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IN
THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH
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4
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10
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
A
killer knocks off various people unfortunate enough
to visit with a weird family in a secluded castle...
It's
been called one of the most bizarre gialli ever
made. No doubt for some fans of the genre, that's
enough. For this reviewer, however, being bizarre
isn't always a good thing. In
the Folds of the Flesh
packs more sheer strangeness and offbeat elements
into its not-always-action-packed 87 minutes than
a dozen more restrained gialli combined, but so
what? Without an interesting story, compelling
characters or enough sheer directorial elan to
keep things afloat, this one's a real snoozer.
Director Sergio Bergonzelli
made a number of unhinged contributions to the
Italian cult film scene — one of his last titles
is the obscure Blood Delirium
(1988), which features John Phillip Law as a nutcase
who believes himself to be the reincarnation of
Vincent Van Gogh! — but few would make any serious
arguments on behalf of his artistic gifts. Certainly,
he seems to have approached this particular title
with the desire to make the giallo to out-weird
any other giallo in the then-current marketplace...
No mean feat when one looks at the sheer volume
of titles proliferating screens in light of the
smash success of Dario Argento's stylish debut,
The
Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969). If this
was his only intention, he certainly succeeded.
What I can't figure out is, how does a film this
jam-packed with WTF moments end up being so deadly
dull. The film crawls at a pace that would make
Jess Franco at his most lethargic anxious to pick
up a pair of trimming scissors. The actors wander
through the sets with an air of bewildered bemusement,
never seeming to understand what they're in the
midst of performing. Then there's the story —
try as I may, I'll be damned if I can make much
sense of it. There are plenty of flashbacks to
black and white footage of Nazi atrocities (fortunately,
of the staged variety — Bergonzelli doesn't prove
so distasteful as to use real concentration camp
footage), some wonderfully tacky looking decapitation
action, a nice smattering of nudity, elements
of incest, pet vultures, you name it. That it
doesn't make a lot of sense doesn't surprise,
perhaps, but it becomes a bit wearing as the film
grinds towards its inevitable final twist.
The cast
includes a few familiar faces, none of whom are
seen to their best advantage. One time Hollywood
hopeful Pier Angeli (Somebody
Up There Likes Me, 1956) —
one year away from her death from a drug overdose
— looks tired and
worn out as the mentally unbalanced Ester. Her
role requires her to change moods more often than
she changes hairstyles, but she was either too
unwell or too disinterested to make anything of
it; it doesn't help, either, that she looks way
too old to be playing a character presumably meant
to be in her early-to-mid 20s. Eleanora Rossi-Drago
(Dorian Gray, 1970),
only seven years Angeli's senior, is unlikely
casting as her mother; according to the IMDb,
Ms. Drago retired from the screen following this
film, so that perhaps says it all. Fernando Sancho,
the jovially sleazy character actor familiar from
the likes of Amando De Ossorio's Return
of the Evil Dead (1973) and Jess Franco's
X-312: Flight To Hell (1970),
adds some much needed energy as yet another despicable
sort. Paul Naschy veteran Victor Alcazar (AKA
Vic Winner, Cemetery
Girls, 1972) puts in a brief appearance as
a sexual blackmailer.
Viewers
looking for weirdness for its own sake will no
doubt find more entertainment value, but for this
reviewer In
the Folds of the Flesh
is one of the worst gialli of its period.
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Severin presents In the
Folds of the Flesh for the first time on
DVD in the United States, in a fully uncut edition.
The 1.85/16x9 transfer looks very good on the
whole, though the source element has some splice
marks and other signs of damage. Colors are vivid,
detail is acceptable and all the sleaze appears
to be intact. The mono English soundtrack is a
bit flat but it gets the job done. Jesus Villa
Rojo's uninspired, sometimes inappropriately jaunty
score comes through well enough, while the often
laughable English dubbing adds to the air of insanity.
Extras are limited to a theatrical trailer.
11/29/08
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