Macabro (1980)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Lamberto Bava

Writers:

Antonio Avati (writer)
Pupi Avati (writer)

Release Date:

17 April 1980 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Prepare yourself for the Shock of a Lifetime!

Plot:

A middle-aged woman, traumatized from the death of her adulterous lover, moves into a room at a New Orleans boarding house where the blind landlord becomes suspicious to her activities of continuing her affair with her dead lover.

Plot Keywords:

Accident | Blindness | Mother Kills Own Child | Necrophilia | Controversy

Cast

Bernice Stegers	...	Jane Baker
Stanko Molnar	...	Robert Duval
Veronica Zinny	...	Lucy Baker
Roberto Posse	...	Fred Kellerman
Ferdinando Orlandi	...	Mr. Wells
Fernando Pannullo	...	Leslie Baker
Elisa Kadigia Bove	...	Mrs. Duval

Also Known As:

Frozen Terror
Macabre

Runtime:

89 min | Greece:85 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Telecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1986) | Finland:K-18 (re-rating) | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating) | Australia:M | France:-16 | Norway:(Banned) (original rating) | Norway:16 (video rating) | UK:18 | USA:Unrated | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Company:

A.M.A. Film

Trivia:

This was the first solo directing credit on a feature film for Lamberto Bava.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Empire of the Censors (1995) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Jane in Love

Mario Bava's son gives us (a) head...

You gotta admit, the idea is ingeniously twisted in its simplicity...

Jane (Bernice Stegers), an adulterous New Orleans housewife, is involved in a car crash that decapitates her lover. One year later, she is discharged from a mental hospital and returns to her lover's former residence, where she is lusted after by blind caretaker Robert (Stanko Molnar) and plagued by visits from her Greyhound-faced daughter Lucy (Veronica Zinny).

Questions arise: What is the explanation for those lustful, lovemaking noises coming from the upstairs apartment? Why is Jane so protective of her freezer? Will Robert ever get a chance to tap that action? Will Lucy ever shut the f*ck up? With strong location shooting in New Orleans and an accompanying jazzy score, you can practically feel the sweltering menace in the air.

True to its title, "Macabre" is generally restrained in tone, instead opting to create a very effective mood of overall bizarro. At its best, it has the feel of a polished anthology entry (such material would be right at home on "The Twilight Zone" or even "Masters of Horror"); at its worst, it feels overlong and silly. The third-act twist, while pretty predictable, works because the cast is so ravenously committed to the material. As a result, "Macabre" is a finely polished debut from Lamberto Bava (son of Mario), suspenseful and mysterious (in a supernatural kind of way), but just too overdrawn.