Metempsyco

Complaining that an Italian genre film doesn't have much of a plot is kind of like complaining that an opera doesn't have a lot of subtle, naturalistic acting or that a hardcore porn movie doesn't have great dialogue--that's just not the point. Still even by Italian standards the plot of this movie is pretty lame. The best part is the opening scene where two of the oldest-looking schoolgirls in film history are exploring a mysterious old castle (for reasons that completely eluded me). They are warned away by the old crone maid who still runs the place, but they don't heed her warning and end up captured, tied-up, and tortured to death in the basement by a sadistic monstrous hunch-back! Although the torture takes place mostly offscreen, it is nevertheless surprisingly graphic for the time.

As the girls' bodies are being carried away a scientist shows up who is planning to stay at the castle. He is surprisingly blase about the double torture-murders even though he is accompanied by his young adult daughter who is about the same age as the two victims. He remains unperturbed even after the old maid tells them that the daughter is the spitting image of the former lady of the castle who mysterious disappeared years earlier. There is then a dumb subplot where the daughter falls in love with a local reporter, who kind of looks like a middle-aged version of "Tin Tin". It's not long though before this damsel-in-distress waiting-to-happen becomes a bonafide damsel in distress with her father and "Tin Tin" rushing to her rescue.

It's not to hard to figure out who the villains are--one we've already seen at the beginning and the other is his only plausible accomplice. The climax is hardly very surprising therefore, or very climactic. And that's the real problem here. This has a good opening scene, but the rest of the movie goes strictly downhill from there.