Unusual and likable Spanish/Italian co-production that plays something like a seventies Spanish, Old Dark House with giallo elements. Split more or less into three parts, the beginning takes place on the road, the middle introduces us to all the varied peoples holed up in the mansion in the fog and the final 25minutes are pretty wild action all the way. In truth there is nothing particularly violent or sexual but all the ladies are lovely, we really don't know what's going on any more than they do and we care enough to stick with it to find out. Worth it? Yes, I reckon so, it's just that little bit different and even the 'posh' English dubbing seems to help the strangeness that permeates the whole film.
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christopher-underwood9 April 2009
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goblinhairedguy11 August 2004Despite its hoary silent-era plot, this is a nicely atmospheric minor chiller from Spain. Actually, it's as much a mystery-thriller as a horror pic, having some stylistic elements in common with the Edgar Wallace series, but the spooky mansion and cemetery sequences would not be amiss in a Margheriti or Corman classic. The director and art director fill the screen with significant details and the brooding color cinematography is suitably eerie, if a mite garish (it was the 70s, after all). The cast is attractive, particularly Lisa Nardi, who's quite a dish in shiny leather jacket and tight bellbottoms; unfortunately, it looks like a few nude scenes were clipped for the American release. There's no gore to speak of, nor much Rollinesque artiness, just good old-fashioned gothic chills. Definitely worth a look for connoisseurs, but not quite a "keeper".
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ma-cortes7 December 2011Fine Italian-Spanish Giallo packed with thrills , chills ,intrigue and twists and turns . Entertaining Giallo full of vicious killings , suspense and eerie events . This genuinely mysterious story deals with a couple (Andres Resiono , Lisa Lombardi), lost in thick fog, take refuge in an old manor next to a cemetery . In the mansion strange things start to occur and happens several murders with bloody and gruesome executions. There someone is killing people and some clues seem to implicate about anybody are dieing . Before their unfortunate accident wreck , rich heiress, weak-hearted Elsa( Analía Gadé), recently recovering from a nervous breakdown due to the death of her daddy (George Rigaud) . In addition ,wealthy Elsa's husband (Albert Dalbes) is away frequently, so she usually thinks for him . Meanwhile another coupled called Mr & Mrs Tremont (Eduardo Fajardo & Yelena Samarina) also runs off the road and into an embankment near the graveyard , encountering two mysterious, enigmatic zombie-alike shrouded in darkness, one corpulent man dressed in chauffeur style and a pale-face woman slightly behind him . The trio encounters the mansion , discovering that the Tremonts inside, having been in a car crash with another driver , a sex-obsessed , drunk Mr. Porter(Franco Fantasia). This group finds that the mansion has an owner, the sinister Martha Clinton (Evelyn Stewart or Ida Galli), who bears remarkable resemblance to her deceased aunt condemned for vampirism and witchcraft . Meanwhile the series killer goes on a real massacre on various unfortunate victims as a woman is hung , another attacked in the graveyard . Slowly more people are found dead and Fred (Andres Resino) investigates the strange killings with numerous suspects .
Successful Giallo is compellingly directed with well staged murders plenty of startling visual content , though was submitted to limited censorship in Spain . This is a customary Giallo where the intrigue, tension, suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and luxurious interior and exterior . The picture packs atmospheric blending of eerie thrills and creepy chills combined with a twisted finale . It displays lots of guts and blood but it seems pretty mild compared to today's gore feasts . It's a solid movie , a thrilling story plenty of suspense and intrigue in which the victims seem to be continuous . The staged killings are the high points of the movie , they deliver the goods plenty of screams, shocks and tension . The intriguing moments are compactly made and fast moving ; as the film itself takes place from various red herrings . It packs tension, shocks , thrills, chills and a little bit of blood and gore . There's plenty of moments of excitement and a number of scenes that are quite thrilling , resulting to be definitely the spotlight of the film the surprising ending situation . Well filmed in location in Madrid and Guadalajara surroundings . Good ambiance design and acceptable production design by Perez Cubero who along with Galicia created lots of sets in several Western filmed in the 60s and 70s . Colorful and brilliant cinematography in Maria Bava style by Mancori . Frightening and thrilling musical score by the Italian Marcello Giombani.
The picture is professionally directed by Francisco Lara Polop in his first and the best film along with the prolific filmmaker Pedro Lazaga . Francisco Lara's so-so direction is well crafted , here he's less cynical and more inclined toward suspense and lots of killings , he's an expert on comedy though directed another terror film as ¨The monk¨, his last movie . Talented and versatile writer/director Pedro Lazaga has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres but especially comedies starred by Spanish comedian Paco Martinez Soria and made a successful Peplum , ¨The seven Spartans¨. Rating: Acceptable and passable , this is one more imaginative Giallo pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills. This is a bewildering story , funny in some moment but falls flat and it will appeal to hardcore Gialli fans -
peterc-86 September 2004Watched this film titled as Murder Mansion on sub-cheapo Brentwood DVD set called Hell In the Family. Must originally have been from a TV print, because there is no nudity and almost no violence to speak of. Most annoying are the choppy jumps in the film where the violence and nudity belong.
Pity, because the filming of "Mansion of the Fog/Cloud" is really top notch. Fantastic saturated colors ala Mario Bava. Great sets. Decent budget. Decent acting. Great looking damsels in distress. But that is about it.
Too much of the film is missing for the movie to flow well. Too many plot holes. Too many scenes that are suddenly cut.
On the plus side though, Murder Mansion is still a very nice looking movie - lots of atmosphere, and still fairly interesting despite the chopped scenes. Buying the Brentwood DVD set costs less than renting. Bonus in the set is another weird Spanish film - A Veil for the Devil - which is presented as It Happened At Nightmare Inn - also missing the violence and nudity, but still pretty creepy. Both films would be good little cult flicks if someone could scare up intact prints. -
Scarecrow-8820 September 2008Modestly entertaining spook-house chiller has a various group of motorists finding themselves crashed nearby a cemetery thanks to a thickening fog that has engulfed them. Near the unattended graveyard is a manor once home to a rumored-to-be witch who, along with her chauffeur, died in a car crash three decades earlier. Their spirits perhaps roam the grounds as a car, being driven by a man dressed in a chauffeur's uniform, almost runs over handsome motorcyclist Fred(Andrés Resino)who was attempting to flag the driver down. Fred is carrying a lovely hitchhiker, Laura(Lisa Leonardi), as they found themselves crashing near the graveyard. Before their unfortunate accident, wealthy heiress, Elsa(..beautiful red-head Analía Gadé), recently recovering from a nervous breakdown due to the death of her father(..who died of a heart-attack while having sex with a much younger woman), was driving to a village to meet clients, Mr & Mrs Tremont(Eduardo Fajardo & Yelena Samarina)but, also runs off the road and into an embankment near the graveyard, encountering two sinister beings shrouded in darkness, one in a chauffeur's hat and boots, with a female figure slightly behind him. Incredibly frightened, Elsa runs into Fred and Laura. The trio find the manor, discovering that the Tremonts inside, having been in a wreck with another motorist, a gun-toting, sports-car driving, alcoholic, skirt-chasing, weak-hearted Mr. Porter(Franco Fantasia)who came on to Laura a little strong when he had initially picked her up on the side of the road. This group finds that the manor has an owner, the mysterious, enigmatic Martha Clinton(Ida Galli;Case of the Scorpion's Tale, Seven Notes in Black), who carries a striking resemblance to her aunt(..her portrait hangs above the fireplace in the living room of the manor). Martha dotes on the folklore behind her ancestor, the claims of vampirism and witchcraft and how these things drove locals from the location elsewhere. Over the night, Elsa will be targeted by the eerie chauffeur and Aunt Clinton, as she slowly is driven mad, but why? Why would the spirits of Clinton and her chauffeur wish to drive Elsa crazy? Meanwhile Fred and Laura snoop around, wishing to understand more about their surroundings and the chauffeur who almost run him over.
Important sub-plot is introduced in the early going, regarding Elsa's very unhappy husband Ernest(Alberto Dalbés), who is having an affair with another woman. Ernest was once wealthy as well, but spent his money on women and drink. Ernest mentions to his devoted lover how he'd like to split from Elsa, but her financial support is hard to give up. This isn't just thrown in the movie for filler, and could very well tie into the future events of the movie. The cast is decent and the dubbing is bearable. The film flirts with the supernatural, but the overall story isn't that overwhelming. The whole film lives and breathes familiarity...you have seen it all before, over and over. Perhaps the film offers surprises for viewers who are not accustomed to these type of old dark house mysteries where something's afoot, but I believe most will find this merely an adequate time-waster, nothing special or mind-blowing. Could've been a lot worse, but I have a pretty good feeling most will forget about this movie soon after it's over. Elsa's story is emphasized more than everyone else's. -
dbborroughs13 April 2006This film made me nod off to sleep. Despite decent film making, some good atmosphere this film just put me out. The problem is that for the better part of an hour nothing really happens. A diverse group of people keep crossing and recrossing each others paths before they end up in a weird mansion in the fog. At that point there is a great deal of talk before the bodies start to pile up and ghosts begin to appear. What exactly is going on I'll leave for you to discover since once things get moving the movie isn't that bad. (Actually it isn't bad its just badly paced) Is this worth seeing? Its worth a shot, especially if you can get it as part of a multi movie pack or on cable, I wouldn't pay money to rent or purchase just this movie since its not that good.
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BandSAboutMovies1 November 2018I love Mill Creek multipacks. Sure, the quality is abysmal at times. Often, you get the same films on multiple sets. And you get bad dubs. But let's face it - often you can find these sets used for $5 or less and you get up to 50 amazing films. That inspired me to spend the month of November gathering some of my favorite writers and fans of the site to tackle the Chilling Classics box set.
Originally released as La Mansion de la Niebla (The Mansion in the Fog) and also known as Murder Mansion, this Spanish/Italian film fuses old school haunted house horror with the then new school form of the giallo.
The plot concerns a variety of people drawn to a house in the fog, so the original title was pretty much correct. There are plenty of European stars to enjoy, like Ida Galli, who also uses the name Evelyn Stewart and appeared in Fulci's The Psychic as well as The Sweet Body of Deborah. And hey, there's Analía Gadé from The Fox with the Velvet Tail. Hello, George Rigaud, from All the Colors of the Dark and The Case of the Bloody Iris! They're all here in a movie that seems to make little or no sense and then gets even more bonkers as time goes on.
This was one of the 13 titles included in Avco Embassy's Nightmare Theater package syndicated in 1975 (the others were Marta, Death Smiles on a Murderer, Night of the Sorcerers, Fury of the Wolfman, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Horror Rises from the Tomb, Dear Dead Delilah, Doomwatch, Bell from Hell, Witches Mountain, Mummy's Revenge and The Witch). How did these movies play on regular TV?
There's a history of vampires in the house, the previous owner was a witch and hey - this is starting to feel like an adult version of Scooby Doo with better-looking ladies. That's not a bad thing. But if you've never watched a badly dubbed giallo-esque film before, don't expect any of this to make a lick of sense. -
A stylish, atmospheric, well above average continental chiller; this still screams for an uncut, restored print that will bring out the best in the cinematography and art direction, both of which are obviously well done but not shown in their best light in the murky public domain version currently making the rounds. Motorcyclist Fred (Andrés Resino), hitchhiker Laura (Annalisa Nardi, not Ida Galli like many on here are saying), mentally unstable divorcée Elsa (Analía Gadé), perverted Mr. Porter (Franco Fantasia) and married couple The Tremont's (Eduardo Fajardo, Yelena Samarina), become stranded by a very thick fog and end up having to spend the night in a creepy mansion located right next to a graveyard. While inside, they meet strange, beautiful Martha Clinton (Ida Galli, credited as "Evelin Stewart" here), who claims that she owns the house and says her grandmother Julie was rumored to be a vampire-witch. After everyone settles into their bedrooms, bizarre things begin to happen as a hulking, undead chauffeur and a creepy old woman lurk the grounds and Elsa begins to have flashbacks to her troubled relationships with both her father (Georges Rigaud) and her husband (Alberto Dalbés).
There's an underground catacomb that extends to crypts in the graveyard, some major plot surprises (including an eleventh-hour twist that may not sit well with some viewers) and a curious absence of exploitative elements (the print I saw from Brentwood Entertainment was obviously culled from a censored version and some jadded editing cuts hint that nudity and violence may have been trimmed). The acting, particularly the underrated Galli, is very good, and the score from Marcello Giombini, photography from Guglielmo Mancori, special effects from Pablo Pérez and some great production design and sets, all contribute to making this a welcome creepy old-dark-house diversion. I actually preferred this to many of the more popular gialli I have seen. -
highwaytourist7 November 2007You no doubt have run into this theme time and time again- some people get stranded on a VERY foggy night, and they're forced to seek refuge in this spooky ol' house. Of course, the house is in an isolated locale. Of course, it's located next to a cemetery. Of course, the owners are creepy people. Of course, the house is rumored to be haunted. And, of course, the guests' stay and slumber are disturbed by the strange and haunting goings-on that we've come to expect in stories like this. We've seen it all before, from Scooby Doo cartoons to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. And so the cast goes through the motions while the audience goes through the motions of watching them and pretending not to know what will happen. The closing scene is ludicrous- how many pistols can fire 17 shots without being reloaded? However, it's not a total loss. The acting is marginally better than usual for a low-budget film like this. The production and sets are fairly good-looking, the background music is satisfactory, and there is some atmosphere of eerie calm which actually works. So I would recommend this film to people who really like haunted house movies.
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BaronBl00d28 December 2006Surprsingly well-directed "gothic" tale of a group of people that "accidentally" get together in an old house in the middle of nowhere one creepy night only to find that, one by one, people start to disappear and/or die. Yep, this kind of story has been done over and over again, but this version works well for a number of reasons. The acting is pretty good from the all foreign cast. The lassies are lovely and have some talent. The characters that are meant to be creepy pull that off as well. The director Francisco Lara Polop creates a good deal of tension and breathes a lot of life into some otherwise stale plot contrivances. The mysterious old woman and the gigantic bald chauffeur popping up here and there really added some scares to the film. The story, even when it became clear what was going on, was nurtured in such a way as to still keep you involved. I liked Murder Mansion quite a bit. It is a great film to watch alone at night. Just remember that the road less taken sometimes is the road one should avoid.
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gridoon202424 November 2014"Murder Mansion" looks like a bottom-of-the-barrel version of "And Then There Were None", minus some little things such as character motivation and playing fair with the audience (NOT introducing, for example, a new character in the last 10 minutes!). Most of the movie is boring; when the horror finally starts, over an hour in, it becomes nonsensical. Despite its lurid English title (the dubbing is quite poor, by the way), it's also quite tame in terms of violence (there is little) and nudity (there is virtually none, unless I watched a cut version). Which is a shame, because the women in this film are very beautiful, and probably its only saving grace. *1/2 out of 4.
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Steve_Nyland7 April 2004One of my alltime favorite movies to obsess over in the darkened wee hours of the morning has always been MURDER MANSION, or La Mansión de la niebla, a 1972 Spanish/Italian co-production encompassing elements of the supernatural thriller, giallo-style murder mystery, and a delicious take on the old Haunted House formula that continues to deliver the intoxicatingly arty, atmospheric thrills more than thirty years later.
THE PLOT: A seemingly diverse group of couples and ne're do wells end up sharing a deserted mansion in the middle of nowhere to escape a fog-bound night that effectively traps them in a setting totally cut off from the outside world. Andres Resino, his hair grown in hippie-style after playing a globe trotting Interpol agent in the Paul Naschy classic WEREWOLF VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN, makes a convincing lead as a thrill-seeking motorcyclist traveling with the always delightful Evelyn Stewart through the mountains of southern Italy when a shortcut through a legendary, mysterious valley takes a turn for the worse and the pair find themselves stranded at the aforemention mansion with an otherwise improbable collection if cult Eurohorror supporting actors & actresses [Alberto Dalbes, Analie Gade, Analise Nardi and frequent Jess Franco actor Eduardo Fajardo] who, for one reason or another, have found themselves in a similar pickle. They bicker, split up into handily furnished bedrooms and retire to wait out the foggy night.
Fortunately, the mansion is situated right next to a creepy, terminally fog-enshrouded graveyard where not all of the corpses seem content to rest in piece, and mayhem ensues as the ghosts of the sole survivors of a vampire massacre start to walk the earth to harrangue the impromptu guests of their former mansion. To say anything more specific about the plot would ruin the fun for those who have never seen it: Rest assured, however, that MURDER MANISON does indeed live up to it's name & reputation, weaving together such elements as a creepy family legend, a bodiless head, a hanging corpse, the zombie Oddjob like cheauffer of a deceased aristocratic Contessa, and a brutal finale that results in madness & a respectable body count in what is essentially a bloodless shocker who's parts add up to far more than you might expect.
I am especially drawn to the film's tight, spare but visually rich cinematography & camerawork. There is quite simply not a single unnecessary shot or scene in the film [at least in the forms that still exist], with a prowling camera that draws the viewer into the story in a way that goes beyond merely documenting Luis G. de Blaine's wonderful screenplay -- another one of those lower budgeted Eurohorror efforts that seems to have been inspired by a SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU? cartoon of one sort or another. Indeed the movie has the look of the panels of a "graphic novel" or cartoon, with each scene dripping with atmospheric set decoration & camerawork stressing color compositions and mood. The film has a modern day setting but is total Gothic Horror at it's best, with delightful touches like the horrifying artwork festooning the walls of the various bedrooms that only a thoroughly tranquilized person could sleep next to, a gorgeous duplicitous femme fatale with lesbian overtones to her concerns for one of the "guests" in particular, and above all else, FOG.
What MURDER MANSION's makers may have had to skimp on budget-wise as far as technical or location expenses is more than made up for in the foggiest & most beautifully lit spaces filled with fog that I have ever seen. MURDER MANSION is a great study on how to use fog, actually, in a way that contributes to a movie's production design rather than obscuring it -- Whole scenes are dominated by an almost suffocating murkiness that you could metaphorically cut with a knife, yet even with the plot's emphasis on using the fog as a device it never becomes a cheapended, gimmicky effect. There's fog outside, inside & under this old house, and as one character literally phrases it, they all seem to have entered a different world that is unreal or supernatural in nature.
Of additional cult interest is the presence of the mysterious Ingrid Garbo, one of the famous "Greek Chorus" of sexually vivacious Vampire Playgirls featured in the likewise Paul Naschy fanger COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE, though sadly her bedsheet stays firmly in place during her one scene ... But she still exudes the seedy sluttiness that made her such a delightful presence in Naschy's movie, and it looks to me as though some of the interior shots from MURDER MANSION were staged in the same house used to film that classic favorite. Dunno though: after a couple hundred movies some of these houses start to look identical or hard to tell apart, and that is kind of the point of how the mansion is used by Polop & company: It is an archytipical setting for what starts out as a very stereotypical Eurohorror, but changes gear in the fourth act & throws the viewers a curve ball that spins off of the conventions they are used to from similar efforts populated by fog, undead vampire victims & femme fatale female vixens.
And the best part about MURDER MANSION is that it is a FUN movie; watching it is a wonderful study in Eurohorror, adding elements from so many different sources that what it ends up as has little or nothing to do with the different conventions employed to tell it's story -- Some viewers may be disappointed with the literal resolution of the story, but I think it just plays into the SCOOBY DOO nature of the story's origins, complete with Meddling Kids who work as sort of Mystery Investigators, if you like, who just want to get to the bottom of the story. Well cast and brimming with memorable images & moments, this is a Eurohorror effort that stands apart from the rest by being so plot & visual-oriented, with no outrageous sex or violence sequences for viewers to dwell over and otherwise distract them from the sheer enjoyment of just watching this movie and letting it happen onscreen as it will.
While this may be partly the result of the English language form that is most commonly known being cut, there doesn't really have seemed to be a lot of room in the script for bizarre violence & sex, and for my money this movie is suitable as-is for viewers of any age who like good movies, horror buff or no. MURDER MANSION is readily available in what I have found to be two distinctly different versions: Both are full frame presentations, the first apparently sourced from masters derived from the 83 minute version released in 1986 by Charter Video on VHS and available from Incredibly Strange Film Works on an excellent Codefree DVD release, with a similar transfer also found on Brentwood Home Video's HELL IN THE FAMILY two DVD box set, backed with the infamous US edit of IT HAPPENED AT NIGHTMARE INN by the great Sergio Martino. Both versions run about 83 minutes and look fabulous, appearing to have been sourced from actual studio master reels and not an old VHS tape. But the standout release is another surprise from our acid eatin' freakazoid buddies at Something Weird Video , who have their own 16mm film print that clocks in at 85 minutes & 30 odd seconds, and has some additional lesbian innuendo and some additional creepy footage from the movie's shock sequences that Charter apparently found inappropriate for their likewise unrated release. At most this film would garner a PG rating even with what is present, but the possibility of other excised footage does exist, and doubtlessly there is longer Spanish and/or Italian language release that may or may not have been prepared for home video at some point, though none is described.
Seek out that Something Weird Video VHS! But even if only one of the DVD releases or an old Charter video is within your grasp, you are guaranteed a movie that will demand repeat viewings & is guaranteed to become a favorite, even if the vampire fangs stay off in this one.
The Bottom Line: ***1/2 [out of a possible ****] SQ040703 -
P3n-E-W1s322 April 2020The main ingredient in a Giallo film I like best is the story. Usually, these are well thought out revenge thrillers, with loads of twists, red-herrings, and a hint of the supernatural. This film has all the above and more.
I liked the way the writers, Luis G De Blain and Antonio Troiso, pull the attention of the audience into the story from the first frame. The hook of the Biker and the Hitchhiking Damsel snags you right away. You start thinking, what will happen? This interesting and intriguing segue is only to introduce the characters to each other... and the audience.
Then we meet a group of friends who have urgent business to conduct. They journey out of their home for the meeting and drive straight into the thickest fog they've seen. Around this time, the Biker and the Damsel ride into the same peasouper. This is where the writers start to throw in some supernatural - or not - elements. A man walking along the roadside. Nothing unusual there, except he wears a wide-brimmed hat and is carrying a long staffed scythe. Shot in silhouette, he is a spooky character indeed.
This is only the start. Things get stranger and darker as we progress through the film. If this story cannot keep your interest, then you have ADD. This is one of the better and more intricate Giallo films I've watched.
The one thing I wasn't fond of in the story was the ending. If I had written the tale, I would have opted to go for more of a horror style climax and not the thriller ending. For me, it wasn't as satisfying as the rest of the movie.
I was thankful that the director, Francisco Lara Polop, was skilled enough to keep the story smooth. It would have been easy to create confusion. This adds another great ingredient. Unlike the horror films and thrillers being shot in America and England, the Spanish and Italian liked to play with the rhythms of the pacing. This variation allows for the creation of tension and excitement within the film's atmosphere. Though Polop isn't a master at this, he does enough to keep it engaging.
The cast does their bits admirably and keeps their characters believable, relatable, and a little mysterious. You're never too sure what's happening or who is to blame, if anyone. I will also pay respect to the voice talents and the dubbing masters. Most Giallo films are dubbed into English and luckily for the audience, the voices match the actor. At times, it's the actual actor or actress who voices their character in English. At other times, it's a different actor or actress. The main culprits of bad dubs, from this era, were Japan and China. Some pair-ups and voiceovers were risible. Though I have yet to find an Italian or Spanish production with such low dubbing production values. So don't let the fact it's dubbed put you off watching this screen gem.
Though this isn't a horror film, as such, I would recommend it to all horror fans as well as the Giallo aficionados, Thriller followers, and Chiller fans. This is well worth a watch, and it has made it onto my watch again pile. So turn off the lights, settle down with a warm drink, and enjoy.
Ratings: Story 1.5 : Direction 1.5 : Pace 1.25 : Acting 1.25 : Enjoyment 1.5 : Total 7 / 10
Now bike on over to my Killer Chiller Thrillers and The Game Is Afoot lists to see where this spooky picture ranked.
Take Care and Stay Well. -
Zeegrade26 January 2009The giallo genre is synonymous with gloved madmen, creepy music, gruesome murders, and female nudity. Murder Mansion lacks all of these traits and comes off as movie of the week fare. Think Giallo-lite. It's a shame too because this movie features some beautiful women, Lisa Leonardi as backpacker Laura, Analia Gade as mentally unstable Elsa, and Ida Galli, billed here as Evelyn Stewart as the housekeeper/vampire/conspirator Martha Clinton.
The comparisons to Scooby-Doo are numerous on this page and none of them are unwarranted. The plot begins as five travelers are forced to stay the night in a mansion that was supposedly owned by a witch complete with undead followers. We eventually learn that all is not as it appears and the real motives are finally addressed with lackluster results.
Let me state for the record that I personally don't believe that Murder Mansion is a poor movie. I'm more disappointed in what it lacks than the content itself which at times is well acted. The murders are beyond tame ranging from a lame heart-attack to an anonymous hanging woman that bears no meaning to the plot. Some scenes hint at showing the lovely figures of the aforementioned ladies yet only provide nude backs and nothing more. Come on! I'm not a Mormon for God's sake! It does supply hot vehicle juxtapositioning action as the movie begins with a four-and-a-half plus minute montage of lane changing madness! Zoinks! You can do better than this scare free flick. -
Lost in a sudden, thick fog, various motorists end up stranded at the MANIAC MANSION (aka: THE MURDER MANSION) for the night. Weirdness ensues, with lumbering specters and the apparent absence of geographic location.
Once inside the manor, things get even more odd, when the travelers meet Martha Clinton (Evelyn Stewart) who spins tales of local vampirism and ancestral witchcraft. There's also her giant chauffeur lurking about the grounds! Just where have these people wound up?
MM is a wonderfully creepy movie, with the perfect setting. There's a cemetery right outside, and labyrinthine catacombs beneath the sprawling estate.
Filled with an atmosphere of perpetual gloom, it plays like an extended episode of Rod Serling's NIGHT GALLERY. This is also the movie's biggest weakness, as it could have had about 20 minutes shaved off. It tends to go down some rabbit holes, like over-long flashback sequences and supernatural angles that don't add up.
Otherwise, it's a highly enjoyable cavalcade of ghoulish goulash with a nice double cross, double twist ending!
Co-stars the breathtaking Lisa Leonardi as Lisa... -
nogodnomasters6 September 2017In the fog, all roads lead to a cemetery where folks crash their vehicles and stay at the local mansion which show signs of a haunting. Possibly inspired by a Scooby-doo episode, the haunted tale gives you characters and motive early on. I didn't find any of it interesting or entertaining. My copy was fuzzy.
Guide: No swearing,sex, or nudity. -
This is the first movie on a set of 50 that i bought, and let's just say, we're not off to a good start. "The Murder Mansion" (as i bought it as) is many things. Confusing, boring, but by no means is it a horror film. It reminded me more of a heist movie than it did of a horror movie. and that's not a good thing.
One of the biggest problems this movie had was that for the first hour nothing really happened. people talked (obviously dubbed by a lot of British people btw) a lot of flashbacks to when one of the main girls was in college despite the fact that she looked the same age in the flashback just with a shirley temple haircut, and a lot of sex (offscreen of course because that would make the movie interesting) When the characters are introduced i confuse them a LOT. i don't know who's who for the whole thing. they're very interchangeable and i don't know what's going on. one of the guys just vanishes for some reason, some girl's ex lover comes back for some reason all under the cover of a murderous scooby doo theme. i don't know WHY these people were killing people, all i know was it was very confusing. This movie is something that all horror movies shouldn't be. tremendously boring. the murder scenes come completely out of nowhere and one dude just dies from seeing a woman in a bad old lady mask. then again, maybe i'd have a heart attack too if i had to be in this stinker of a movie.
There were also some interesting Day to Night shots when the film was obviously shot in the day but filtered for the night. and there was at least one scene when it was obviously daytime in the cemetery but they tried to pass it off as night. and it looked STUPID. If you're looking for a fun time at a horror movie, this isn't one. if you DO want to see this movie for the little but of fun it has, skip to 50 minutes in. here's all you need to know. people go to haunted house because of fog. people talk. there. now you're up to speed.
one last thing. one of the weird things i noticed about this movie is that the main girl (at least i think she was) turns down this guy who wants to sleep with her after she gives him a ride saying "what kind of girl do you think i am?" so she decides to ride with another guy. yet later that night, she sleeps with the second guy who gives her a ride. so...she doesn't sleep with strangers who outright say "let's have sex" she only has it with strangers who DON'T say they want it. cause that makes sense. i don't know, maybe she has a thing for mustaches. whatever. that bugged me and it was stupid.
The pacing of this movie is very poorly done. it's too boring for too long. there's a lot of info you DON'T need to know, and i assumed they were trying to go with some personal demon fightings with this one girl, but in the end it looked stupid.
so you know what? unless you have it on the chilling classics 50 pack, don't bother watching it, it's not worth it. but if you really want to, the last 20 minutes aren't horrible, it's just confusing as all hell. So in conclusion, the murderous mansion gets 2 random dead people, out of 10. -
bkoganbing28 June 2011The Murder Mansion is your basic Eurohorror film, a Spanish production in this case. Some seemingly random, then it turns out not so random group of guests wash up on a stormy night at a Gothic Mansion where a woman and her chauffeur were killed in a car crash years ago. But they seem to be a pair of lively ghosts going around causing all kinds of mayhem. Especially the chauffeur who in years gone by would have been played by Tor Johnson or in the previous generation Rondo Hatton.
No need wasting your time with the names of the players none of whom will be familiar to American audiences. I'd pass this one right by folks, right by. -
parry_na12 September 2018Some cinematic productions seem happy to minor entries in their particular genre - and there's nothing wrong with that. I often enjoy a traditional, by-numbers horror story much more than a more ambitious, spectacular entry. 'The Murder Mansion' is, in my view, a good example of this. There's little that is sophisticated or witty about this, it certainly doesn't try anything new or unexpected with the story. But what it does, it does well.
There is a bit of titillation (some cuts may have been made), and a nice balance between warm indoors and cold, foggy 'out there'. The results are entirely unmemorable, but fine for undemanding viewing for fans of obscure horror. -
loujackandrandy19 February 2017This is an OK little movie. It does have its creepy moments and the acting isn't bad. I find the old woman to be especially spooky. Some nice gruesome deaths and good atmosphere make this a fun movie to watch with popcorn late on a stormy night. I got this movie in a pack of 50 creepy films. I'd say it ranks somewhere in the middle as far as rating goes. Not the best but at least it's entertaining.
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unioncblue10 February 2001'Murder Mansion' used to play on late night t.v. back in the 80's when television was cool and played this kind of product all the time.
Some truly creepy scenes elevate this Euro-chiller about ghosts and vampires inhabiting a fog bound mansion. A bit slow moving but the genuinely eerie atmosphere, well orchestrated fright sequences and memorably strong music (like a witch's cackle over swirling organs ) by Marcello Giombini make this one slightly above average.
I have the old Charter video version that runs 83 minutes but it somehow seems cut. Hopefully, with the renewed interest in Euro-Horror, this will get a good DVD/Video re-release.
MAJOR SPOILER...................DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE FILM: The first 75 minutes or so of the film are an enigmatic tale of the supernatural but then, quick left turn, all is revealed to be an elaborate hoax to scare off the stranded aristocrats with fright masks and folklore thus putting the film firmly into the Giallo subgenre. Might be disappointing for those looking for 'Web of the Spider' type thrills but would make a great double feature with 'The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave' (another supernatural-cum-giallo chiller) -
mark.waltz10 October 2020It's pretty easy to figure out what's going on in this Gothic horror mystery when a group of strangers arrive at a mansion type hotel that one of them claims does not really exist. A lot of strange happenings occur, and the violence that befalls some of the visitors is genuinely gruesome. But I quickly figured it out once they showed an odd portrait in the mansion, and from there, it was downhill waiting for all of this to unfold. The characters in general are not very interesting enough to care about, and the setup is really cheesy and sleazy. It's a one-off visit to this mansion of madness for me, but after it was all done, I found I needed a visit to my medicine chest for an aspirin.
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A group of strangers wind up at a remote mansion one foggy night. Soon they are terrorized by a ghostly chauffeur and vampiric old woman.
This is a pretty solid Spanish flick that combines the feel of a thriller with spooky supernatural horror. It opens in such a way as you would be forgiven for thinking that you were in for some giallo mayhem, seeing as it quickly introduces us to a selection of shady characters. But pretty soon after the action moves to the fog enclosed environs of an old dark house and creepy graveyard. The combination of the two strands of film type works pretty well all-in-all with a decent enough amount of intrigue in the set-up and some quite effective scary moments. The latter is covered almost exclusively by the appearances of the two ghosts, who are utilised well. In particular, a scene where a woman turns in bed to be confronted face to face with the scary old woman is pretty spine tingling. The focus is really more on spookiness in general, as there isn't a lot of sex and violence in this one. Which isn't entirely surprising really considering this was made in Franco's Spain, in a climate that was very conservative about such matters. The cast of actors is good enough, with the star turn being Evelyn Stewart who appeared in several Italian pictures from the time including a very memorable role in the excellent giallo The Case of the Scorpion's Tail.
So all-in-all a somewhat under-appreciated film. It hardly breaks the mould but it does what it does well enough. Spanish films from the 70's tended to be poorer relations to their Italian equivalents. And while this one has its weaknesses, it is certainly one of the stronger Spanish thrillers from the period. -
morrison-dylan-fan2 November 2011Since having spent most of the year watching the Giallo films made in Italy,I felt that this movie would give me a chance to have a look at a Giallo from another part of the world.
The plot:
Finishing all of their chores for the day,a group of motorist struggle to get back home,when a thick fog completely covers the main roads to the city.Slowly realising that they have no chance at all to get through the fog,each of the drivers are "guided" by a mysterious man at the side of a country road,who advises them to spend the night at a near by mansion,until the fog has cleared.
Getting close to the mansion,each of them discovers,that to reach the mansion they must walk through a grave yard.Walking through the yard quickly,each of the motorist are horrified to find an old woman,and a zombie car driver chasing after them!
Arriving to the mansion,they each discover,that they are in fact,not the only motorist stranded for the night.As the group attempts to settle in for the night,the owner of the mansion suddenly appears.Making each of them very happy,after saying that she is more than happy for all of them to stay the night,the woman does not help to calm nerves,when she tells all of them,the she suspects that the man and woman that they each saw at the grave yard,were actually her mum,and her mothers driver,who both died in a terrible crash near the cemetery decades ago!.With nerves now massively shaken,each of them starts heading to a bed.Suddenly,one of them is heard screaming.
Rushing to find out whats happened,the group find that one of them has disappeared,which causes them to all suspect that the mother and her driver may have left the grave yard,and are now hiding in the mansion.
View on the film:
Whilst this film seems to mostly get called a Gothic Giallo,I have to say,that since viewing the movie,I found it to be a very entertaining Goth mystery film,with directors Francisco Lara Polop and Pedro Lazaga delivering solid directing,that lacks the stylised directing of the Giallo genre,but makes up for it,by having some good,atmospheric foggy moments.
For the screenplay, writers Luis G. De Blain and Antonio Troiso, (who both wrote the screenplay for Umberto Lenzi's Giallo:Knife Of Ice) show a strong influence of Agatha Christie,with the closed off mansion being a great location for the films building mystery to be realised.As the film nears its conclusion,Blain and Troiso bring out the movies brilliant trump card,with the ending offering a terrific Christie-style twist,that gets the Gothic side of the film to fade out and,be replaced by a great downbeat mystery note,which allows the film to end on a high note. -
While it lets you off the hook too easily, there's still some moments of genuine suspense that should keep you engaged for the duration of this Spanish-Italian co-production. A group of motorists become lost in a fog and seek shelter in an isolated mansion nearby a cemetery. The gracious host (Galli) explains that the mansion belongs to her family and is allegedly cursed by the deaths of her aunt and a chauffeur following a tragic accident many years before. Unable to make it to Milan, the group accepts the kind invitation to stay the night, but will they survive to see morning? Yes and no.
Galli is a stunning woman and her appeal is palpable, but she has little to do except be a courteous host, while Gade in the central role, does a reasonable job with her emotionally traumatised character, haunted by events involving her father years before (even if the emphasis on these events and her character seem to be trivial in retrospect). Franco Fantasia might be a recognisable face to some, and he adds some colour as a tail-chasing cuckold, barely surviving his mid-life crisis clutching at a hip flask and clumsily attempting to bed the fellow female guests. Finally, Leonardi as the young hitch-hiker is also very easy on the eyes, and unlike Galli, has more meat to her character, playing a plucky and sexy heroine.
The make-up effects aren't bad, there's some spooky atmosphere at times and disconcerting encounters with apparently un-dead fiends, but the climax really - in my opinion - doesn't do the narrative, or film, justice. While it's unexpected, it's equally unsatisfying and diminishes the overall experience. Not terrible, but disappointing.