Whirlpool (1970)

A diplomatic person might call this an erotic thriller. Diplomacy is for diplomats, and no amount of tact can gloss over it. This low budget film is not total rubbish, but only if you like lesbian sex, simulated rape and the odd murder, and these are odd murders.A woman lives in the country with her ersatz nephew who is also her bedmate, well, they do it on the floor. Sonny boy is a photographer, naturally he likes photographing attractive young ladies, and, you guessed it, frightened young ladies. Before the film starts, a girl has already been murdered - we see a flashback of that later. The lady of the house is apparently ignorant of his murderous proclivities, but someone is suspicious, namely the sugar daddy of the first girl, who gets a bit too nosey for his own good.The man with the camera also has an ad hoc accomplice who provides the sexual assaults while he takes the pictures. What more do you need to know? The film is atmospheric, but it is very slow in places. Thankfully, justice is done at the end, although we don't actually see it, and of course it comes too late for his next victim.

Talking to a fellow IMDb'er recently about Euro 'genre' movies,I was asked if I had seen any titles by writing/directing auteur Jose Ramon Larraz.With having heard of,but never seeing any of Larraz work,I decided to take advantage of my discussion with the fellow IMDb'er,by finally taking Larraz debut, (which was believed lost for decades) off my shelf,and excitingly getting ready to enter the whirlpool. The plot:With the mysterious disappearance of Rhonda having put a stop to her fun'n'games and her nephew Theo's amateur photography,kind aunt Sara decides to pay a visit to the London,in the hope of catching the eye of an up and coming fashion model.Sneaking into a fashion shoot,Sara is taken aback by the glamorous appearance of a new model called Tulia.Introducing herself,Sara tells Tulia that she would really like to take her back to the country house that she resides in,so that her nephew Theo can do an outstanding photo shoot which Tulia can place in her portfolio.Delighted at receiving such attention,Tulia jumps in sweet aunt Sara's car,and begins to look forward to her special photo-shoot.Arriving at the country house,Tulia discovers that instead of taking part in a photo-shoot,that aunt Sara and Theo are going to make Tulia take part in seduction,and murder.View on the film:Despite the only known edition to exist being a timecoded Video version,co-writer/ (along with Sam Lomberg) director Jose Ramon Larraz is able to break out of the viewing constriction's by displaying an expert eye in creating an incredibly murky atmosphere,with Larraz using the country house setting to to build a real mood of isolation,thanks to Larraz making the endless row of tresses by a sign to Tulia, (played by the stunning Vivian Neves) that there is nowhere for her to run away from Sara, (played with a wonderful battle axe bite by Pia Andersson) and Theo's, (played with a chilling smirk by future Larraz collaborator Karl Lanchbury) games.Along with the creeping atmosphere in his directing,Larraz and Lomberg give their screenplay a strong swipe of crawling sleaze,with Larraz and Lomberg gradually taking their time to fully place Tulia in Sara and Theo's games, which leads to the writers delivering an excellently ruthless ending,as Tulia starts to fear that she will never be able to get out of this deadly whirlpool.

Jose Ramon Larraz sleazy horror debut tells the story of a perverse relationship between an aspiring model named Julia,a strange young photographer Theo and his middle-aged aunt.Theo initiates a relationship with Julia and even gets her to have sex with his aunt so he can photograph them in the act.Julia is also raped in the woods by his sleazy friend whilst Theo is photographing them."Whirlpool" was made in Denmark,then dubbed in English and released in US cinemas under the title "She Died with Her Boots On".I have seen a poor quality timecoded copy of "Whirlpool",which was found in 2005 on bootleg.The pace is slow and the narrative is thin,but there is enough sleaze and graphic violence to satisfy fans of Euroexploitation.8 whirlpools out of 10.

The sexy nature of this picture made it an erotic winner, and the ending death scene where the girl is stabbed with her boots on led to its release with that title. Excellent. Sorry it isn't available on video!