The Prince of Terror (TV 1988)
"Il maestro del terrore" (original title)

Il Maestro del Terrore è il regista Vincent Omen, originario della Romania, e che ha fatto fortuna dirigendo film dell'orrore. Vive con la moglie e la figlia in una bella villa isolata. Ma ... See full summary »

Director:

Lamberto Bava

Writers:

Ira Goldman (story), Dardano Sacchetti (screenplay)

Stars:

Tomas Arana, Carole André, David Brandon

Cast

Credited cast:
Tomas Arana	...	Vincent Omen
Carole André	...	Betty Omen
David Brandon	...	Paul Hilary
Ulisse Minervini
Joyce Pitti
Marina Viro
Virginia Bryant
Pascal Druant	...	The Producer
Augusto Poderosi
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Danilo Del Monte	...	Special effects assistant man

Storyline

Il Maestro del Terrore è il regista Vincent Omen, originario della Romania, e che ha fatto fortuna dirigendo film dell'orrore. Vive con la moglie e la figlia in una bella villa isolata. Ma quando fa licenziare lo sceneggiatore Paul, fatti strani iniziano ad accadere. Mentre gioca a golf la pallina sparisce, tornato a casa la porta del garage è bloccata, riceve una misteriosa telefonata e durante la cene con gli ospiti manca la luce, scoppia un piccolo incendio e ritrova la pallina da golf persa nel pomeriggio. Vogliono solo spaventarlo? E chi?

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Genres:

Horror

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Details

Country:

Italy Canada France

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

16 October 2009 (Philippines)

Also Known As:

Alta tensione - Il maestro del terrore

Company Credits

Production Co:

Reteitalia

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Followed by School of Fear (1989)

User Reviews

Great fun

This movie mixes a typical revenge plot with the classic horror theme of the devil on earth and the eccentric attitudes of movie people, especially directors and screenwriters. Lamberto Bava adds some dark humor and cites a few horror classics (e.g. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in at least two sequences) to make the film as a whole a surprisingly pleasant and entertaining experience. Also a big plus are Tomas Arana ("La Chiesa") and David Brandon ("Stagefright") in the male leading roles, and Simon Boswell's simplistic but very effective sound track. There are also a bunch of quite gory scenes that make one wonder if this really is a TV production (but Italians never had problems with gory TV films, as, e.g., Lucio Fulci's "La Casa nel Tempo" proves), especially one nasty knock out by a golf ball (Oops... it went right through the eye...). Lamberto Bava keeps the pace fast throughout the movie, which also adds to the viewing pleasure.

Probably Bava's best of his eight TV movies he directed from 1987 to 1990, and certainly the goriest. The only letdown is that this unique film is extremely rare to find with no official home video release ever yet and none in sight.