Umberto Lenzi Movies

Three tourists in Brazil inadvertently get involved in an ancient curse when one of them accepts an amulet of the Macumba loa, Ogum. The trio are a brother and sister and the sister's boyfriend, who foolishly accepted the amulet during a possession ceremony. Not only was he foolish enough to accept a charged amulet, but he even taped the ceremony. This leads to disaster when, after the trio have settled in at an old mansion, he plays the tape back. Out of the ground come six black zombies, bent on revenge for sufferings they endured while living. Each zombie is pledged to kill one white person in repayment for what they endured as slaves. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Giallo filmmaker Umberto Lenzi directs the exploitative thriller Hitcher in the Dark under the pseudonym of Humphrey Humbert. Mark (Joe Balogh) is a psychopath who is obsessed with his late mother. He drives around Venice Beach, CA, looking for young women to abduct for his fantasies. He picks up the hitchhicker Daniela (Josie Bissett). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

This Italian haunted-house outing begins with strange, paranormal emanations being picked up as radio signals by a group of Boston youths, who trace the signal to an abandoned estate. When they enter to investigate, they are attacked by the malevolent spectre of a young girl and her sinister-looking clown doll, who manages to decimate nearly the entire cast. The ensuing mayhem incorporates some of the goriest effects ever to grace a haunted house film, including axe murders, acid baths, impalements, and decapitations -- the nastiest of which features an unfortunate teen bisected by a falling pane of glass. Despite a fairly rich atmosphere and an ominous mood, this is really just a prolonged excuse for gruesome (though, admittedly, well-staged) giallo-style death scenes. After a spooky initial setup, the endlessly repeating musical ghost-message becomes profoundly annoying. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Prolific Italian horror director Umberto Lenzi takes the helm for this comedy about an overweight Italian girl who travels to New York in order to test a miracle slimming treatment. Miris (Italian pop-star Donatella Rettore) is a cheery yet chubby girl from a small Italian village. Though she never paid much attention to her weight problem, Miris is devastated when she falls victim to a mean-spirited prank played by Mirko, the most popular boy in town. Miris' sister is deeply in love with Mirko, and when the embarrassment becomes too much to take the target of the prank decides to commit suicide. Just as the gas begins to work its magic on Miris, however, she discovers that she's just won a trip to New York City. There, Miris meets up with Baroness Judith cam Kemp (Anita Ekberg), he inventor of a miracle weight-loss drug. Upon slimming down, a newly empowered Miris plans a trip back to Italy, where she will put Mirko in his place once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Primarily a showcase for the gory special-effects artistry of Gianetto de Rossi, this revolting horror film stars Giovanni Lombardo Radice (also known as "John Morghen") as a drug-dealer who comes to the Amazon jungle from New York looking for a cache of stolen emeralds. He joins some American college students and soon introduces them to his special lifestyle, raping a native girl, then beating a young Indio senseless before gouging out his eyeball with a knife. Naturally, the local cannibals don't take too well to this treatment, so they cut off Radice's penis with a machete, gouge out his eye, then scalp him and eat his brain. Deciding that his companions are also to blame, the natives hang a young woman by impaling her breasts on meat hooks while her sorrowful companion sings "Red River Valley." Eventually, one woman gets back to New York, where she reads a dissertation on cannibalism to earn her PhD. Cult filmmaker Umberto Lenzi really outdid himself with this bloody spectacle, which maintains a consistent air of cruelty with a non-stop procession of beatings, rapes, real-life animal slaughter, larva-chewing, genital-chopping, cannibalism and the infamous meathook scene. Definitely for acquired tastes only, this nauseatingly effective shocker features a brief appearance by adult-film star Richard Bolla as a New York policeman. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, a retired assassin straps on his old gun and goes out for vengeance against his brother's killer. The mobsters who hired him send him to Naples where the hapless hit man soon discovers that he has been set up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Although mostly known for his bloody jungle-set cannibal films (Cannibal Ferox; Mangiati Vivi) and the splattery zombie-adventure Incubo sulla Citta Contaminata, Italian filmmaker Umberto Lenzi also made a number of interesting thrillers, including this engagingly incoherent giallo about an eyeball-stealing killer. The slayer's handiwork is first revealed when a female member of an American tour group is stabbed to death in Barcelona, and a teenager on an amusement park ride is murdered in a similar fashion the following day. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), a businessman named Mark Burton (John Richardson) finds out that his wife, Alma (Marta May), is in town, and remembers finding her unconscious once back in America with a human eyeball lying next to her. More murders follow, with a peasant girl, a lesbian named Lisa (Mirta Miller), and her lover (Ines Pellegrini) all attacked by the raincoat-clad killer. After yet another attack, Mark falls under suspicion, and must discover the killer's identity in order to clear his name. Bloodier than most of its contemporaries, the film presages the subgenre's spin into logic-free sensory assault with the following year's Dario Argento classic Profondo Rosso and features a star-studded cast including Martine Brochard, Jorge Rigaud, and Raf Baldassarre, as well as Argento regulars Tom Felleghy and Fulvio Mingozzi. Some video versions cut about four minutes of graphic violence. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

A violent crime thriller from cult filmmaker Umberto Lenzi, Milano Rovente deals with the rivalry between a pair of kingpins in the Milanese prostitution racket. Sadistic gang warfare ensues as nude hookers are beaten with belts and have their faces slashed with stilettos while men are garotted electrocuted and gunned down with their families. Eventually, a truce is called, until one of the gangsters (Antonio Sabato) has his mistress (Marisa Mell) leave him for the other gangster and is betrayed by his own men. Franco Fantasia co-stars in this well-paced melodrama featuring a mournful jazz soundtrack by Carlo Rustichelli. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide