The Bloodstained Lawn (1973)

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

More socio-political commentary masquerading as a horror film here, as a bunch of soulless rich Italians literally leech off the lower classes in order to make money from illegal medical shipments of blood to war torn nations throughout the world. That message comes across loud and clear. And camp and colourful and daft and ridiculous at the same time.A strange man drives around an Italian town picking up a prostitute, a gypsy, a drunk guy, and two annoying hippy drifters. He takes them back to his modern home where his sister Nina (Marina Malfatti) and her weird husband Antonio live. Antonio is an eccentric scientist obsessed with biological perfection who has all sort of crazy robots lying around the place. He also sports a ridiculous large wardrobe of gigantic bowties that only add to his strangeness. The drunk guy seems to be the only one who realises that he's stumbled into some modern version of Hansel and Gretel, only instead of being filled up with sweets and shoved in an oven, the evil rich people give you what you want (booze, jewels, etc) then suck all the blood out of the back of your neck using a bizarre robot that looks like Metal Mickey has gone off the rails pretty badly. Eventually the captives are whittled down enough and the hippies come out of their smug stupor and finally cotton on that they are next.Meanwhile, there's this agent trapped in a sub-plot throughout the film that initially finds some wine bottles containing blood who is trying to trace everything back to his source. He doesn't get to do much, but I guess he turns up at the right time when needed. Most of the madness occurs inside the house however, my favourite being when Antonio invites everyone who is still alive at that point to enter a weird hall of mirrors he's designed...if only they'll jump through the giant plastic fanny he's using as a doorway!This is the blackest of black comedy right here, but there are the odd effective bits of horror too, from the hippies finding a fridge full of dead bodies to the exsanguination of the prostitute. This is a fun watch for seventies horror fans.

Reading a fellow IMDb'ers reviews a few weeks ago,I stumbled upon a review for a title that an IMDb'er had highlighted to me during the IMDb's Horror board's October Challlenge,thanks to the movie having a wicked sounding Black Comedy streak.Gathering up films to view for IMDb's Classic Film poll for the best titles of 1973,I was delighted to see that 1973 was the movies release year,which led to me excitingly getting ready to get the lawnmower out of the shed for the first time in years.The plot:Driving round on the lookout for the 'lowlifes' of society,socialite Nina Genovese and her scientist husband Dr.Antonio Genovese spot a hippie couple looking for a hitch-hike. Generously giving the hippie couple the chance to sleep at their villa for the night,the couple are delighted to discover that the Genovese's are the leading wine makers of the town.Thrilled at finding wine flowing from every part of the villa,the hippie couple begin to seriously wonder if they could ask the Genovese's if it would be OK if they could stay with them for a few days.Finding that the wine has an oddly unique 'kick',the couple decide to look round the villa to discover the special ingredient which gives the wine its distinctive taste,which will lead the couple to discover to their horror the Genovese's deep desire to drain the poor.View on the film:Despite the only version that I could find of the title being one that took some shine off the title, (thanks to it being an old fullscreen TV print)the screenplay by writer/director Riccardo Ghione still thankfully contains a vicious bite,with Ghione taking sleek satirical Black Comedy shot at the upper-class of Italy,with Ghione showing the Genovese's firm belief that the poor are dirt on their shoes and need to be drained of what little 'life' they have. Complimenting his swipe at the upper- class,Ghione shows the low-life's of society to be filthy hippies who cant see danger coming towards their peace & love blinded eyes.Placing most of the movie in one location,Ghione gives the Genovese's Villa a charmingly off-beat feel by making each of their extreme wine making machines being ones that are wonderfully low-tech,which appear to have been borrowed from a cheap Sci-Fi film.Giving this very interesting Horror title an added dose of weirdness,Enzo Tarascio gives a wild performance,with Tarascio showing Antonio's love for his wife Nina, (played by the pretty Marina Malfatti-who had earlier teamed up with Tarascio for the Giallo The Night That Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave)to be so draining on him,that he will be prepared to drain the poor of their only valuable commodity,their blood.

This very odd Italian movie is a horror movie with a social commentary of sorts. It's basically about a group of rich, decadent people who pick up various less fortunate people and take them to their remote luxury villa. The aristocrats entertain this assortment of poor people with a wild orgy and plenty of other sensual pleasures. There is a catch, of course. And that catch is that these poor fools are to have all their blood drained from their bodies via a strange machine built by the resident scientist. Their blood is then sold in wine bottles for a tidy profit.The idea of the rich leeching off the poor is the social commentary. It adds an unusual dimension to what is a quite strange film to begin with. The blood-draining machine and the other bizarre devices in the house give the film a slight science fiction element which is not exactly typical for a film of this type. I wouldn't really go as far as to say that this is a particularly good film though. It's a bit meandering and unengaging a lot of the time. But, as I say, it does have its eccentricities and that is a plus point. It stars Marina Malfatti as the chief ice blonde. She starred in a number of gialli such as All the Colors of the Dark and The Red Queen Kills 7 Times. This film is definitely not up to the standard of those but at least Malfatti gets a more central role in this one.It's a bit different and it is a definite obscurity. But it's not essential though.

This is a hallucinatory, somewhat drug-abuse themed horror movie which is kind of an Italian version of a "Coffin Joe" film like "Awakening of the Beast", and with the same subtext of social commentary. It's about a group of aristocrats (a husband, a wife, and the wife's brother) who are literally draining the blood of the people. They pick up the dregs of society--prostitutes, homeless hitchhikers, etc--and take them back to their isolated villa with its weird crimson-colored "bloodstained" lawn. They feed them drinks and weird drugs and engage them in wild orgies before hooking them to a strange machine which drains all the blood from their bodies,which they then package and sell in wine bottles! This is an genuinely creepy movie. I know little or nothing about the director Riccardo Ghionne, but he definitely does a pretty effective job here. Enzo Tarascio, who plays the husband, is very creepy looking, especially during the orgy scene where he wears a bizarre, over-sized blue bow tie (which like the red lawn is a very off-kilter and disturbing image). His hard-as-nails wife is excellently played by Marina Malfatti, who was in a number of Italian gialli, usually as the second banana to more famous actresses like Edwige Fenech, Barbara Bouchet, or Erica Blanc. This is is one of her few leading roles and undoubtedly her best. The victims as per usual are a pretty hapless lot. Dominique Broschero plays a prostitute--she was a pretty prolific actress during this period, but I'm not very familiar with her previous work. The busty Barbara Marzano plays a female hitchhiker. She mostly did numerous, usually topless cameos in movies like "Torso", but her most famous role was probably in Ferdinand DiLeo's "The Seduction" where she played the sexually curious best friend of the teenage daughter of the girlfriend of the male protagonist, who he cheats on the teenage daughter with AFTER he cheats on his girlfriend with her daughter! Naturally, she's pretty desirable.The statement this movie makes about the bottomless appetites of the Italian upper classes and the mindless pleasure-seeking of the lowers classes and the aimless youth is pretty blunt and obvious, but effective nevertheless. I was lucky enough to see this obscure but very rewarding movie with English subtitles, but the dialogue is probably the least interesting thing about it. Definitely recommended.