen come out of Italian cinema. I was actually struggling to stay awake during the film and I have never had that problem with Italian horror films.

Massacre starts out with a hooker being slaughtered on the side of the road with an ax. This scene was used in Fulci's Nightmare Concert. This isn't a bad scene and it raises your expectations of the movie as being an ax wielding slaughter. Unfortuanitly, the next hour of the movie is SO boring. The movie goes on to a set of a horror film being filmed and there is a lot of character development during all these scenes but the characters in the movie are so dull and badly acted your interest starts to leak away. The last 30 minutes of the movie aren't so bad but still could have been much better. The gore in the movie was pathetic and since Fulci used most of the gore scenes in Nightmare Concert there was nothing new here. The end of the movie did leave a nice twist but there was still to much unanswered and the continuity falls right through the floor.

This wasn't a very good film but for a true Italian horror freak (like myself) this movie is a must have since it is very rare. 4/10 stars

Working out in the countryside, the production of a low-budget horror film begins suffering under new guidelines to the film as well as the rampage of a psychopath murdering prostitutes in the city and when the events intersect they manage

This was quite the sleazy if somewhat cheap giallo. One of the finer points here is that this one decides to really sell itself on its central premise rather early on. From the very first start, with the killer shown stalking and killing the prostitute on the side of the road and segueing nicely into the film shoot starts this one on a strong note, from the suspenseful stalking to the cheesy antics on- set with the zombies and fire-stunts on display. The way this leads into the change-over in the script for the filmed movie striving to be more of a realistic manner that puts a strain on the cast gives it a bit of life during the interim between the stalkings while also giving this some fun in the backstage dealings with the group. With the talk of who's going to get into bed with who and the rumblings over what the changes are going to mean, even bringing in a medium to conduct a seance that provides this with a stellar supernaturally-tinged sequence inside a hotel room that holds this one over. It gets slightly more enjoyable in the second half where the killer begins getting more active and involved in the proceedings knocking people off that results in some nice times here with the assault on the couple in the park as well as the fine multiple-person ambush in the boatyard which has some gruesome moments to it. The final reveal at the end isn't all that bad, and along with the fine gore give this one enough to hold it out over it's few flaws. The main issue with this one is the fact that nothing at all really happens for a large portion of time here with the film really tending to run through some utterly dull moments along the way. Though generally not that badly done when focusing on the antics within the staff and crew, there's nothing that can save the fact that the film goes from the opening murder to nearly an hour until the next strike occurs which really does highlight how nothing much really happens for this main part of the film. These scenes just drag on forever and don't really amount to much at all which generates the kind of bland feeling throughout here that takes this one to such excruciating lengths that really harms the film. As well, the film doesn't really offer up much of an explanation for the kind of ending this one has, which does make this one end on a somewhat confusing note as to how it all happened and what makes sense for it all. As well as the shoddy special effects work, these here are the films' few problems.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Full Nudity.

"Massacre" revolves around a series of murders that are happening around the filming of a horror film called "Dirty Blood".The film opens with extremely gory murder and mutilation of a street prostitute by a hooded maniac."Massacre" is a fine Italian gore film.There is plenty of sleaze and lots of misogynistic violence to satisfy fans of Italian cult cinema.The killings are mean spirited and gory as hell.The soundtrack is annoying and the acting is bad,but overlook that and we have an enjoyable piece of Italian splatter.Lucio Fulci actually used the gore scenes from this movie in his own "Nightmare Concert"/"A Cat In the Brain"(1990).Give this one a look-you won't be disappointed.

Pros: Goblin-style film score.

The use of fog is nice in a few scenes.

One of the first instances of a slasher movie within a slasher movie.

Cons: Acting, writing, directing, pacing, and just about everything else.

This is a painful watch. Stay far away from this one.

Prior to this film, I had only seen two films by director Andrea Bianchi: the trashy zombie flick Le Notti del Terrore (1981), famous amongst horror fans for its unforgettable performance from man-child Peter Bark, and the enjoyably sleazy giallo Strip Nude For Your Killer. Neither film was a particularly spectacular piece of cinema, but both were entertaining in their own special way (and the fact that they featured plenty of gore and nudity didn't hurt). Massacre, however, is dull, dull, dull, despite quite a bit of splatter and the odd spot of gratuitous bare flesh.

The story, about a series of murders in a hotel where the cast and crew of a horror film are residing during their shoot, is confusing and oh-so boring: when the blood isn't flowing and the skin isn't on show, the film is a real struggle to sit through (it took me four attempts to finish), with endless scenes of unlikeable characters bickering among themselves and doing very little of note.

The only point of interest about the film is that its producer, Lucio Fulci, used several of its death scenes to pad out his mega-gory movie Cat In The Brain (AKA Nightmare Concert). And if you've already seen that film, then there is very little reason to bother with Massacre.