Customer Reviews

In the Folds of the Flesh

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Severin film company always does a great job remastering older flims.
And this horror flick certainly looks great and even sounds good.
The film itself loosely falls into the giallo genre as it features gruesome murders.
But it is also a horror shocker which features a dysfunctional family living in a villa, a psycho killer who drops by , not that there aren't other killers too. The plot is basically straightforward as the family kills off intruders while trying to retain their deranged lifestyles. There are flashbacks to a NAZI concentration camp even which explains the use of cyanide on a victim. This film was released in 1970 and it has all the wild clothes styles of the year and other aspects that make it a creature of it's time. It would have been seen as very bloody for it's day and it is still a disturbing movie evne if the effects are from 1970. The doomed talented actress Pier Angeli is in this movie and it's one of her last. She had a good future ahead of her as she had scored a role in the 'Godfather"; but she died of a sleeping pill overdose. which was probably a accident. This movie is even more macabre with this knowledge that she had so little time left. This movie features a demented family that is a horror movie staple and it does that job well. It's a decent eurohorror blow budget shocker but Severin needs to grab some traditional Giallos like 'the killer reserved nine seats" as they put out movies that intersect with the giallo genre but have yet to grab a full on giallo. A movie in which a killer takes out people and the audience doesn't know who it is. That being said if you want to see a decent horror/shocker flick from 1970's Europe then this flick should be your cup of cyanide.

Highly recommended film, full of plot twists and intrigue. Definitely not for the kiddies. You got animal killings, decapitations, flashbacks of cyanide poisonings, etc.. Whatever disturbing thing you can imagine somehow ends up in this film. The transfer is widescreen and not bad for the material. Good value for the buck.

Just reading the description you would think this is a terribly gross movie. It would be disgusting except for the fact that the special effects are so laughable. It would be morally repulsive except for the fact that the dubbing is so bad. Still, I wonder why Lady Whitehead didn't include this in her video nasties list. I guess she never heard of it.

Unfortunately this disc contains only the English dub. Presumably there are Italian and Spanish soundtracks out there, that might make for a somewhat more serious viewing experience. As it is, it is a good DVD to pop in when some reasonably open minded friends come over. I guarantee there will be many occasions when everybody will rise out of their chairs, look at each other, and say "What???"

In the Folds of the Flesh (Sergio Bergonzelli, 1970)

Weird, quasi-supernatural giallo about a guy who, while trying to evade the law, believes he witnesses the disposal of a body. Thirteen years later, after he's released from prison, he goes back to the same villa and attempts to blackmail the family involved, who are very strange indeed. While they're never willing to admit that anyone was actually killed off, they certainly act guilty; they try to kill their blackmailer every time he turns his back. But he also keeps failing to produce a body... so who's actually got the right of it? Honestly, I couldn't tell you; Bergonzelli, who normally made a living as a softcore director, throws in so many completely unnecessary plot twists in the final fifteen minutes of this movie that the ending becomes a complete, and incomprehensible, mess. Still, for lovers of the perverse, there's more than enough here to keep you occupied for days; there's the seemingly-constant Nazi fetish from early-seventies Italian movies, there's incest, strong hints of pedophilia, rape, acres of drugs, inanimate-object fetishes, the lot. There are a bunch of psychedelic early-seventies flicks that tread this same ground, and most of them are about as incoherent as this one; six, half-dozen, you know. **

In The Folds of the Flesh is gory, sexy and surprisingly entertaining! Unlike typical Gialli, the murderer's identity and motives were made clear rather early on, or so I thought. As the film came to a conclusion I just couldn't help but laugh; the amount of twists, turns and red herring was just ridiculous! One after another, the wild revelations seemed never ending but never implausible. Well, almost never implausible, it is after all Gialli.

The acting was all well and good, most of it was over-the-top, but all of it worked quite well in the setting and really added to the atmosphere. Never fear, In The Folds of the Flesh doesn't just rely on decent acting, a crazy storyline and nice production design, it's also pretty kinky, actually it's awful arousing in its own way; nothing too sleazy of course but still psychosexual enough to satisfy the Giallophiles that prefer their Gialli with a healthy side order of incest and non-consensual violation.

Severin Films continues to impress me with their ability to release some truly off-the-wall insane Gialli! If it weren't for companies like Severin and Blue Underground, I'd be forced to focus more of my free time on fumetti or Krimi instead! HA! Wow, total geek joke. Anyhow, this is sleazy fun and I really enjoyed watching it. Now, if you collect Gialli, purchasing this is a no-brainer so I'm really speaking to those of you on the fence over renting this, if you like twisted psycho-thrillers, you've gotta give this a shot.

Director Sergio Bergonzelli gives us an outrageous psychological horror film that defies description. An escaped prisoner played with sleazy relish by Fernando Sancho witnesses a woman burying a body on the grounds of a beautiful villa. As he is captured by the police, we are introduced to the dysfunctional family through flashbacks and acts of murder. When the prisoner escapes once again, he goes back and blackmails the family into confessing about the body on the grounds and here's where the fun begins. Eleonora Rossi Drago and the beautiful Pier Angeli who died tragically by suicide one year after this film was released highlight the cast. Do not be fooled by the DVD box, it is not a giallo film but a wild ,perverse excursion into revenge. The transfer by Severin films is flawless. Not the best Euro Horror but it definitely deserves to be seen.

the absolute perfect test film to watch with anyone you want to get closer to. I dare you to explain what you just watched except that it was fun and obviously need to watch again.