Le Manoir de la terreur

Demented story, horrible masks, boring slush - that's how I would summarize this garbage. Even within the trash genre, it's just bad in every aspect. The film is "significant" only in that it gave the world one of the most bizarre characters ever to appear on the silver screen - and that is Peter Bark. His scenes with his mother are the most interesting thing the film offers - but I don't mean that in a good way. Some specific passages are way over the line. Bark's childlike appearance is responsible for his pedophilic relationship with his mother taking on a new dimension - starting with kissing and ending with nibbling on a nipple. And he was 26 at the time of filming! Bizarre beyond belief. 1* for the courage of director Andrei Bianchi to release such a grotesque piece of crap. (21/06/2018)

The plot is, as you'd expect, about nothing, but the really cool zombie presence from beginning to end makes up for that. The make-up effects are good, the close-ups make the zombies look like worms are crawling from them, but the clothes they're wearing are too well preserved. They have those classic slow, clumsy movements, but otherwise surprise with their abilities. They know how to use an axe and a scythe, they can throw a shovel, climb a wall and even operate a circular saw. Very clever zombies. Probably some higher level of development :).... Quite a decent and sometimes quite brutal addition to the zombie genre. (26/10/2004)