Massacre

It was many years ago when the producers of Lucio Fulci's 'Touch of Death' asked Fulci if he would 'endorse' a series of low budget shockers they were about to release. One of those to be labelled under the 'Lucio Fulci Presents' banner was Andrea Bianchi's 'Massacre'. Believed long lost to the ravages of time EC Entertainment managed to get hold of an old video master which was held in a bank vault so here at last we can all get the opportunity to check this obscure shocker out for ourselves...

The film kicks off great guns with the murder and mutilation of a street prostitute by a hooded maniac then cuts to a bizarre film location shoot where a terrified woman is taking part in a strange satanic ritual surrounded by hooded men with amusingly diverse monstrous hands. We soon find out that this is the set of a low budget horror flick that is going through a disruptive change in flow by the producers who wish to change the theme of the plot, a change that isn't entirely welcomed by the crew involved. Said cast and crew is made up of the most diverse bunch of perverted lovies that you're likely to find on any real location set. Gay, lesbian and hormonally challenged decadent sweeties all sleaze over each others business whilst the films producers bring onboard a wizened clairvoyant to act as supernatural consultant to try bring some authentic chills to the production. Things take a turn for the worse for the production team when the crew start to become victim for real to the unseen psychopathic killer as they are all brutally killed and the cast numbers start to dwindle!

'Massacre' is a fine addition to the Euro slasher stable that whilst by no means a classic still has a lot to offer any fan of said scene. It has all the trademarks of a good Italian horror flick in as much that it has the entourage of unlikeable sleazy characters and that it delivers the goods when it comes to some of the entertainingly misogynist death scenes. But it is probably just these reasons that the film will come under fire from the more narrow minded so-called horror fan (personally I've never understood why a 'horror' fan would have a problem with lightweight exploitation like this but that's their problem I suppose).

Bianchi's screenplay and direction is a pretty mixed bag throughout, like the music soundtrack (which starts off woefully then pocks up as time goes on as does Bianchi's temperamental directing skills). My only criticism of the film is that it just can't decide if it wants to be an old school giallo or a supernatural thriller (in much the same as the film within the film is swaying). But this is small criticism in the big picture where Bianchi delivers a competent slice of genre entertainment.

It was with interest that I had noted some criticism laid against EC Entertainment on this DVD's release with some corners huffing about the image quality on the print contained therein. Of course when I got the opportunity to check the disc out for myself that I quickly realised that indeed the image was not pin sharp or stunning but solid and watchable pretty much on par with the video master source that the print was taken from. But it is this criticism that irked me quite a bit also, you see the choices would have been that if not for EC making this available the chances of watching the film would have been minimal outside of a rough looking bootleg VHS tape. Personally, I like to be able to make the choice to decide wether or not I want to watch something rather than not have that option at all. It's quite startling to realise how spoiled some horror fans have become since the advent of DVD when you consider the only concern a horror fan had when video was the scene was whether a film was cut or not, now it seems to be that some folk will only be receptive to a DVD release if it has been mastered from a shiny new camera negative. But I digress, of course we all like to see the best image quality release but sometimes the option just isn't there and at this time a solid video level release of 'Massacre' will keep me happy rather than not have it on offer at all.

The disc contains the aforementioned print in original full screen ratio with the original Italian audio and a multitude of optional language subtitles (including English, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish and French) so there wont be many complaints on that front! Apart from that the only extra is brief filmography page for Bianchi's work as its doubtful if there would be anything available for use on the extras front considering the obscurity of the title.

So what you get at the end of the day is a watchable and nice enough transfer of a relatively obscure sleazy splatter film. Perhaps not to everyone's taste but a welcome addition to the many fans (myself included) of this sort of film. Worth checking out!

Review by Alan Simpson