Spettri (1987)

User Rating:

3.4/10   

Director:

Marcello Avallone

Writers:

Marcello Avallone (screenplay)
Andrea Purgatori (screenplay)

Release Date:

24 April 1987 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

An unforgettable journey into the darkest reaches of terror.

Plot Keywords:

Occult | Archeologist | Death | Crypt | Cave

Cast

John Pepper	...	Marcus
Trine Michelsen	...	Alice (as Katrine Michelsen)
Donald Pleasence	...	Professor Lasky
Massimo De Rossi	...	Matteo
Riccardo De Torrebruna	...	Andrea
Lavinia Grizi	...	Barbara
Riccardo Parisio Perrotti	...	Gaspare
Giovanni Bilancia
Matteo Gazzolo
Laurentina Guidotti	...	Maria
Erna Schürer	...	Catacomb guide
Giovanni Tamberi

Also Known As:

Specters

Runtime:

92 min | USA:90 min

Country:

Italy

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:M | Italy:VM14 | Norway:18 | USA:Unrated

Company:

Reteitalia

Soundtrack:

Never Change

Slumbering Catacombs

I saw this one back in the early 90's. I vaguely remember thinking it wasn't very good. But since there was a time when I first saw Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and just dismissed it as B-movie rubbish (Hey now, don't give me that look -- what did I know back then?), I decided to give the Italian SPECTERS another try. Turns out I was right the first time: It's not very good.

Man, this movie had so much potential: Catacombs setting and ancient mythology about demonic mumbo-jumbo, some cool death scenes, Sergio Stivaletti doing the make-up and monster-FXs, Donald Pleasance, a sporadically present ominous drone-like soundtrack, obligatory sex-scene (boobies!) with the blond leading lady,... And the movie even has a cool title.

But it's a hot-damn friggin' total mess of a movie! Practically nothing makes the slightest bit of sense in this one. None of the cool ideas are properly worked out. People just shift from one location to another without explanation. Donald Pleasance had no business in this film, except for playing a tired, old professor mumbling about stuff that nobody's able to follow anyway. Even the frozen shock ending is totally torn from the loo (sorry, that's a Belgian expression in which "loo" is British English for "toilet").

I sighed immensely after this second viewing... This could have been great 80's horror stuff. Yet, it might still be considered a worthwhile one-time-only viewing. Mainly for the noteworthy elements I mentioned in my second paragraph. Plus there's a scene that resembles (ok, use the word rip-off if you desire so) another scene from ALIEN a lot (think: when Skerritt goes searching for the alien in the air-ducts, with someone watching his moves on a monitor). And Johnny Depp's death-scene in A NIGHTMARE ON ELMS STREET clearly served as a major influence (again: rip-off) for a similar (much briefer) scene in SPECTERS too.

SFXs maestro Sergio Stivaletti does manage to convince again, for the most part. The "head crushing"-scene was nice (though they cut away just a second too soon). There's a gooey corpse popping up at some point. The one death-scene that starts off in the wine-cellar was well crafted. And even his demonic creature at the end seemed nifty. Though that one was hard to tell, as we're merely offered a few glimpses on it.

So in a way, this is typical 80's Italian horror of the supernatural kind. But it's about three times more incoherent than what we're used to from these guys. Then again, if you've managed to sit through Fulci's lesser supernatural efforts (ex: MANHATTAN BABY), then you'll do just fine sitting through SPETTRI too.