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Reviews
La villa delle anime maledette (1982)
Not so bad...
Well, I'm an Italian horror big fan and I love movies from directors such Argento, Fulci, Bava Sr and Bava Jr, only to quote the most famous. "La villa delle anime maledette" is one of the most unknown movie of this genre, shot when this kind of cinema began its crisis that continues still today, and director Carlo Ausino sounds totally new to my ears (althoug he directed six movies... this is the price Italian directors have to pay to not work in Rome...) . But the film is not so bad. And it's absolutely not correct to talk about "trash". OK, the plot is not so original; it reminds me stuff like the Amytville series (the year is the same of "Amityville Possession" by Damiano Damiani) or "Shock", the last work of Mario Bava. But you have to think that this is the movie of a cinematographer (like Mario Bava movies); so the most important thing is the atmosphere, not the story or the characters; atmosphere very well created by the use of light and by the camera movement. The rest remain in the background. I think the movie works; not so good, but works; it's surely better than a lot of Hollywoodian production like "the Haunting" which have a bigger budget, but not bigger ideas...
Entre pitos anda el juego (1986)
not a masterpiece but...
In the incredibly wide Franco's filmography "Entre pitos..." is one of his first hard core movie; it comes after "El Myron y la exhibicionista" and, I must say, it is much and much better, but sure not a masterpiece. The screenplay is not very important; the actresses, a part for Lina Romay, aren't very pretty: in fact they are too old for a porno film! Directing is a bit better than "El miron" but the situations aren't so appetizing. But here we have something good too. One thing in particular: the freshness. Probably "Entre pitos..." is a movie directed by Lina Romay; Franco here does only the supervision; and it is one of the few porno film in which you FEEL the female touch: sex is ironic, playful, joyful. It's one of the few porno movie I've seen in which women are not used by men but they use men for their own pleasure. One of the nicest sequence is when Lina Romay, after having approached two guys, meets her friend Mona Lisa: during a blow job, they speak about this and that. Very nice is the "grand finale" too: something like a samba-gang-bang, where the moan of pleasure rhythms the music! Well, not really a beautiful movie, not really a good porno, but a amusing stuff. Watch it!
El mirón y la exhibicionista (1986)
worst porno ever?
This is the first porno from Jess Franco I've ever seen and, I think, one of the worst ever made. I usually "consume" this kind of movie and I know that finding a good porno is very hard. In an hard-core movie ingredients are few, but mixing them it's important and difficult in the same way. In my opinion, one good porno MUST have: first, and most important, beautiful actresses (in a male point of view actors are not SO important); second, the ability to make real everyone erotic perversions; third, the higher number of different erotic performances; fourth, a good style in directing, a good use of different shots and point of view, a good cinematography which helps to create the right feeling for the viewer. Well, "El Myron..." has no one of these qualities. I like Lina Romay very much, first because she looks like my girlfriend; but here we find she not in good form; years which pass I think, even if in "Macumba sexual", four years before, she seems another person. And the other actress is even worse. The number of erotic performances is ridiculous (only three in the whole movie!) and the directing non-existent: only one shot with zoom in and out. If you love porno you can get something better! I you like Franco the story is the same!
Macumba sexual (1983)
Very good 80s Franco movie
Ufff... "Macumba sexual" is the 17th movie of Jess Franco I've seen in a week, and, after all, one of the best. I like his cinema, but I'm not a Franco great fan. I still don't know if he is a genius or only a director who made some good and occasionally very good stuff but also some terrible movies. I only know, and I'm sure of it, that Franco proposes a very personal vision of cinema, almost authorial, bizarre and often very interesting. The best titles of his incredible filmography are probably those shot in the 60s (Miss Muerte, Paroxismus, Necronomicon); more time and more money, I think, and the will of a young director to make himself known. Then the number of movies increases at a dizzy speed; the quality is not always good: a lot of zoom, bad camera movement, bad editing, bad acting; some works are even boring (the worst defect for an exploitation movie). In the 80s Franco makes perhaps his worst work. He return in Spain and he shoots with no budget and with few actors. But, if some titles like "Oasis of the zombies" or "The man hunter" are terrible, there is also something good, as, for example, Macumba sexual. The story is very simple, like and more than other Franco movie. There are some sex scene but this is not really a sexy film. One merit: the atmosphere, made by the beautiful images and by the hypnotic music; directing is OK, almost recherché; the use of the locations is great; and great is Lina Romay too. Well, a very good film, made with taste. Sure a masterpiece for all Franco fan. A good movie for the others.