| Joe D'amato's (real name Aristide MAssaccesi) infamous trilogy (shot with the same actors, same crew and same locations) has always been a legend of obscure exploitation cinema. I mean, where could you see an Italian porn/horror flick starring famous George Eastman (Luigi Montefiori, best known as the grim reaper in D'Amato's "Anthropophagus") and gory monsters/phantoms raping women?
Unfortunataly, the film bares little when confronted to the expectations built over years and years of reading about these genera mix premises. In fact, the only true interest of this film-- the porn/gore association--is spoiled by both actors and director. The film suffers from its production conditions: it is too long, the story seems improvised and doesn't know where to go, the actors don't seem confident and play the lowest common denominator, the monster is a bad ripoff of a Fulci's zombie... Well, it lacks preparation (and a minimum is needed to do quality). The porn scenes are simply unwatchable and the gore is missing. When, finaly, the radioactive monster (hep!) appears to rape a woman--killing her, by the way--the only thing that could have been good in the film falls blantly to these flaws aformentioned (fast shooting, doing three films simultaneously, no budget, etc.). I don't know for you but that could have been a great exploration of both genera and--as anyone--I was waiting shamelessly with voyeuristic pleasure to see a radioactive monster killing/raping a woman. Even D'Amato later works in the porn industry are more inspired and original in their approach.
Simply and frankly said, the film is no more than a bad porn film (with not enough porn) and a bad horror film (with not enough gore, thrills and spins) fast, cheaply, routinely and soulessly made.
By the way, "Orgasmo Nero" and "Erotic Nights of The Living Dead" (the other parts of the trilogy) are [equally] awful (if not more). |
