Directed by: Lamberto Bava
Written by: Antonio Avati, Pupi Avati, Lamberto Bava, Roberto Gandus
Starring: Bernice Stegers, Stanko Molnar, Veronica Zinny, Roberto Posse
Music by: Ubaldo Continiello
Taglines: “Prepare yourself for the Shock of a Lifetime!”
“Food for Fright!”
“Once she kept a lover on the side. But that’s nothing compared to what she’s keeping in the freezer.”
STORY
A woman is on her way to a boarding house with her lover, leaving her children at home. Her daughter decides to take the opportunity to drown her brother in a bathtub. When receiving news of the “accident”, the couple rush back but are involved in a car accident that decapitates the boyfriend.
Years later, the woman rents the room where she would have been staying with her lover. The only other occupant of the house, a blind man, starts to become suspicious of exactly what she’s doing in her room at night and why the freezer is kept chained up…
OPINION
The directorial début of Lamberto Bava, son of the legendary Italian director Mario Bava, is a rather strange and slow-moving effort. Apart from a small amount of gore at the beginning and end of the film, it’s rather low key, depending solely on mystery and atmosphere. This is exactly what his father was known for, and this was a fitting tribute to him (he died shortly after seeing Macabre).
Unfortunately, the mystery is dampened somewhat by the fact that one of the central mysteries – what’s in the freezer? – is revealed in much of the film’s advertising including a notorious video sleeve during the video nasties scare. Despite that, the film is quite interesting and has a rather perverse and bizarre reveal of exactly what’s being done with the severed head!
It’s not all great though. Once you’re worked out what’s going on, the slow pace is a little frustrating and the acting is mostly shaky, not helped by the dubbing in bad attempts at Louisiana accents. Despite that, it’s a great début for Bava, who would go on to direct a few decent movies including the decent if cheesy Demons movies before slipping off to Italian TV obscurity like many of his peers.
Rating: 
Region 2:
Region 1:
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