Lot of comparisons to D'amato i'm seeing around Play Motel, but at least D'amato films did gore when it could be afforded, the case even in some of his po-nos. No excuse here if this was purely intended as an S&V exploitation film. Play Motel's kills are cheap bordering on pathetic. The Argento references help, but not that much. It astonishes me that that the apex of giallo sleaze, Giallo A Venezia was released (and probably made in) the same year as this. I guess i was setting my expectations a little too high to be expecting another one of those.
Play Motel has a sordid narrative of Forbidden Photos of Swingers Above Suspicion that is all well and exploited for kinky softcore fumbling. However, if this was meant to be nothing but softcore, why the killing? Why the attempted assault? I can excuse the champagne bottle, but why do violence in the first place? And so lazily at that? Zombie 2 had teared the throat out of the box office by then and this film was still playing around with strangulation and squib-less gun shots? Regarding the striking of the iron when it's hot, Hell of the Living Dead (1980) puts this film to shame.
I guess this was the work of that one band of Latin film creatives that had issues with combining sex with violence, and regarding the reasons for it's inception, the film suffers. Sure, there is a Hard cut version, but it's too little. Not that much to salvage today. Play Motel just doesn't hold up as well as other Italio-sleaze of the time.
Too much focus is put into the nonsensical police procedural plot, playing out somewhat like a derivative copy of Pieces with none of J.P Simon's directorial panache supporting it. The only highlight of the film is it's softcore material, veering occasionally into sex set pieces arresting in their elaborate perversity.
It just baffles me why this was not a straight sex comedy and instead a giallo featuring surely some of the most underwhelming murder set pieces of the entire sub-genre. bluh. Just why?
Paying a fair amount of money for a (good looking) HD scan of this skin flick might make me a little bias, but i still feel that there was a fair amount of confusion amongst the filmmakers about who their audience was going to be for their end product. Even so much as to have the producers 'Guccione 'it and shoot the aforementioned hard cut scenes when all the legit cast and crew had gone home. These inserts look quite well put together for an overnight shoot though i must say. You add these scenes with De Rossi level gore and maybe a more cynical screenplay to the picture and we might have had a minor psychotronic masterpiece on our hands.
Alas, we have to settle with such diabolical humour as a disgruntled client telling a call girl to die of cancer. Ahead of their time!
Play Motel has a sordid narrative of Forbidden Photos of Swingers Above Suspicion that is all well and exploited for kinky softcore fumbling. However, if this was meant to be nothing but softcore, why the killing? Why the attempted assault? I can excuse the champagne bottle, but why do violence in the first place? And so lazily at that? Zombie 2 had teared the throat out of the box office by then and this film was still playing around with strangulation and squib-less gun shots? Regarding the striking of the iron when it's hot, Hell of the Living Dead (1980) puts this film to shame.
I guess this was the work of that one band of Latin film creatives that had issues with combining sex with violence, and regarding the reasons for it's inception, the film suffers. Sure, there is a Hard cut version, but it's too little. Not that much to salvage today. Play Motel just doesn't hold up as well as other Italio-sleaze of the time.
Too much focus is put into the nonsensical police procedural plot, playing out somewhat like a derivative copy of Pieces with none of J.P Simon's directorial panache supporting it. The only highlight of the film is it's softcore material, veering occasionally into sex set pieces arresting in their elaborate perversity.
It just baffles me why this was not a straight sex comedy and instead a giallo featuring surely some of the most underwhelming murder set pieces of the entire sub-genre. bluh. Just why?
Paying a fair amount of money for a (good looking) HD scan of this skin flick might make me a little bias, but i still feel that there was a fair amount of confusion amongst the filmmakers about who their audience was going to be for their end product. Even so much as to have the producers 'Guccione 'it and shoot the aforementioned hard cut scenes when all the legit cast and crew had gone home. These inserts look quite well put together for an overnight shoot though i must say. You add these scenes with De Rossi level gore and maybe a more cynical screenplay to the picture and we might have had a minor psychotronic masterpiece on our hands.
Alas, we have to settle with such diabolical humour as a disgruntled client telling a call girl to die of cancer. Ahead of their time!