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Massacre

Massacre (1989)

January. 01,1989
|
4.2
| Horror

A prostitute is brutally killed by the road side by a maniancal killer. Nearby a horror film is being produced but the director is worried that the script is too passé for a modern audience and so he plans to include a séance scene - he hires a real medium to carry out a ceremony with the cast and crew to help inspire the script but she is attacked by an evil spirit. Meanwhile members of the cast are being picked off one by one and police detective Walter is desperate to stop his girlfriend, the lead actress Jennifer, becoming the next victim...

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Reviews

GL84
1989/01/01

Working out in the countryside, the production of a low-budget horror film begins suffering under new guidelines to the film as well as the rampage of a psychopath murdering prostitutes in the city and when the events intersect they manage This was quite the sleazy if somewhat cheap giallo. One of the finer points here is that this one decides to really sell itself on its central premise rather early on. From the very first start, with the killer shown stalking and killing the prostitute on the side of the road and segueing nicely into the film shoot starts this one on a strong note, from the suspenseful stalking to the cheesy antics on- set with the zombies and fire-stunts on display. The way this leads into the change-over in the script for the filmed movie striving to be more of a realistic manner that puts a strain on the cast gives it a bit of life during the interim between the stalkings while also giving this some fun in the backstage dealings with the group. With the talk of who's going to get into bed with who and the rumblings over what the changes are going to mean, even bringing in a medium to conduct a seance that provides this with a stellar supernaturally-tinged sequence inside a hotel room that holds this one over. It gets slightly more enjoyable in the second half where the killer begins getting more active and involved in the proceedings knocking people off that results in some nice times here with the assault on the couple in the park as well as the fine multiple-person ambush in the boatyard which has some gruesome moments to it. The final reveal at the end isn't all that bad, and along with the fine gore give this one enough to hold it out over it's few flaws. The main issue with this one is the fact that nothing at all really happens for a large portion of time here with the film really tending to run through some utterly dull moments along the way. Though generally not that badly done when focusing on the antics within the staff and crew, there's nothing that can save the fact that the film goes from the opening murder to nearly an hour until the next strike occurs which really does highlight how nothing much really happens for this main part of the film. These scenes just drag on forever and don't really amount to much at all which generates the kind of bland feeling throughout here that takes this one to such excruciating lengths that really harms the film. As well, the film doesn't really offer up much of an explanation for the kind of ending this one has, which does make this one end on a somewhat confusing note as to how it all happened and what makes sense for it all. As well as the shoddy special effects work, these here are the films' few problems.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Full Nudity.

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Coventry
1989/01/02

In case half of this film's footage looks strangely familiar, it means you watch way too much of this gory Italian cult-crap! For you see, the notorious demigod Lucio Fulci did not only produce this movie, he also took the liberty of re-using the most sadistic killing sequences in his own (and more easily traceable) "Cat in the Brain". The opening scene already, in which a prostitute is brutally decapitated with an axe, features in Fulci's later film and so do another handful of killings and sleaze moments. Andrea Bianchi's "Masssacre" fails miserably as a giallo, since the search for the sadistic killer among a movie-crew shooting a horror movie is all but compelling and suspenseful, but it's still good entertainment if you're into cheap 'n shlocky horror trash. The incoherent script introduces a whole bunch of repugnant characters who're all potential maniacs, but none of the red herrings Biachi comes up with are plausible and you can point out the killer almost immediately. Whatever remains to enjoy are the truly misogynous make-up effects and the hilariously awful acting performances of the ensemble cast. Whenever there isn't any bloodshed on screen, like between the first and second murder, "Massacre" is a slow and almost intolerable with its inane dialogs and thoroughly unexciting photography. Thankfully in the second half, there are women getting impaled on fences and males being stabbed repeatedly with rusty spikes. The music is crap and the use of filming locations is very unimaginative. My advise would be to skip this puppy and go straight for the aforementioned "Cat in the Brain". That one features ALL the great moments of "Massacre", and then some.

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CMRKeyboadist
1989/01/03

Massacre is a film directed by Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground) and produced by legendary Italian horror director Lucio Fulci. Now with this mix of great talent you would think this movie would have been a true gore fest. This could not be further from that. Massacre falls right on its face as being one of the most boring slasher films I have seen come out of Italian cinema. I was actually struggling to stay awake during the film and I have never had that problem with Italian horror films.Massacre starts out with a hooker being slaughtered on the side of the road with an ax. This scene was used in Fulci's Nightmare Concert. This isn't a bad scene and it raises your expectations of the movie as being an ax wielding slaughter. Unfortuanitly, the next hour of the movie is SO boring. The movie goes on to a set of a horror film being filmed and there is a lot of character development during all these scenes but the characters in the movie are so dull and badly acted your interest starts to leak away. The last 30 minutes of the movie aren't so bad but still could have been much better. The gore in the movie was pathetic and since Fulci used most of the gore scenes in Nightmare Concert there was nothing new here. The end of the movie did leave a nice twist but there was still to much unanswered and the continuity falls right through the floor.This wasn't a very good film but for a true Italian horror freak (like myself) this movie is a must have since it is very rare. 4/10 stars

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Elswet
1989/01/04

Sorry Fulci fans, but I could not get through this one. The soundtrack was about as annoying as they come, the acting was puerile, the story has been done and done, and the direction was non-existent. Massacre honestly looked like a children's film project. But I've seen some of those, and they actually look better than this did! It appears to have been so underfunded they couldn't afford ... ANYTHING! Not a DoP, not a director, no one who even remotely had a clue what acting was. It was a very poor cinematic experience; one of my worst.This was about the worst suck-fest I've seen, next to Terror Toons which is second only to Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I've nothing else to say about it.It rates a 0.1/10 from...the Fiend :.

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