This is one of those few movies where everything that everyone says about it is precisely true: Utterly barebones production, flatly pathetic acting, stilted and pointless dialogue, and lots and lots of ultra-phony gore. Of course, this is pretty undisputedly the first real gore film, so horror fans pretty much have to see this. And, even if it weren't so important historically it would be worth seeing anyway, cause it's pretty damn cool either way.
Fortunately, in making the first gore film they didn't go halfway. Sure, there are tons of films which are gorier then it now, it's still gory enough that if it were redone, shot for shot with realistic, modern effects, it wouldn't be allowed an R rating in a million years. You got flaying, leg severing, heart extracting, tongue ripping, brain, um, snatching etc. And, while the gore effects are incredibly dated, they aren't quite as cheap and old as I would have imagined. The blood itself actually holds up fairly well, and looks better than much of the stage blood you'd see over the next 20 years or so. It's actually red! It is also delightfully shameless, perpetually leering at the simplistic effects in a way that makes Fulci look almost reserved by comparison. For example, fairly late in the film there is a 42 second pan over a flaying victim. (i.e. someone just covered with fake blood) 42 seconds may not sound that long when I just say it, but when you're actually watching it it's pretty damn funny, and seems to go on forever. It's also got some odd quirks, such as how virtually all the violence is performed in utter silence, with no sound effects, only music. It manages to make these scenes somehow poignant, in spite of the overall laughable nature of the project.
The film only gets 3 stars because much of the terrible acting and dialogue grows somewhat tiresome after a while. There are only a few topics: The cops whine about how they can't catch the mad butcher who is killing women, and stealing their body parts, and the civilains whine about there's a killer out there, and then reflect happily on the party they plan to have that Saturaday. (Turns out that the guy who's catering the party, Fuad Ramses, is the killer, and is gonna feed them the parts he stole. What a coincidence.) The directing is also amusingly flat. The camera hardly ever moves, nor do the actors. They just stand there, statue-stiff, delivering there lines. It's also got a fun soundtrack, with endless thumping tympani and cheesy organs and such. Lotsa people are irritated by it, but I find it quite amusing.
Yeah, you know if you wanna see this or not. So do it.
Grade: C
