Something Creeping in the Dark (1971)

Director: Mario Colucci
Writer: Mario Colucci

Genres: Horror

Country: Italy

Language: Italian

Release Date: 25 April 1975 (USA)

A group of stranded travelers takes refuge in an old abandoned house, only to find out that they are not the only residents of the building.

I first became aware of this (and its equally obscure director) via the *** star rating on the "Giallo" section of the "Cult Filmz" website; incidentally, I also did not know that Farley Granger had worked so extensively in Italy – in that Luchino Visconti's SENSO (1954) was no fluke (I recently watched him in a hybrid poliziottesco/giallo, and another good one it was, Massimo Dallamano's WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? [1974])! Having mentioned the latter, this too is as much a horror piece as a giallo since it involves a manifestation brought about by a séance conducted at dead-of-night. The cast is quite interesting – not only mixing familiar/international names (including, apart from the afore-mentioned American actor, Italians Lucia Bose' and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) with unknown faces, but there are even a couple of behind-the-camera personnel (producer Dino Fazio and renowned composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, who also supplies a fine moody score) in the significant roles of Police Inspector and Professor/Occultist respectively! The plot is the typical 'old dark house' routine throwing myriad characters together, stranded by bad weather in a remote and forbidding environment (adding plenty of atmosphere to the already dour brew); harking back to Agatha Christie's much-filmed "And Then There Were None" prototype rather than the traditional stalk'n'slash formula, it is something of a quintessential offering (thus undeservedly overlooked) in this regard. By the way, the notion of having the spirit at large possessing members of the household in turn to commit mayhem would be adopted by Hollywood much later for the not-too-bad IDENTITY (2003)! The still attractive (and former Miss Italy) Bose' was on something of a latter-day roll during this period – since, among others, she made two similarly notable (and likewise strange) efforts i.e. Romolo Guerrieri's THE DOUBLE (1971) and Giulio Questi's extremely-rare ARCANA (1972); unfortunately, her character is made to expire halfway through, but the actress nonetheless makes a lasting impression. Ditto Granger, uncharacteristically cast here as a hardened criminal, pretty much retains the youthful looks that had served the Hollywood veteran so well in his heyday; the film's marvelous – if somewhat abrupt – finale has him as the ghost's latest 'fall guy', to adopt a noir phrase (a genre which tended to elicit the best from the actor).

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1970s, Horror, Italy,

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Demonia (1990)

In southeast Sicily, a team of archaeologists investigate the ruins of a crypt where heretic nuns had been stoned and crucified by the village people in the 16th century. Soon strange things begin to happen, and Liza, one of the team members, starts to have surreal dreams about the nuns. Then the graphic violence begins, starting with a decapitation! The answers lie in the ancient crypt of the nuns.
he first impression this film gave me when it first came on was that it was a lot older than its 1990 release date. The picture quality just was off as if I were to pick which Fulci film was the oldest between "The Beyond", "City of the Living Dead", "House By the Cemetery" and "Zombie" I would say this one was the oldest. There was also something very weird about the bedroom the one character was in when she was taken there by her professor. The story has said professor with said student going to Sicily to do an archaeological dig to try and uncover some Greek relics. Unfortunately, there is a monastery nearby that the female student is drawn too, and it turns out it is the site of a nun crucifixion. You will follow the woman as she tries to unravel its mysteries as she is very much drawn to the place. Along the way we have some good kills and some rather pointless subplots such as the professor being questioned about the murder of one of the people killed. You will also see a very strange death as a man chases after his son in one scene, boy gets away and dad is somehow staked in the ground his legs in the air and let me just say good death that may have had a bit more impact if said character had been established. I did not even know until then he was the boy's father. The ending makes me wonder what the point the film was trying to get across too. Just not up there with earlier Fulci horrors, it is nice that he did not focus on the eyes every five seconds, but that still does not make up for the general mayhem at the end. He was actually putting forth a good plot, then it kind of falls apart. Better than "Manhattan Baby", a film I saw by him a couple of days earlier, but this one too suffers from this need of the man to just shoot random things at times. This one also did not have the atmosphere of earlier films by him. Had its moments, but just not as fun as some of his other work.

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1990, Horror, Italy, Mystery, nunsploitation,

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