Review: The Cold Blooded Beast

The setting is a mental health facility for mostly hot young women, though it’s fashioned out of a medieval-looking castle. The assorted medieval weaponry stashed inside the castle provides the tools of the trade for a killer on the loose, hacking away at the beautiful women one by one. Rosalba Neri plays the resident nymphomaniac, Jane Garret (in her only film role to date) plays a lesbian who gets a massage (and more) from a nurse played by Monica Strebel, whilst Klaus Kinski and John Karlsen are the creepy-looking male authority figures on hand.

 

Somewhat controversial 1971 mixture of sex and giallo/slasher violence from director Fernardo Di Leo (“Hired to Kill”, “The Boss”, “Naked Violence”) and co-writer Nino Latino (“Naked Violence”), is actually a pretty damn solid film for what it is. I’m not sure why it’s alternatively titled “Slaughter Hotel” when it clearly takes place in a mental health retreat facility, but I was on board with this one pretty quickly. A mental health retreat where Klaus Kinski is on staff and the frequently naked female patients all look like models? Yeah, I was gonna have a good time with this one, which played more like a Jess Franco film than a giallo film, actually. It’s super kinky and sleazy in the best manner possible, with a few rather risqué vaginal close-ups from very obvious body doubles (Rosalba Neri has a scar that is noticeably missing from her masturbation scene) that probably contributed greatly to this film’s reputation of-sorts.

 

I gotta say, doubles or not, this is one hot film. In a film full of pretty hot chicks, Margaret Lee and the terrific Rosalba Neri are especially easy on the eye. There’s a nice 70s music score by Silvano Spadaccino (the director’s “Naked Violence”) and it’s an immediately stunning-looking film as shot by Franco Villa (“Kill Rommel!” and a bucket-load of spaghetti westerns). Villa even offers up some Bava-esque colourful visual touches from time to time. Meanwhile, I particularly liked that the killer was using an array of old-style weaponry for the kills instead of your standard knife or machete. It gives the film a little bit of a difference from most other giallo. Acting-wise, the underrated Rosalba Neri steals it, though Kiwi-born John Karlsen (he’s the guy who sent Bill and Ted to ‘The Iron Maiden’) is jolly good too. Kinski is Kinski, forever skulking about looking deranged and brooding. The question is whether he’s the killer or just a red herring.

 

Plenty of sex, nudity, and violence in this Bava meets Franco horror/mystery flick. It looks and sounds great and it has an all-out gory climax. The mystery resolution is a bit of a bust, but I’d had enough fun by then not to be too upset. Really solid, and for a certain sleazy audience, a must-see film. If you do decide to take the journey, I’d advise you to track down one of the lengthier cuts of the film.

 

Rating: B-

 

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