Malocchio (1975)

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:

Murder | Playboy | Police | Magic | Female Full Frontal Nudity

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).

Bizarre borderline Giallo

This film is often said to be a Giallo; I would say it just about qualifies, but it's really very much on the borderline. Eroticofollia is just as strange and surreal as its nonsense title suggests it is; and generally makes just about as much sense too! The film could be described as a psychological horror film, and it's clear that director Mario Siciliano wanted to put more focus on the imagery than the storyline, and as such the film is very thin in terms of plot. Luckily, the imagery is rather good and the director creates a good atmosphere for the film. The plot focuses on a playboy named Peter Crane. He is plagued by terrible nightmares, and this leads him to murder - his first victim being a girl that has dreams of him murdering her! As his grip on sanity slips further, Peter decides to seek help from his doctor; however, the murders continue. Peter's problems increase when he receives an anonymous phone call from someone saying they've seen him committing the crimes...

This film reminded me somewhat of the classic Giallo The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave in terms of style, characters and content. However, this one is nowhere near as good as the earlier film. Eroticofollia gets off to a good start that promises it might lead somewhere worthwhile, but it then gets overloaded with its own bizarreness and things soon get rather tedious. The way that it delves into supernatural territory certainly doesn't help proceedings either, and it's an ill-advised twist. The film could have been quite decent if it tried harder to stay on the straight and narrow. To the film's credit, lead actor Jorge Rivero is rather good in the lead role and always holds the audience's interest well. He gets good back-up from Richard Conte and the beautiful Daniela Giordano; though Anthony Steffen does not get an opportunity to deliver his best performance. Despite its shortcomings, the film does stay just about decent for most of the duration; but then completely spoils itself with a very ill-advised twist at the end.