Ivan Rassimov Movies
- 1983
In this sci-fi film, the lost continent of Atlantis rises in the Bahamas. The new surface dwellers aren't too friendly as they wage war on the locals. ~ Rovi
A courageous mercenary journeys to the New Guinea jungle to find a missing young woman. He brings with him an expert on the terrain and with only a rotting, super-8 film to guide them, they try to figure out where she is. As they make the dangerous journey, they must deal with hungry cannibals and a crazed religious zealot. This Italian horror adventure is filled with blood, gore, and violence that includes the killing of real animals. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Janet Agren, Mel Ferrer, (more)
- 1979
The steely-mouthed Jaws, a character previously featured in the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, receives a thinly-veiled reincarnation in this picture, rechristened Golob and again played by the inimitable Richard Kiel. With the help of several companions, including a robotic dog, Golob struggles to foil the world domination plans of a megalomaniacal scientist named Graal (Ivan Rassimov). ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- 1978
- R
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This twisted Italian oddity, originally titled L'Odessa, is an incomprehensible muddle of Devil-possession horror and lots of kinky soft-core sex (its original U.S. title was The Sexorcist). The story revolves around a weird religious icon -- depicting one of the two thieves crucified with Christ -- and the demonic sexual influence it exerts on a young art student (Stella Carnacina). After a gory dream sequence in which the woman imagines herself being nailed to a cross herself, the statue eventually comes to life and begins to sexually torment her ... whereupon the entire film careens off-track into Exorcist territory, where it slogs for an uninvolving and unoriginal final hour. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- 1978
- R
One of a seemingly endless series of (far more explicit and violent) Italian knockoffs to the original French Emmanuelle series (with the name of the lead character changed to Emanuelle, presumably to avoid copyright and licensing issues), the French film about the bored wife of a French diplomat who found excitement through erotic adventures. In this suspense-filled film, Emanuelle experiences adventures in the Asian art of love. ~ Rovi
- 1978
- R
In this espionage drama, set in Greece, a former CIA agent (David Janssen) is being stalked by his former employers, led by Arthur Kennedy,after he writes a book about his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Janssen, Corinne Clery, (more)
This effective occult horror film was the final feature directed by the legendary Mario Bava. Daria Nicolodi gives her most convincing performance as Dora, who moves back into her old house with a new husband, Bruno (John Steiner), after spending time in a mental hospital. Strange things start happening, mostly involving her young son Marco (David Colin, Jr.), who seems to be possessed by the ghost of Dora's first husband Carlo, a heroin addict who committed suicide. Dora suffers from vivid hallucinations, and it soon becomes obvious that she is going completely mad, and that Bruno knows more about Carlo's death than he lets on. Bava stages the hallucination scenes with his trademark visual flair, and his son Lamberto Bava's script, co-written with Francesco Barbieri, Paola Brigenti and Dardano Sacchetti, handles Dora's shifting sense of reality with great skill and a subtlety rare for Italian horror films of the period. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
Ruggero Deodato directed this gory cannibal movie, one of many to pour out of Italy in the wake of Il Paese del Sesso Selvaggio (1972), which also starred Me Me Lay and Ivan Rassimov. Rassimov's plane crashes in the Amazon jungle, and he is soon captured by a Stone-Age tribe, which tries to kill him -- until a native woman (Lay) frees him for sex and pays with her life. There is real mondo-style footage of animals devouring each other to go along with staged horrors such as Lay being gutted and having her body cavity filled with hot coals. Deodato returned with the more extreme Cannibal Holocaust a few years later. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Massimo Foschi, Ivan Rassimov, (more)
- 1975
The title woman, a prominent drug dealer, works overtime to keep her title by wantonly using men to do her dirty work and then having them killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Directed by Umberto Lenzi, Spasmo centers on a discovery made by Christian (Robert Hoffman) and his girlfriend on what was meant to be a romantic stroll. At first, the couple happens on what appears to be a corpse, but upon further inspection, they see that the woman is still alive. As luck would have it, Christian meets the strange woman (Suzy Kendall) on a yacht party several days later, and quickly finds himself tangled in an affair. During a hotel room tryst, another man breaks in and savagely beats Christian. Quite accidentally, Christian ends up shooting the intruder with his own gun. In what is perhaps the most bizarre twist of events thus far, the body disappears, leaving Christian in the middle of yet another mystery.
~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
While on an expedition in Thailand, a photographer is taken hostage by cannibals and forced to endure several violent adventures. The film was originally an Italian release, and its even more violent version is rarely seen. ~ John Bush, Rovi
Pretty Edwige Fenech spends most of her time either naked or dazed in this tiresome tale of devil worship from the director of I Corpi Presentano Tracce di Violenza Carnale. Set in England, the film stars Fenech as a woman who is in therapy for nightmares related to the long-ago murder of her mother. Offering a cure for her woes, a neighbor takes her to a sabbat, where she is seduced and tattooed by the crazed leader of a satanic cult. Soon, the cult is commanding her to kill for them, and a strange man keeps following her around with the stiletto used to murder her mother. It doesn't make much sense and seems to drag on forever, but true Euro-buffs will love it anyway just because of the cast featuring George Hilton, Ivan Rassimov, Nieves Navarro (a.k.a. Susan Scott), Dominique Boschero, and Carla Mancini. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- 1972
This seamy, atmospheric Italian thriller is a kinky variation on Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat. Luigi Pistilli stars as Oliviero Rouvigny, a racist, alcoholic writer who beats and verbally abuses his wife Irina (Anita Strindberg) in a remote castle. People are having their throats slashed with a curved knife, and Rouvigny is the prime suspect. When a pretty bisexual cousin, Floriana (pin-up queen Edwige Fenech) comes to stay with the unhappy couple, a sinister web of evil, sex, and death result. Pistilli gives an eminently hateful performance, and Ivan Rassimov and Daniela Giordano show up as well. There's also a fairly stylish murder involving a roadside billboard bearing the picture of a heart, a cat has one of its eyes gouged out with a pair of scissors, and a black maid is chopped to death with a meat cleaver and walled up in the cellar. The film's Italian title translates as the evocative Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, a message inscribed on one of the notes sent by Rassimov to Fenech in director Sergio Martino's previous giallo thriller, Lo Strano Vizio della Signora Wardh. He went on to make the popular Torso and other genre efforts for the next quarter-century. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Edwige Fenech, Luigi Pistilli, (more)
In this flashy giallo from Italian filmmaker Sergio Martino, Julie Wardh (Edwige Fenech) is a lovely but jaded woman who is no longer satisfied in her relationship with husband Neil (Alberto de Mendoza), a wealthy but emotionally cold man of privilege. However, as she ponders the fate of her marriage, her thoughts often turn to her former lover Jean (Ivan Rassimov), a cruel libertine with a taste for inflicting pain. Julie meets handsome George (George Hilton) at a wild party and discovers he's attracted to her just as she's drawn to him. Julie and George are soon involved in a torrid affair, but it's Julie's poor fortune that Jean attended the party where they first met and knows about her new infidelity. Even worse, Jean is willing to blackmail Julie to get what he wants, forcing her into a desperate situation. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Hilton, Edwige Fenech, (more)
In this romantic horror movie, a family hires a genealogist to help them assemble the late patriarch's papers. While there, he falls in love with the daughter who is not nearly as angelic as she looks. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
This classic blend of science-fiction and horror belies its extremely low budget with buckets of atmosphere and some genuinely creepy setpieces. The story concerns the crews of two spaceships, who land on a foggy, seemingly deserted planet. What they don't know is that the planet was home to a race of vampiric aliens, who possess their minds, eventually rising from their strange, misty graves to seek human blood. Legendary director Mario Bava once again proves himself a master at atmospheric composition, using color, sound, and minimalistic sets in original and unnerving ways. Barry Sullivan stars with Angel Aranda and Brazilian actress Norma Bengell. The American version, running several minutes shorter than the original, was put together by Ib Melchior (The Angry Red Planet). ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, (more)
In this crime drama, two bank robbers foil their own plans to commit the perfect crime when they begin fighting over a woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
