Amando de Ossorio creates a successful fairy tale ambiance in what is otherwise a routine Spanish horror yarn concerning a scaly monster in a cape that goes around committing gore murders at a girl's school. Never one to miss up an exploitation opportunity, de Ossorio's girl's school is one of those places where no work is ever done, the girls bathe each other and wander around in see-through negligees at every opportunity and spend their days at the pool sitting around in bikinis. The film has some interesting characters, my favourite of which is the wandering minstrel who gets killed far too early on in the proceedings. There's also a surprise in store for viewers of other '70s Spanish horror films - this time around the dubbing is done so well that it's almost unnoticeable!
Euro-action man Tony Kendall (RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD) plays Sirgurd, who is bought in to hunt the monster but seems to spend all of his time either sitting around smoking or spying on the girls through their bedroom windows. His eventual romance with the Loreley - as played by genre regular Helga Line - is unfortunately not fully explored, yet gives an unusual mythical slant to what could have been a run-of-the-mill rampaging monster film. The truly beautiful Silvia Tortosa (HORROR EXPRESS) is on hand as the human love interest and damsel in distress. I did like the character of the mad scientist as well, a guy who keeps a severed photosynthetic hand (!) in his laboratory to experiment with when the time calls for it. His death scene is hilarious, as the bad guy henchman whips him to the ground and he pulls a vial of acid on top of himself which proceeds to eat his face away - maybe Fulci was inspired by this when he filmed a similar gore scene in THE BEYOND.
Surprise, surprise, the gore murders have been heavily cut for the British release, so I can't really comment on the quality of the special effects as all we're left with are some choppy, mildly gruesome deaths. By the sound of it, the graphic heart extractions are lingered on in detail and with some degree of professionalism on the part of the special effects technician. As for the Loreley monster, well it certainly isn't scary and leaves something to be desired, but it's probably about as good as they could have made it with the budget they have. De Ossorio achieves some good atmosphere at the end of the film, which is set in a huge underground cavern in which the Loreley lives, and the use of a haunting theme throughout helps to establish the fairy tale tone that de Ossorio was striving for.
While it can't be considered a classic like De Ossorio's BLIND DEAD films, THE LORELEY'S GRASP is an intriguing mix of fairy tale and horror story, and a lot deeper than the type of film we're used to from the Euro-horror genre. Sure, the low budget lets the film down and stops it being fully successful but there are enough original ingredients to make this an obscurity worth seeking out.
Euro-action man Tony Kendall (RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD) plays Sirgurd, who is bought in to hunt the monster but seems to spend all of his time either sitting around smoking or spying on the girls through their bedroom windows. His eventual romance with the Loreley - as played by genre regular Helga Line - is unfortunately not fully explored, yet gives an unusual mythical slant to what could have been a run-of-the-mill rampaging monster film. The truly beautiful Silvia Tortosa (HORROR EXPRESS) is on hand as the human love interest and damsel in distress. I did like the character of the mad scientist as well, a guy who keeps a severed photosynthetic hand (!) in his laboratory to experiment with when the time calls for it. His death scene is hilarious, as the bad guy henchman whips him to the ground and he pulls a vial of acid on top of himself which proceeds to eat his face away - maybe Fulci was inspired by this when he filmed a similar gore scene in THE BEYOND.
Surprise, surprise, the gore murders have been heavily cut for the British release, so I can't really comment on the quality of the special effects as all we're left with are some choppy, mildly gruesome deaths. By the sound of it, the graphic heart extractions are lingered on in detail and with some degree of professionalism on the part of the special effects technician. As for the Loreley monster, well it certainly isn't scary and leaves something to be desired, but it's probably about as good as they could have made it with the budget they have. De Ossorio achieves some good atmosphere at the end of the film, which is set in a huge underground cavern in which the Loreley lives, and the use of a haunting theme throughout helps to establish the fairy tale tone that de Ossorio was striving for.
While it can't be considered a classic like De Ossorio's BLIND DEAD films, THE LORELEY'S GRASP is an intriguing mix of fairy tale and horror story, and a lot deeper than the type of film we're used to from the Euro-horror genre. Sure, the low budget lets the film down and stops it being fully successful but there are enough original ingredients to make this an obscurity worth seeking out.