31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: LA MANSION DE LOS MUERTOS VIVIENTES (1982)

Insane monks, who have been haunting a centuries old monastery, go on a rape and murder spree when a group of tourists become too curious.

Don't Open The Door!

What is it?

Outrageous cocktail of softcore lesbian antics, sexual violence and zombie imagery which evokes Amando De Ossorio's BLIND DEAD films. But Franco has a very different agenda, more disturbing and satirical, and his direction is highly atmospheric. 

Makes a good double bill with Joe D'Amato's EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD.

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: DAS BILDNIS DER DORIANA GRAY (1976)

This 1976 female vampire film is a quiet, disturbing affair, kind of a minimalist version of Franco's 1973 LA COMTESSE NOIRE aka FEMALE VAMPIRE. Imagine if Ingmar Bergman directed a horror film using a sitar for

musical accompaniment. Doriana Gray (Lina Romay) wears a long pink chiffon gown as she sucks the life fluid from her victims during erotic encounters. Frigid, Doriana's sexual experiences are somehow telegraphed to her siamese twin sister, locked in Dr. Orloff's clinic. 

From the first shot of Doriana's castle towering above the jungle this is a visually entrancing film, perhaps the director's most stylistically accomplished and consistent in tone. It's very downbeat and mysterious, composed in a much more melancholy key than VAMPYROS LESBOS or the more recent SNAKEWOMAN. The Official Jess Franco Collection DVD* presents the hardcore version, and I find this the very best of the director's work in that genre. The sitar-like musial, the sounds of the jungle, the classic architecture all create an uncanny mood.


Highly recommended for the discerning Jess Franco collector. There reportedly exists a softcore version which I have yet to see. 


*Elite Films AG VIP Entertainment, 2003.

31 Jess Franco Halloween Horrors: KISS ME, MONSTER

Aka: CASTLE OF THE DOOMED/DAS SCHLOSS DER GEHENKTEN

The Red Lips detective agency (Janine Reynaud and Rossana Yanni) investigate a mad scientist (Michel Lemoine) who is creating an army of mutants for eventual world domination. An interpol agent (producer Hoven), a lesbian cult and an organization of black hooded figures are also on the trail. Look out for two separate Jess Franco cameos.

Our third entry is this really odd parody of Gothic Horror films made in 1967 back to back, or maybe simultaneously with TWO UNDERCOVER ANGELS aka EL CASO DE LAS DOS BELLEZAS, preferred title ROTE LIPPEN-SADISTEROTICA. The Spanish version of this Aquila Films/ Berlin (Adrian Hoven-Pier A. Caminecci) copoduction with Spain's Films Montana is 83 m and very different from the English language version available on US DVD. It has an alternate, superior score and is missing several scenes which were added by the producers/distributors which Franco did not film (ie: the opening car chase is from another film and there is a jazz fest sequence which was lifted from an unknown source) but are included in the English language export version. The six additional minutes are mostly dialogue/transitional scenes. 

The Spanish version BESAME, MONSTRUO is also "covered" but seems to reflect the director's original intent more accurately. 

In any version a weird mix of horror, science fiction, mystery, crime, Eurospy, lounge interludes, striptease, slapstick and encoded musical motifs.

Thanks to Francesco Cesari for helping me see the Spanish version, BESAME MONSTRUO.