The Embalmer (1965) User Reviews

Alla Salute!

[ferbs54 · 6/10 · 18 January 2012]

Pop quiz: Can you name a film in which a serial killer stalks the byways and canals of Venice? If your answer is Nicolas Roeg's 1973 film "Don't Look Now," a glass of Chianti for you! If you came up with the more obscure film "Who Saw Her Die?," a giallo picture directed by Aldo Lado in 1972, well, you've just earned yourself two glasses of Marchesi Antinori! And if your response was the extremely obscure "Monster of Venice," a B&W thriller directed by Dino Tavella in 1965, well, YOU deserve an entire bottle of Nero d'Avola! In this one, the titular madman's MO is to put on scuba gear and either abduct his teenage female prey right off their gondolas or as they're walking near the canals. When he isn't busy actually snatching his pretties, he can be found in his underground catacomb lair, injecting his latest catch with embalming fluid (the film's American title IS "The Embalmer") and adding her to his ranked collection standing along the wall; his so-called "Temple of Beauty," he says out loud, his face hidden behind a skull mask and cowl. Whereas the dim-witted Venetian cops don't see a connection between the rash of teenage disappearances, a young, hunky-dude reporter, Andreas (Luigi Martocci, listed in the credits here as Gin Mart, which, coincidentally, is where I buy all my vino!), most certainly does, and sets out to capture the fiend. The advent of a group of young female students on holiday, shepherded by their pretty chaperone (Maureen Lidgard Brown), proves a distraction, though, for both Andreas AND the killer....

Anyway, "Monster of Venice" boasts little in the way of plot, other than a series of abductions and gloatings, and the identity of the monster is fairly easy to deduce. Still, it remains a moderately pleasing entertainment, its saving graces being a suspenseful windup (as the chaperone and Andreas independently penetrate the killer's lair) and an extremely ingratiating performance from Martocci. Handsome, suave and genial, he almost comes across here like the Sean Connery of the early '60s; too bad he doesn't fight as well as an 00 agent! And too bad, also, that Martocci's only other screen appearance seems to have been an uncredited one in 1963's "Cleopatra." Playing Andreas, he looks "as slick as a movie idol," as one of his fellow reporters tells him. The film also sports some at-times interesting direction from Tavella, but the background music of Marcello Gigante was a problem for this viewer. It is effectively suitable here and there, but at other times, the big-band jazz seems out of place; almost non sequitur. At a mere 83 minutes long, the picture goes by fairly easily, yet is still padded somewhat by musical numbers and some halfhearted travelogue sequences. And the dubbing here is just atrocious; the film in its original Italian, with subtitles, would have been a vast improvement. As for the current DVD incarnation of this relatively unknown film, the one from RetroMedia, the print offered looks just fine, with minimal damage, its only extra being a trailer for "The Embalmer." And truth to tell, we're not likely to get a better offering of this film anytime soon. That's a shame, as "Monster of Venice," modest entertainment that it is, still deserves a wider renown. It's nothing great, but is certainly a decent night's time killer. And if you should happen to partake of a few glasses of Italian red before venturing in, why, then, all the better! Alla salute!

decent proto-giallo

[FieCrier · 6/10 · 21 August 2004]

This is not a great movie, but it's reasonably good, I think (and certainly not overlong). I saw it on Alpha's full-frame DVD, with the title The Embalmer, and dubbed in English. I understand Sinister Cinema's copy is widescreen, but I think it's also dubbed.

The cinematography is never particularly exceptional, but serviceable. The wet-suit clad killer emerging from canals, revisited in Amsterdamned (1988), is a decent idea. The jazzy musical score was enjoyable, if occasionally repetitive. The Venice locations are well used.

I didn't really understand who the killer was, and it was surprising how brutal the movie was with regard to who it was willing to kill off, while the movie lacked scenes of explicit violence.

There are some great moments in this giallo-krimi hybrid

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 16 August 2011]

The Embalmer is a bit of a hybrid of the Italian giallo and the German krimi. It feels more like the latter but displays a lot of the characteristics of the former. It's basically about a killer who swims around the canals in Venice in a wet suit picking off women who he then takes back to his underground lair, which is an abandoned ancient monastery.

The idea of a giallo in Venice having a killer who is a frogman is simultaneously ridiculous and perfectly reasonable. It's quite a funny idea really. It fits into the general feel of the film which is one of unashamed senselessness. It does have to be said that the tone of the movie varies a great deal from light-hearted moments to the quite sinister. The villain does kill rather a lot of women and then embalms them in his underground lair to preserve their beauty. They are displayed as a series of dead manikins. Freaky stuff. It's also quite jarring when the film freezes momentarily on a woman to indicate that she is soon to be for the chop.

It would probably be fair to say that the movie does meander a bit in the early stages, while the dubbing is particularly atrocious. But these factors are outweighed by some well conceived suspenseful moments. The final twenty minutes in particular are very good, where we enter the killer's underground hide-out. He turns out to be a pretty interesting looking villain, while the scene with the dead monks was totally unexpected and pretty cool. The final third of the movie is particularly well paced and is very atmospheric. Although I do have to admit to being still somewhat puzzled as to the identity of the killer.

I don't think this flick is as bad as it is mostly portrayed. It's a minor film for sure but it also has some great moments.

Worthwhile Italian-made krimi/giallo

[lazarillo · 2 April 2005]

This film could be considered either a early giallo (like "Blood and Black Lace") or an Italian version of a German krimi (like "Dead Eyes of London"). A maniac is stalking the canals of Venice. Dressed as a frogman he is snatching young girls and taking them back to his lair, an underground monastery, where he ,uh, well embalms them as a way of preserving their beauty for all eternity.

This movie obviously makes very little sense--there has got to be an easier way to procure victims than donning a scuba outfit and pulling them out of gondolas, and for some reason the character dresses up in a robe and skeleton mask like the Phantom of the Opera even when he is alone in his hideout. Still as completely improbable as this is, it makes for some great scenes with pretty girls being dragged into canals at night by the sinister frogman (an idea later borrowed for the more violent Dutch thriller "Amsterdamned"), and the exciting finale where the masked killer hides among the skeletal corpses of monks in order to surprise the female protagonist who has wandered into his lair.

The movie is unusually depraved (always a plus) for a film made in 1965 with the whole embalming idea, and it breaks any number of cinematic rules. The cops are completely useless, chalking up the disappearances to accidental drownings, so it's up to an intrepid journalist and two hilarious winos who keep seeing "a big fish with a headlight" swimming under the bridge where they drink to crack the case. The end where the journalist hero rushes to save his girlfriend from the killer has some very unusual and shocking surprises. Of course, this movie doesn't offer the nudity or violence many Italian exploitation connoisseurs might expect (and it's in black and white), but it's still a worthwhile little film.

Mostly lacklustre Italian Gothic horror

[The_Void · 5/10 · 1 October 2007]

I was really expecting something pretty good from The Embalmer...but unfortunately all I got was a dreary horror flick with a couple of good ideas and a complete lack of suspense. The film was apparently inspired by Edgar Wallace, who was the inspiration for a lot of the German "Krimi" style of film-making. Not being too familiar with Wallace's work, I can't say how true that is - but The Embalmer is certainly not the Giallo I was expecting. The film is set in Venice, and makes best use of the scenery...though it does get a bit boring as the film sets the scene without putting anything relevant to the story with it! The film was possibly an inspiration on the brilliant Dutch "Giallo" Amsterdamned as it focuses on a killer who lives under the Venetian canals. The killer is selecting young women of Venice and dragging them to the depths of the canal, where he has his way with them - by filling them up with embalming fluid to keep them beautiful for all time (etc etc). A journalist picks up the story, and soon ends up falling in love with the killer's next victim.

The main problem with this film is that it's entirely lacklustre! The cinematography, acting, direction, plot line etc all stink of a group of people that couldn't really be bothered to come up with something half decent. The film is not very suspenseful at all, and a lot of is made up of mind numbing diatribe, which means that when we actually get to watch the killer with his victims, most viewers will already be bored out of their brains. The killer himself looks cool - completed clad in black with a skull mask, but that's the only good thing about him. He makes long winded speeches to his dead victims that were obviously intended to be scary, but actually come as being rather silly. It does boil down to a fairly decent finale, which despite not justifying the rest of the film; at least ensures that the movie doesn't just leave a bad taste in the viewer's mouths by the end of the film. Overall, this is a good film to track down because it's extremely rare and seen in some circles as a precursor to the Giallo genre - but trust me, it's not worth the time and effort!

Embalm Me! Please!

[Hitchcoc · 2/10 · 20 November 2009]

A man in a diving suit keeps going into the same underwater passage, picking girls off the same area on the wharf, for the purpose of preserving them. A reporter gets wind of this and tries to figure out what is going on. This takes place in Venice. It is full of stock footage and ridiculously long chases. At one point the hero has to slow down so he doesn't catch the guy he's chasing. There is never an explanation why the bad guy is doing this, nor do we care what happens to anyone. It's just another one of those movies made in the sixties to be put in double features at drive in movies where no one watches anyway. The sound is bad; the acting is awful, dubbed from Italian. There are barely any laughs.

I forgot to mention Dolce Latte

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 29 April 2017]

Like the sour and salty odour of Parmesan, this film reminds you that not every Italian horror film is as serious as Il Demonio. Instead, the Embalmer embraces you like a melted Tellagio and a warm Cacio (with Pepe, of course). We have a killer who alternates between dressing up as a skull faced monk and dressing up as a scuba diving serial killer! This film takes place in Venice (hence: the killer using scuba gear to snare his victims), and although the kills are spread across the film like Bel Paese over a nice Panini, there are patches of the film where my mind was wandering, which caused a jerk reaction like that of the olfactory sensation of sniffing a particularly ripe Cambazola.

For the most part though the film is like cutting into a Calzone and seeing the contents ooze out. Loads of Mozzarella cheese, basically. From the Italian-Elvis clone bursting from a sarcophagus and singing an Italian-Elvis Clone song to the killer having a severe case of expositionitus, this film is like eating a sandwich which consists of a sharp Provolone with Parma Ham - High notes mixed with dull, Earthy plodding plot.

The milky Fontina element comes from the bad dubbing, the gratuitous touring of Venice (including a glass blowing shop!) and the bad acting. The pecorino like goodness comes from the surprisingly high body count and the fact that the killer is really the guy you though immediately was the killer.

It's kind of sweet (like Marscopone and Ricotta) that the film does try to give you some red herrings, but the film is not the best in terms of what Italian 1965 horror has to offer, kind of like Goronzola, you wouldn't pick it first if someone served you a plate of bad analogies.

This might come as a surprise, but I used to sell Italian cheese. Now I just watch it.

Embalming Venice.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 9 April 2011]

A ghastly murderer is on the loose in Venice.He stalks women,kills various beauties and embalms them for his collection of beautiful cadavers.A young reporter tries to stop this crazed embalmer.The killer hides in the ruins of an old decayed monastery.He attacks his victims in scuba gear a la Dick Maas "Amsterdamned" and uses Venetian canals to leave the place of the crime.During the climax he is dressed as a monk with a skeleton mask."The Embalmer" by Dino Tavella is an enjoyable slice of an Italian proto-giallo with sluggish pace and unneeded comic overtones.The film has its share of effective and suspenseful moments and the script is positively macabre and downbeat.7 embalmers out of 10.

One memorable moment cannot save a movie

[bensonmum2 · 3/10 · 22 September 2005]

A deranged frogman is kidnapping the most beautiful women of Venice and taking them to the sunken cathedral that serves as his lair. Once there, he dons a hooded robe and skull mask and embalms the young women in an attempt to preserve their beauty. The police are so ineffective that it's up to a local reporter to crack the case. And when his sweetheart goes missing, he steps up his efforts to discover the whereabouts of the missing women and the crazed killer.

What Works:

• The Chase Scene. The final chase scene through the cathedral does provide a few suspenseful moments. It also provides the only real memorable image from the movie. The scene where the hooded, masked killer hides himself among the decaying corpses of the monks is easily the highlight of The Monster of Venice.

What Doesn't Work:

• The Acting. In a word, it's abysmal. I don't think it's just a case of bad dubbing – these people couldn't be convincing if their life depended on it.

• The Travelogue. While Venice is undeniably a beautiful city, much of the movie appears to have been directed by the local tourism bureau. We are treated to scene after scene of the lovely buildings and waterways of Venice. While they are certainly some nice looking moments, they have nothing to do with the movie and bring an already dull script to a screeching halt.

• The Killer's Monologue. The hooded killer loves to go on and on about preserving the beauty of his captives. It quickly becomes pointless and repetitive. And why does he feel the need to deliver these soliloquies? There's no one around to hear his words. He has embalmed his only audience.

• The Beautiful Women. This may sound shallow, but if these are the most beautiful women Venice has to offer, I would hate to see the rest of the populace. I would have trouble going so far as to say that any of the women approach being mildly attractive, let alone beautiful.

I give up. I could probably continue to list more individual weaknesses, but what's the point. Everything you could name – plot, characters, action, atmosphere, dialogue, etc. – are bottom of the barrel. Other than the finale, this is one incredibly dull film. If you really feel the need to watch The Monster of Venice, do yourself a favor and fast-forward the movie to the final 10 minutes. You'll thank me for this piece of advice.

Embalmed by a frogman: water-way to go!

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 16 May 2016]

A killer frogman (a man in scuba gear, not a half-frog/half-man hybrid) emerges from the waterways of Venice at night to drag attractive young women to his lair, where he embalms their bodies to preserve their beauty for all eternity. Intrepid reporter and ladies' man Andrea (Luigi Martocci) investigates…

I wasn't expecting too much from this movie, given its current low IMDb score of 4.5, but I was pleasantly surprised: the 'killer from the canals' plot line is pretty ingenious, mid-'60s Venice makes for a great locale, with its bustling tourist attractions, crumbling semi-submerged buildings, and swinging nightlife (which allows for a couple of jazz/rock 'n' roll interludes amidst all the murder and mystery), and for those who like a bit of light sleaze with their Italian horror, there's a pervy hotel manager who sneaks into a special room to spy on his pretty female guests through a two-way mirror (did I hear someone say 'red herring'?).

Writer/director Dino Tavella's handling of the action is, for the most part, unexceptional, although the stylish gimmick of freeze-framing on each successive victim before the killer strikes is a fun touch, and there's a cool scene in which the murderer, wearing a cowl and skull mask, hides in plain sight amongst the remains of several long-dead monks. The film also earns extra points for going against convention, delivering a downbeat finale in which the hero fails to save his girlfriend from the killer's clutches.

6.5 out 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

If you stick with it the ending is good

[HEFILM · 5/10 · 19 February 2006]

This film predates Amsterdammned as a film with a scuba suit wearing psycho killer. Problem with scuba suits is that you can't move around well on land in them. That is no problem for this killer since many of his victims seem to literally walk right into his arms.

The series of killings, part of this film is the weak section, but the lair of the killer (which I won't spoil by telling what it is) final reel is worth the wait. Everything improves including the music during the final reel and when it's all over you'll feel better about the whole film than you will during parts in the middle. Most of the best images in the film are from that final 10 minutes but there are definitely some you'll remember.

Comedy intentional and unintentional also helps keep the film going. At least the American print I saw has almost no on screen violence, other than the macabre chase at the end. Dubbing is pretty poor but that goes with the territory.

A restoration of the original Italian version would be a great improvement I'm sure. Fans of films set in Venice will want to give this a look. Too bad the budget couldn't allow for any underwater photography that would have helped the early sections a great deal. All I'll say about the killer's identity is that in some Giallos the revelation is one of those, who was that guy again? In some Giallos that's the way it is.

Enjoyable mid 60's Italian horror outing

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 7 March 2012]

A crazed killer preys on attractive young women in Venice, California by snatching them off the canals and streets before taking them to his underground chamber so he can embalm them alive. It's up to intrepid journalist Andrea (a solid and likable performance by Luigi Mortocci) to find the fiend and put a stop to his ghoulish rampage. Writer/director Dino Tavella relates the compelling story at a steady pace, makes nice use of the lovely city by the sea location, builds and sustains a good deal of tension, and does an equally sturdy job of crafting a pleasingly spooky atmosphere (both the killer and his subterranean lair are genuinely creepy). The climax with Andrea tracking, chasing, and fighting the killer is quite lively, exciting, and suspenseful. Moreover, this movie further benefits from a few nifty stylish flourishes, with especially neat use of freeze frames to identity each one of the maniac's next victims. Mario Parapetti's stark black and white cinematography and Marcello Gigante's robust and jazzy shuddery score are both on the money sound and effective. Worth a watch.

See Venice and DIE! (and get embalmed again )

[Coventry · 6/10 · 24 July 2014]

Admittedly "The Monster of Venice" isn't a very good movie, even though it easily could and should have been, but I can't help being mild and forgiving in my final judgments. Why, I'm not really sure… Probably because I have a natural born weakness for Italian giallo/Gothic/krimi movies from the sixties, and secondly because I really do think that this film brings forward a lot of potentially great ideas and ingenious elements (but somehow fails to elaborate them properly). For starters, the killer is a fantastically versatile persona! Usually maniacal murderers in horror movies have one or maybe two peculiarities, whether regarding their modus operandi or something about their outfits, but the killer here has no less than three noteworthy trademarks. Wearing a scuba diver outfit, he lurks at his victims from beneath the surface of the world famous Venice canals. When he's in his lair he wears a monk's outfit and a hideously creepy skull mask. And regarding his modus operandi, he exclusively targets beautiful women that he drags into the water and then subsequently embalms and puts into his collection. The Venice police corps gets depicted as the most incompetent one in the world, since they don't seek for a link between the unusually high number of missing-girl cases, and thus journalist Andrea starts his own private investigation based on the gibberish of two drunken skippers that repeatedly saw – and I quote – "a big fish with headlights in the water". Andrea is also a ladies' man, as he takes care of a group of pretty girls and their conductress. The beauty of this group naturally fetches the attention of the killer… The plot (not-so-subtly) reveals the killer's identity, but there's still more than enough to keep the viewer entertained. The simultaneously beautiful and yet sinister Venice filming locations as well as the unique giallo/krimi hybrid atmosphere will certainly appeal to fans of classic horror. The fact that the killer can't keep his mouth shut and constantly describes the actions at his embalming table sadly have a negative impact on the suspense and his overall "evil-factor", but to me personally he remains a memorable villain and his sick and twisted fetishes are definitely courageous for a film released in 1965. Many of my fellow reviewers also complain about the bad acting and the horrible dubbing. The former didn't really bother me that much and I try to never allow the latter influence me.

Anonimo Veneziano

[Chase_Witherspoon · 5/10 · 10 November 2012]

Low budget thriller concerns the disappearance of young women in Venice, prompting a dapper investigative reporter (and ladies' man) to suspect that it's the work of an aquatic monster who lunges from the city's canals snatching his victims and taking them to a watery grave. The audience however knows this isn't the case, the culprit a mysterious madman whose underwater access to a secret mausoleum conceals a morbid treasure trove of beautiful mummies to indulge his sick, private fantasies.

Predictable, though not unwatchable, it's a beatnik-inspired Venetian affair with lots of acoustic guitar and jazzy ensembles, underground clubs, pointless dancing and a window into the care-free 60's pop-culture scene that inhabited Italy at the time. The dubbing is typically facile and so it's difficult to gauge whether the acting is any good, though it doesn't necessarily diminish the movie, assuming you don't have high expectations of this bloodless, though still somewhat ghoulish Italian horror movie.

Just because it's Italian, dosn't mean it's Bava

[Charles Garbage · 17 May 2001]

A guy with a snorkle steals the beautiful women of Venice and takes them in to his parlour to preserve their beauty. A clean-cut reporter investigates.

This b/w spaghetti-schlocker first showed in a drive-in double bill in 1966 with Michael Reeve's first film, THE SHE BEAST with Barbara Steele. It was then picked up again in 1973 in a triple-bill alongside T.V. Mikels' THE CORPSE GRINDERS and THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS where a nurse checked everyone's blood pressures before they watched these three absoulutely terrorfying movies!

Pretty interesting screening history for such an ordinary movie. Well, I suppose it's just standard drive-in fare. Enjoyable in it's own dull sort of way and worth the effort for all us completists.

Mind-numbing would be a step up for this movie

[cpetr13 · 2/10 · 22 December 2005]

It commits the cardinal sin--it is a mystery that gives NO clues whatsoever to the killer's identity except his gender (this is not a spoiler because the very first scene establishes this.) The best thing to do is to watch the bad acting and Ed-Woodesque values. There is a repeated bit where the bodies are supposedly kept upright in glass-covered stalls; the killer repeatedly acts as if he is putting his hands on the glass but it is obvious they never got around to putting any glass in place--it looks like a high-school mime exercise. Then there are the obviously fake skulls littering the place and the appalling night-club scene.

Watch it for its lack of polish and control, but feel free to move about at will--you can miss 15 minutes at a time and not lose the plot.

Interesting plot, indifferent execution

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 2 August 2008]

The idea behind this film is pretty original and very frightening. There's a psycho in Venice who kidnaps beautiful women and then embalms them to put in his private collection! However, despite this really cool plot, the overall film really wasn't very good--especially in the final 20 minutes. That's because in order to make the film work, the writers have the characters make so many brainless mistakes that the film comes off poorly. Here are some of the major plot problems:

1. A lady discovers that the hotel manager is, at the very least, a sex pervert. Instead of telling the police, she goes to the manager's apartment. When he isn't there, she lets herself in and looks around. When she "accidentally" discovers a secret panel to an underground lair, she investigates it on her own--never going for help!!

2. When there is a big fight between our hero and the murderer on the early streets of Venice, not once does the hero call out for help--even though he has many opportunities. When the murderer starts to win in their fight, the guy STILL doesn't call for help nor did he arrange for any backup. Apparently, like the stupid lady in #1, he is too cool to get help.

This is an Italian-made horror film that was dubbed into English. Oddly, while the lips, of course, aren't in sync when everyone is speaking in English because of the dubbing, even the part where a guy sings in Italian is way out of sync--which is just odd.

Despite these brainless problems with the film, the coolness of the plot makes up for a lot of this. While it certainly ain't "art", it is a reasonably decent time-passer.

It's not totally bad...

[RodrigAndrisan · 3/10 · 9 November 2017]

...Except that the embalming scene is absolutely the same, repeated with different women, the guy always with his back facing us, to not be able to see his face, and then the exaggerated end, the rest is watchable if you do not have another better movie to watch. Unknown actors which are not quite bad. The scene with the guitar singer coming out of a coffin is the most successful moment of the movie.

Far better than expected effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 12 November 2017]

Following a series of abductions, a local police officer in Venice investigating the disappearances is continually stumped about the nature of the crimes, and as the abductions continue a break in the case allows him to solve the identity of the strange killer and races to stop him.

This one wasn't all that awful a giallo effort. One of the finer points of this one is the fact that there's quite a strong number of abduction sequences place throughout here. Starting off rather quickly with the opening showing off several quick abductions, this comes off really nicely with the multiple women getting targeted and kidnapped while out in the city or near the water to get the mystery going in a big start, and once the action shifts to the maniac's headquarters below the city the underground catacombs have the appropriately dark and wet atmosphere throughout here. Since there's a nice bit of work done to enhance the atmosphere of the location with the dead women who are stuck inside the glass cases forever embalmed through the gruesome ideas contained within here. The later investigation scenes in the basement of the hotel or the backstage scenes of the club manage to feature some solid suspense moments, with the abduction off the boat amongst the crowded tourists is quite an impressive sequence. The other big point here is the big action in the finale where the tense and utterly chilling stalking in the underground sewers, as well as the confrontations in the crypt where it takes on some great work with the killers' disguise and the chases throughout the tunnels, give this a fun, action- packed finale. These here give this one enough to like to hold it up over it's few minor flaws. The biggest issue with the film is the absolutely dreadful pacing here, which really ruins the film more than anything. Although the inclusion of the girls' tourist trip to the city adds bodies to the killers' list, the fact that this stops the film cold to show off the usual tourist locales of Venice are far too obviously designed to pad out the running time, brief as it is. There's no real need for this one to go to that kind of duration dealing with the type of fodder as this one does, and once it moves forward with them running around to all the tourist locations and events the film has run through too much time to get back to the action in the remaining part of the film. That really does limit the action to a few scenes here alongside the other big flaw as the film's reliance on abductions over killing does hurt as well so this one does feel tamer than what came before. Although it does look cheap and somewhat low-budget in the worst ways, these here really do bring this one down.

Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

Mediocre Italian horror flick

[JamesMovieGuy_117 · 5/10 · 5 January 2018]

A killer kidnaps women from the streets of Venice and brings them to his underground lair where he kills and embalms them. Meanwhile an investigator is on the case and a new group of women have arrived at the city.

The Embalmer is an Italian horror movie horribly dubbed in English, although the audio quality was much better than when I watched it on TV.

It's by no means a good movie but it wasn't as horrible as I remember it being. There are some interesting camera angles and moments of suspense that are alright and I can see what the filmmakers were trying to achieve.

However, like most movies of its time there are slow moments that don't really go anywhere. The movie is roughly 77 minutes and it goes at a decent pace, well compared to other schlock I've seen.

Dubbed without a script?

[frequency-2 · 2/10 · 28 September 2007]

I really think the English dubb team had no script from the movie makers to work from. So much of the dialog is simply inane and reaction to what else is happening in that scene.

There was no backstory at all for the serial killer, no motivation given for why he killed. All that's told is that he's the manager of a hotel and he's a peeping tom there as well.

The whole movie may well be worth watching for the bizarre Dead-Elvis impersonator, however. I would buy the DVD just for that completely outré, hilarious scene.

It's quite unique among the grind-house horror genre. A scuba diving serial killer in Venice, Italy who embalms the bodies of his victims and keeps them in a sunken church. Shame Tarentino didn't get a hold of it.

The Embalmer

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 28 March 2009]

More of a tourist trip through Venice than an effective psycho-thriller regarding a madman, in scuba diver gear, who selects pretty victims on the streets nearby canals, securing them from behind, pulling them into the water, dragging the drowned bodies into his submerged monastery, embalming the poor girls, preserving their beauty using a serum he has perfected. Andrea(Luigi Martocci)is a newspaper reporter who pursues the case, falling in love with a tourist, Maureen(Maureen Brown)who has brought along a class of schoolgirls, as he shows them around the city. Andrea believes the girls are being hunted down and kidnapped by a homicidal maniac, but his superiors aren't interested in his opinions, since there are few facts substantiating them. Soon, however, Andrea's feelings are confirmed as he uncovers the monastery, but will he be able to stop the killer who has targeted Maureen next(..she, through chance, discovers a secret passage to the monastery putting herself at risk)?

What really sets THE EMBALMER back is the unfocused story-line with the director seeming little concerned for the pace, rather interested in Venice itself with great lengths displaying Andrea giving his new friends a tour of the city. The methods of the killer become repetitious and drab, him removing his monk robe, putting on his goggles, descending into the water, coming ashore, awaiting for his target victim behind a corner, cloaked in darkness, before seizing her, diving into the canals back to his lair. We see the killer, in a monk robe, working on his experimental serum, as the dead female's body lies on a slab, injecting it as he speaks with enthusiasm and admiration on his newest acquisition, as his trophy case of preserved corpses grows in number. The director sets up who the next victim will be in a snapshot of them during an ordinary day. There's potential for a good thriller here lost within a rather plodding approach, and a lack of skill at moving the story along. Certain characters are dwelled on for great lengths, but aren't that interesting..and the hotel where Maureen's girls stay is definitely of great importance to the director since he spends a lot of time there. Venice is an ideal setting for a giallo thriller(..see THE BLOOD-STAINED SHADOW for instance), and the underwater monastery is particularly atmospheric(..the showcase of the entire film is at the end where we discover the robed skeletons of monks who died within the church;and the killer has a really nifty skull mask he wears as he chases Maureen), but there's a way to shoot a thriller effectively without dulling the audience into a coma over mundane filler which grinds the pace to a halt. As an early form of the Italian giallo, I recommend it to buffs, but wouldn't call it a classic. I think if more focus had been given to the detective elements of the story than countless time on the alluring beauty of Venice and the entertainment that awaits you there, then this could've been far more memorable than it turns out.

The Embalmer

[Michael_Elliott · 12 March 2008]

Embalmer, The (1965)

** (out of 4)

A psychotic killer is on the loose in Venice but the police don't have a clue to who's killing all the beautiful women. This Italian film is also known as The Monster of Venice and is mildly interesting since it tries to mix the Italian giallo with the German krimi but the end results aren't as good as I had hoped. I'd still recommend this to those wanted to see where Dario Argento was influenced. The biggest problem is that the film is simply too slow to be any good and the actual mystery really isn't all that interesting. A few interesting ideas pop up including the killer who uses scuba gear so that he can make his escape and kill his victims at the same time. This is part of a Vintage triple feature that includes The Screaming Skull and I Eat Your Skin, which can be picked up at Best Buy for $7. The print here is in very bad shape but it's letterboxed, which I believe is a first for this film.

Water Under the Bridge

[wes-connors · 2/10 · 9 July 2009]

"Women are disappearing amid the beauty of Venice, Italy, where a killer snatches his victims off the canals and streets to whisk them to his subterranean chamber. Once there, the killer embalms his victims to preserve them in a personal display of his crimes. A journalist is drawn to the disappearances and decides to investigate them," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. "The Embalmer" wastes a good horror movie setting; for example, "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" would feel at home in Venice. A singer named Jti Janne appears, looking like Elvis Presley; alas, he does not sing "No More (La Paloma)". This movie may make you feel as if you are being embalmed.

** Il mostro di Venezia (11/8/65) Dino Tavella ~ Luigi Martocci, Maureen Brown, Anita Todesco

Awful

[gary-109 · 2/10 · 31 January 2001]

An absolutely dreadful "suspense" film. The worst offense? Its dull and predictable, as well as self-consciously "artsy." The filmmakers seem to think that stop-frame and, every now and then, an odious drumroll makes this a cut above your average film. No way! It just looks silly for this picture to consider itself worthwhile.