Lamberto Bava Week: Macabre

Felicitations to you, my readers and welcome to Day 1 of Lamberto Bava Week. Now today's movie took a bit of searching but we are not going on about it because I found it in less than a half hour. With alternative titles at the ready, different regions of the planet know a film by one title or another and so on. With a bit of luck and persistence I managed a copy that was English dubbed and not subbed. To be honest, I would have preferred the subtitles. With a simplistic yet twisted tale underway it is no wonder to this critic how Bava got a fan base. This is Macabre a.k.a. Frozen Terror.

Mmm, the pool boy has been working out.

Based in the city of New Orleans, our film is based on a true story that happen 5 year prior to its creation. An adulterous housewife (No, not Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria or Marcia Huffman) Jane (Bernice Stegers of The Great Riviera Bank Robbery, The City of Women, Xtro, Sky Bandits, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Atlantis) is out and about when the husband is gone leaving her eldest child Lucy (Veronica Zinny of Macabre) to watch her little brother whilst Mommy gets her groove on. Being the ever observant and nosy kid that most can be, Lucy goes through Mommy's blackbook at a little apartment that is reserved for booty calls, scorns her mother and then proceeds to have a psychotic look in her eye. No sooner is Jane enjoying some heat beneath the sheets that Lucy convinced little brother to play with a sail boat in the tub... then drowns him as he is the favored child so therefore MUST PERISH!!! Yeah, not sure the moral lesson here but I also choose to not look into it.

Jane finds out her little boy has shuffled off this mortal coil, she and her man candy Fred (Roberto Posse of Nazi Love Camp 27, Eyes Behind the Wall, Rock 'n' Roll, In the Lost City of Sarzana and Trhauma) dash out the door, speed off in a mid-60s Volkswagon Bug to the traumatic setting when yammering about woulda, coulda, shoulda causes Fred to crash the Bug and decapitate himself with a rather conveniently placed guard rail not fully installed yet.

Oh, no I am not Paul McGann.

We then shoot ahead one year later to the local whacko basket...er... I mean asylum where Jane has been recovering heads back to the same apartment as it is apparent that former hubby wants NOTHING to do with the woman negligent for his daughter and dead son. Her former landlord has passed away but her blind son Robert (Stanko Molnar of Allonsanfan, Padre pardone, A Blade in the Dark, Francesco and Area gialla) is keeping the place tip-top while still writing music and longing to drill Jane.

Lucy of course makes several visits throughout the movie as both of them are still recovering from all the crazy crazy of the first 12 minutes of the film when Lucy is convinced she hears her mother talking with someone while listening to Fred's albums and gadding it up around the living room or bedroom. Though separate investigations, both Robert and Lucy know Jane has a man in her life that clearly rocks her world but have not seen hide nor hair of him. Where does he come from? What are his hobbies? Does he simply appear like some modern day incubus, takes Jane in whatever fashion he wants and then heads home?

A few things to note on this movie.

While the pace of this film is slow I felt it ratcheted up the tension, showing insanity in both the mother and daughter for different reasons but it does have the feel of made-for-TV movie in its overall execution. The topic itself is fairly morbid it does not fall into a Joe D' Amato's women in prison, cannibalistic monster feel of sleaze and schlock as it is tastefully done. The brain tends to fill in the blanks of this bizarre source material. I will warn you up front yes there is a fair degree of nudity but the most important aspect of the movie is the girl dubbing Lucy's voice you want to fricking strangle. It is the sound of Satan being castrated in a megaphone factory. I'd rather here Chris Tucker screaming in the throws of passionate sex than have to hear that young girl's voice again. Dark story matter done well and creepy as hell.

Yorick's getting some action!