------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall Rating : 2/10
Directed By : Jess Franco
Lina Romay (Tender Flesh)
Robert Foster (Macumba Sexual)
Mabel Escaņo
Albino Graziani
Supplied By : Severin Film
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jan. 9, 2007
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| PLOT Four wanton waitresses arrive for vacation in the Canary Islands where they soon indulge their hungers for masturbation, lesbian lust, bondage and beyond. But the ultimate depravities are still to come, as a nearby 17th Century monastery unleashes a horde of zombie Templars crazed for the taste of hot female flesh! |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| THE REVIEW In Jess Franco's MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD, the plot is simple, with lots of pointless nudity and a few Horror elements thrown in. We follow a group of young girls, whom have recently begin working in Gentlemen's Clubs. to get away for awhile and have a little vacation, the women arrive on the Canary islands, they picked the spot due to recommendation from their travel agent. When they first arrive the recommendation seems to be ideal for the girls as they do enjoy what the island has to offer. When they get their room keys they find out that the rooms they are assigned are separated, so the women decide to split up in pairs - and thus behind closed doors Lesbian action soon occurs between them. Between lusting for one another 2 of the girls end up missing and it all seems to go on in and around an old church inhabited by white cloaked monks whom sacrifice the girls for their sins, and deliver them to their unworldly savior whom happens to be Satan. To be honest, before seeing MANSION OF THE DEAD, I had yet to see any on Jess Franco's work, even though I have been sent some of his films in the past - and after this one, to tell the truth I have no desire to see anymore in the distant future. I am by no means a big fan of foreign films, in fact I hardly watch anything outside of Dario Argento( who is undeniably a genius of his craft), but I have seen for more interesting than this one. MANSION OF THE DEAD contains so much gratuitous nudity that it renders itself almost a soft-core film, but then again a half-plot is thrown in about a demonic church sacrificing sinners to even the odds and even it out is just what it doesn't. Between the film's various Lesbian scenes and various stages of nakedness, when it comes down to implementing the Horror end of the story, it seems somewhat nonsensical to me and overall the plot seems to be meaningless anyway. In saying that, I am not saying there was a plot to begin with, the plot seems to be more less about getting a couple of attractive women to a resort in order for them to partake in various nude scenes and nothing else - but they threw in a couple of sadist(more in particular the Hotel's receptionist - he was one), whom punish with rape, in order to make MANSION OF THE DEAD seem more "mainstream". I can't say much about the acting here, but as with the feel of the film, it is on par with the acting found in most soft-core films found today. This is not to say that great acting cannot be found in soft-core, a number of POPCinema's(another great company) stars are quite good at carrying their weight....Misty Mundae(Erin Brown), comes to mind immediately. Overall Severin Films have done a beautiful job in the restoration of the film. The film is presented in it's original Spanish audio, with English subtitles, that are fairly easier to follow than the story they translate, but in the end, the whole film seems relatively one sided, with more attention resting more on one thing and not the other - and in this case the "other" happens to be a coherent plot. | ||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| GORE
METER 1.5/10 The title would suggest gore and all, but in reality there is almost none. There are a few stabs with a knife, but they are not shown, nor is blood visible.... the only thing even a little suspenseful are the rape scenes. |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| MUSICAL
SCORE 2/10 The score of the film is very bleak and grim at the films beginning, but it is later almost non-existing and unheard. |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM At first glance of the title I was not too eager to see this but on second thought, I thought it may be fun, even if just a little, so I gave it a chance. What I got with MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD proves that I should've stuck with my initial instinct, because what I got was film that in the end was boring, made absolutely no sense and had a number of scenes that ran entirely too long. |
||||
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||||
| STILLS | ||||
|
