Bloody Psycho

BLOODY PSYCHO (1989) is another late-stage Italian horror movie made for television and with little to recommend it. The protagonist is a doctor who comes to stay with a disabled lady at her familial castle in order to practise some alternative therapy in the form of laying-on-of-hands treatment. While there he is tormented by the usual nightmarish visions and ghoulish apparitions.

Strangely this reminded me a lot of the Pete Walker film I saw at the weekend, THE COMEBACK, but it's not in the same class. The budget is low and the acting typically bad by late '80s standards. The real-life locations are okay and there's some gruesomeness in the form of a rotting corpse which keeps popping up to menace our hero, but it's all quite lacklustre. A lot of those Italian gothics from the 1960s had people prowling around cobwebby castles too, but the difference is that they were loaded with atmosphere while this isn't.

This atmospheric ghost film was chopped up to appear in bits in Lucio Fulci's patchwork film Cat in the Brain (aka Nightmare Concert), however, Fulci didn't direct it. Only available in Italian language to the best of my knowledge, though some grey marketers have a subtitled print.

Well, I have the DVD of this movie here, in German language, and as it is written on the cover, Lucio Fulci has his fingers in this piece - though he isn't the director of this movie, it is said he used some of the stuff from it for "Touch of death", where he plays the main character (I haven't seen this piece up to now, so I can't confirm this). The plot is, more or less, boring and doesn't make a lot of sense - also, the gorehound has to wait a long time for the first worthwhile scene (the tearing out of a tongue) - also to mention maybe the scene where the main character confronts a strongly decomposed lady and the changing of bodies (the old lady takes a young one's). But if you don't get this DVD cheap, let it be - it ain't worth the money.

Dr. Vögler (Peter Hintz) is on his way to a castle inhabited by a wheelchair-bound chatelaine (Brigitte Christensen). She has a maid, Simona (Nubia Martini), to keep her company. Dr. Vögler, a famous pranotherapist, was called by the chatelaine to treat her. Pranotherapy is an alternative therapy that uses the hands as energetic healers.

On arriving to the gates of the castle Dr. Vögler is told by a clownish drunkard that there are ghosts in the uninhabited part of the castle. It was at this moment that he had for the first time a vision: a hand holding a bloody knife striking. This vision will reappear other times, each time more revealing. A clue, a warning... What? Inside the castle reigns a soap opera atmosphere - over-the-top dialogues, strange behaviors,threatening electronic score... And yes, in the uninhabited part of the castle there's a rotting corpse moving around with murderous intentions.

It looks like a horror film, but no, it isn't (at least not in in the traditional sense) - the suspense is almost nonexistent, it's slow and there's no much action to boast about (excepting some gory deaths), and definitely it's no cinematic highlight.

"Bloody Psycho" mixes mystery, deaths, a bit of gore, mawkish sentimentality, a good electronic soundtrack sometimes a bit inadequate (like in that scene scored by a joyous country tune!), and also some truly bizarre moments that left me wondering whether the director of the film was serious or joking.

In spite of all "Bloody Psycho" has some undeniable charm - the beautiful landscape, the score, the old cobblestone streets, the austere castle, the miniature sculptures - dark, brooding and distorted ...

In short, I've enjoyed "Bloody Psycho" - even if it's not a good film there's stuff enough for fans of psychotronic psychedelia.

Bloody Psycho (1989)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Low rent Italian horror film has Dr. Vogler (Peter Hintz) going to a castle to treat a wheelchair bound woman with some sort of psychic therapy. It doesn't take long for a mysterious zombie in a wheelchair to show up with plenty of dead bodies left behind.

BLOODY PSYCHO was one of the films that got released with the tagline "Presented by Lucio Fulci." The Italian horror market was clearly dried up during the late 80s but I guess producers thought they could milk whatever they could by throwing Fulci's name on the pictures. This film here could have been so much better had it been made with a budget a few years earlier but as it stands there's just not enough good things to be found.

The biggest problem is that there's so many dialogue scenes that really go nowhere. Yes, we understand the castle the haunted and we understand the doctor doesn't believe it. Hell, he doesn't even believe it when he sees the zombie figure. These dialogue scenes just aren't all that interesting and the lack of any real story doesn't help. The film does benefit from a semi-effective score as well as some nice cinematography by Silvano Tessicini.

The gore effects are minor but they include a tongue being pulled out and a rather stupid death by wheelchair. Some of these effects would later be seen in Fulci's A CAT IN THE BRAIN. Hintz is rather boring in his part but Louise Karnsteeg, Brigitte Christensen and Paul Muller add a little entertainment.