Crazy Desires of a Murderer

This old-fashioned, low-key entry from the director of Night of the Damned moves along at a snail’s pace, lacks any real flair and yet, like the stillborn creations of many low budget film-makers, manages to exert a strange fascination. The key to approaching this guilty pleasure is that it must be watched in a lucid frame of mind: it’s certainly not a midnight movie which can be viewed through an alcoholic haze.

The film is something of a throwback to the gialli of the late ’60s and early ’70s, with its gloomy castle setting and cast of characters hopping into bed with one another. Indeed, the emphasis on sexual shenanigans borders on the software, and in this respect it anticipates the trend toward more graphically sexual thrillers in the coming years.