MACABRE
Beyond madness…
Directed by Lamberto Bava
Reviewed by Deep Red
Although Macabre was seized by the police along with various other titles in the 1980s it was never prosecuted or officially listed as a video nasty. It’s the first film directed by Lamberto Bava, son of Mario Bava.
It stars Bernice Stegers (Xtro ’83) as Jane Baker and Stanko Molnar (A Blade in the Dark ’83) as Robert Duval. A Blade in the Dark (1983) was the second film directed by Lamberto Bava.
Jane sneaks off to fuck a guy called Fred (Roberto Posse) in a boarding house run by a blind man called Robert and his elderly mother (Elisa Kadigia Bove), leaving her two small children alone. While they’re in bed, her daughter, Lucy (Veronica Zinny), drowns her little brother in the bath. When Jane finds out she and Fred hurry back but are involved in a terrible car accident in which Fred is killed.
A year later Jane is released from a mental health centre and she moves into the same boarding house now run by Robert as his mother is now dead. Jane has a very dark secret.
I love this film personally. It’s very slow building, don’t expect something like Lamberto Bava’s Demons (1985), but I get completely absorbed in it whenever I watch it. It was filmed in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and Salo, Lake Garda, Italy and I think it looks great, I’ve got the Arrow release myself and although the picture is a bit scratchy it’s perfectly enjoyable, adds something really. Wonderful cinematography in places. It’s actually based on the true story of something that happened in New Orleans, which makes you think.
I don’t think it’s for everyone but it’s just so quietly disturbing I can’t help but hold it in very high regard. I only own four Lamberto Bava films, this, Demons (1985), Demons 2 (1986) and A Blade in the Dark (1983) but I love those films and want to see more, not easy to get hold of though. I cherish my copy of Macabre and have watched it quite a few times now.
Spaghetti horror is as much a part of the 80s for me as all the American films everyone talks about, it was a great time, the best time.
Seized by the police why? Just idiotic people. Did you know they also seized The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds? They thought it was a sex film. How utterly absurd? People who do things like that are a lot scarier than any film I’ve ever seen.
When Lamberto Bava’s father, Mario Bava, saw Macabre he said, “Now, I can die in peace”. Wonderful!