Someone wrote that that Tragic Ceremony is an uninspired movie. Yeah, I can agree on that. Even the title is pretty bland, because it has a tragic ceremony in it and that’s what its all about. But fuck yeah, instead of that, taste the original Italian title instead, just feel it with your tongue:
“Estratto dagli archivi segreti della polizia di una capitale europea”
Wattya say? THAT’S a title! That’s my kind of Italian genre title, long, impossible to remember and pretentious. Gotta love that! Riccardo Freda, well. Somehow people think he’s a legend, a visionary, but the only movie I’ve seen directed of him I say is a masterpiece is 1963’s The Ghost. Some people claim 1959’s Caltiki is his movie also, but it was Mario Bava who completed it. So lets be completely honest here, he’s a little bit of hack. A competent, spectacular hack, but likewise a hack.
But then, I like hacks. I dig hired guns. I like competent directors who work for a paycheck. I admire them, because they earned their living without pretending to be big artists...sorry, big, suffering artists. It’s said Freda didn’t want anything to do with Tragic Ceremony, or Estratto dagli archivi segreti della polizia di una capitale europea - I’m not gonna use that title anymore, which is pity, because even if it’s pretty bland and shallow it’s one of his most entertaining productions.
The story is so thin it’s hard to even write it down. A bunch of annoying hippies, among them the very talented Camille Keaton, ends up on dark, rainy road when their cool beach buggy runs out of gas. Happy - or maybe not - for them it happens nearby a big mansion, and they get invited to wait for the storm to end, rest and the get some gasoline and continue their belated summer of love. And guess what, they end up in a decadent, upper-class satanic ritual arranged by the evil Lord Alexander (Luigi Pistilli) And they “borrow” Jane (which of course is Keaton) for some sinister, probably sexual, purposes. But right before the fun starts her friends discovers what’s happening, frees her and escapes. When doing so the ritual is destroyed and all the members goes nuts - killing each other in the bloodiest massacre Italian genre cinema have seen! And soon the evil forces follows our heroes, killing them one by one!
It’s a slow build up until they arrive to the house, but after that the pace is pretty decent. It’s exactly on the border of sixties Italian gothic horror and a modern, gory slasher, which might be one reason why Freda never felt comfortable with it. The highlight is the massacre, which even by today’s standards is impressive. It has without a doubt THE best head-splitting scene ever shot, very graphic. The effects are from a guy you won’t expect, Carlo Rambaldi - the dude who made E.T (and King Kong...and the tentacle lover in Zulawski’s Possession). There’s an insane amount of blood here, buckets of it, coming out from fresh and new bodily openings.
It’s so awesome the filmmakers actually reprises the whole scene later in the movie, as a flashback. I would to. Not only to make the movie a bit longer. No, Tragic Ceremony won’t win any prizes or the respect from serious, boring movie critics. It’s exploitation, quick and cheap, bloody and speculative. But that’s awesome and it delivers so much fun. A good movie to watch with buddies and cats, with a beer or a joint - whatever you prefer. Thank you Freda. I might not like you but this time you really went all the way to make me happy!
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