This is the 55th movie by Jess Franco I've seen, and this means I have between 100-150 to watch, depending who you ask. Franco's films had a tendency to appear under different titles and different versions, so it's hard to say exactly how many movies he directed. IMDB states now 201 flicks, but that could be changed within days. My pal Jocke have talked about Mansion of the Living Dead for a long time. Not that he actually likes it, but more because it's a terrible movie in his eyes. So I had to get it, and thanks to Severin who recently released a nice box with four of Franco's sleazier eighties films the nightmare is now reality, to paraphrase Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City. I've seen it... and what the hell do I think of it? Let's see...
Four German women, among them Lina Romay in her finest wig, arrives to the Canary Islands for a vacation of men, booze and hot lesbian sex. But what the hell, the hotel is completely empty and so is the island itself. Not even a half-naked man on the beach! The only people around is the quite hunky but grumpy hotel portier Antonio Mayans (with blonde hair, very odd!) and an old man who seems to be slightly crazy and not really related to the rest of the story. When one of the women disappears the other just think she's met a man and is porking around somewhere. The secret lays in the strange sect of dead monks with silly, dime store skeleton masks, hanging around nearby in their monastery. Yeah, that's about that I think...
First of all, Lina is very cute in this movie. She's alive, totally packed with energy. She steals every scene she's in. Not saying she's a good actress, but she has the charisma and is the highlight of the film even if her part is mostly walking around naked in a wig, having long conversations with everyone she meets - when she's not involved in almost graphic oral sex with her friends. Antonio Mayans has always been a good actor and he clearly looks odd in his blonde hair, but is not bad in the part.
That's what's good with Mansion of the Living Dead. Oh, there's more I like - there's ideas here and there that feels edgy and original and the movie itself is quite pleasant to watch. The cinematography is alrighty... a bit flat, but it's hard to build something atmospheric from a cheap hotel at the Canary Islands. There's a few sequences set in a hotel corridor where Franco deliberately is using out of focus and uses a more experimental, dreamy visual style. Those are very good, it's Franco when he's inspired and wild. Me like.
But Mansion of the Living Dead is not a good movie. It's close to very uninspired, even lacking much of Franco's trademarks - like zooms and creative use of depth. The shoot itself seems to have been more fun - so maybe the happiness of drinking drinks by the beach and hanging in bars, listening to jazz, took over in the end. Fine by me, I love Jess and Lina - and if they found a way to shoot a movie and have a vacation at the same time, that's just awesome.
Let me throw out a controversial opinion: Mansion of the Living Dead is more of Franco's The Shining than a rip-off on the Blind Dead franchise. It wouldn't be the first eurocult version of The Shining, House of Lost Souls by Umberto Lenzi is another one. The dreamy hotel, the mysterious rooms, the odd people showing up - are they real or ghosts? When people have theories that The Shining is a symbol for the genocide of the American natives, Mansion of the Living Dead more focuses on the Christians genocide on those who had other beliefs or opinions. The hotel they're living in has a German bar (the same country the main cast is suppose to be coming from) - is that a reference to the holocaust, a modern inquisition, who was supported by the Catholic church?
Lina Romay is Jack Nicoholson here, channeling the past and ultimately creating her own doom. She goes after those she love, being one with the doomed building that caught her attention from the beginning...Or that might just be a lot of bullshit. It's just a softcore skinflick trying to be harcore horror...But you'll never know.
Strange things have happen in the world of Jess and Lina.
"This is the 55th movie by Jess Franco I've seen, and this means I have between 100-150 to watch, depending who you ask."
Keep up the good work.
"Four German women, among them Lina Romay in her finest wig, arrives to the Canary Islands for a vacation of men, booze and hot lesbian sex."
YEEEEEESSSSSS!
I mean.....interesting....ehhhh.....synopsis.
hahahhahhahahhahahhah
"When people have theories that The Shining is a symbol for the genocide of the American natives, Mansion of the Living Dead more focuses on the Christians genocide on those who had other beliefs or opinions."
Interesting theory.....I haven´t seen this one but it does sound like a great film.
"The hotel they're living in has a German bar (the same country the main cast is suppose to be coming from) - is that a reference to the holocaust, a modern inquisition, who was supported by the Catholic church?"
Interesting......the catholic church had a very complex relatiosnhip with nazis.....some priests helped the nazis openly, even after the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_Nazi_Germany
"...Or that might just be a lot of bullshit. It's just a softcore skinflick trying to be harcore horror...But you'll never know."
hahhahahahha....yeah, you will never know, good review and thanks Fred.
Posted by: Megatron | January 19, 2014 at 17:29