Malocchio (1975)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Mario Siciliano

Writers:

Julio Buchs (screenplay)
Julio Buchs (story)

Release Date:

6 February 1975 (Italy)

Genre:

Crime | Horror

Plot:

The police has to face some extremely brutal murders. How is the rich playboy Peter Crane (Jorge Rivero) involved in this? He suffers from horrible nightmares that make him believe that he is responsible for these murders...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Playboy | Murder | Magic | Voyeurism

Cast

Jorge Rivero	...	Peter Crane
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Richard Conte	...	Dr. Stone
Eduardo Fajardo	...	Basev, il maggiordomo
Lone Fleming	...	Marta
Pia Giancaro	...	Elizabeth
Daniela Giordano	...	Taga
Luis La Torre	...	Robert
Flora Marrone
Luciano Pigozzi	...	William Stevens
Anthony Steffen	...	Tenente Ranieri (as Antonio De Teffè)
Eva Vanicek	...	Yvonne Chevrel
Pilar Velázquez	...	Dr. Sarah Turner

Also Known As:

Eroticofollia (Italy) (alternative title)
Evil Eye (USA)
Más allá del exorcismo (Mexico)
Mal de ojo (Spain)

Runtime:

106 min | Italy:89 min (Italian version) | Spain:82 min (Spanish version)

Country:

Italy | Spain | Mexico

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Emaus Films S.A.

Trivia:

The films Spanish title is Más allá del exorcismo, meaning "Beyond the Exorcism" in English. Though the film features no exorcism at all it was released under this title in Mexico in hopes of following the success of The Exorcist (1973).

Especially bizarre, supernatural giallo

Although this movie is categorized by some as a giallo, it goes beyond having a plot that is merely delightfully absurd, like most films in the genre, to one that is almost completely non-sensical, including even several possibly supernatural nods to "The Exorcist". The plot involves a wealthy playboy and swinger who begins to have strange dreams where he murders people (one of whom actually calls him up at the beginning of the movie and tells him SHE had a dream that he was going to murder her!). When the same people actually end up dead, he begins to think he is going crazy or is being controlled by a satanic cult (or something), so he checks himself into a psychiatric clinic under the care of a doctor (Richard Conte) who bears more than a little resemblance to Dr. Caligari. But then he runs off with a pretty nurse to her isolated villa. . . There is all manner of other weirdness happening, including things moving by themselves a la a low-grade version of "The Exorcist". There's also a cop (Anthony Steffens) investigating, but he seems to be in a completely different movie. I don't want to spoil the ending (although it spoils itself pretty well), but it's both a cliché and a cop-out.

The lead actor (Jorge Rivero) is a good-looking guy, which ALMOST explains why every woman he meets immediately throws herself at him, even if they are married, they have just had a dream he murdered them, or he just checked into their clinic as a potentially homicidal schizophrenic. As typical for the genre there are a lot of pretty women on display including former Miss Italy Daniela Giordana, who's virtually unrecognizable (and spends all her screen time NOT quite getting naked), and Lone Fleming, a fixture in Amando Ossorio "Blind Dead" and Paul Naschy horror films.

I'm not really sure whether or not I'd recommend this. Oh well, I've reported, you decide.