Dardano Sacchetti Movies

Italy during the latter days of Benito Mussolini's rule provides the background for this historical drama of divided loyalties during a time of war. Francesco (Michele Placido) is a police detective working in Rome as fascist Black Shirts hold sway over the nation. Francesco has been assigned to investigate the death of Costantina (Barbora Bobulova), a streetwalker who is believed to have been murdered while allied forces were bombing the city. As Francesco interviews those who knew Costantina, including her twin sister, he gains a new perspective on the bitter rivalry between Salo fascists and partisans loyal to Italy's pre-fascist heritage; Francesco also sees a bit of this conflict in his own home as his brother Ettore (Alessandro Preziosi) defends the partisans against the fascist leanings of his sister Lucia (Alina Nedelea). The Blood of the Victims (aka Il sangue dei vinti) proved controversial in Italy for its defense of fascism under Mussolini, portraying the majority of his supporters as patriots acting in support of their nation. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Four aspiring scream queens and a male comic, all seeking to break into the movie industry, are summoned to the castle of a reclusive horror director named Jurek (George Hilton), a charming bloodsucker who invites them to partake in a macabre game of survival. Awoken from his centuries-long slumber by a curious film crew, Jurek quickly adapts to the contemporary world by becoming a successful filmmaker. His bloody hits are box office gold, and the opportunity to appear in one of them could provide an aspiring actor with their big break. When his guests arrive to discuss their audition for Jurek's next feature, he reveals himself as a vampire and challenges to kill him before dawn, or die trying. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Five thieves get the fright of their lives while attempting to spend an entire night in a maze of haunted catacombs. After robbing a supermarket and eluding the police, five shady friends emerge from the dense fog to find themselves at a mysterious inn. There, the hideous innkeeper informs them that should they venture into the underground catacombs and not emerge until morning, they will win untold riches. But the horrors that dwell in this subterranean tomb are far greater than any evil under the sun, and by the time the dawn comes they may not be alive to collect their reward. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

akIn this softcore drama, Manuel (Gabriele Lavia) is a hitman who gets rid of a list of names (he thinks) and kills off the man contracted to kill him, then hops a plane to Italy. He lands in a high-class bordello that houses not only professional hookers but part-time prostitutes whose lives outside the brothel are seemingly quite respectable. One of these women is Vittoria (Monica Guerritore) a stunning housewife who entrances and seduces Manuel until she almost holds complete sway over him. The problem is that Manuel is still sought by the men out to kill him and this dalliance could threaten his cover. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A high-end apartment complex is the setting for demonic disaster in this like-minded splatter sequel to the 1986 cult hit Demons. A spoiled young woman named Sally (Coralina Cataldi Tassoni) is hosting her own birthday party in her apartment. Other characters in the building include a man (David Knight) and his pregnant wife (Nancy Brilli), a little boy who is alone for the evening, and a gym full of workout maniacs. In each apartment, televisions are all tuned to a horror film in which a group of young people find evidence of demons which precedes their becoming possessed. Upset that an ex-boyfriend is coming to her party, Sally goes into her room and turns on the film. A demon bursts through her television. Moments later, the possessed Sally enters the party and slaughters all of her guests, turning them into demons. The possession spreads throughout the building as tenant after tenant is transformed, leading to a furious battle between the exercise fanatics and a pack of demons. The young husband manages to stay alive and makes a desperate attempt to save his wife -- who is being tormented by the now-possessed little boy. He rescues her after the demon child gives "birth" to a Gremlins-style demon and the couple make a dangerous attempt to rappel down the outside of the tower with the raving, drooling Sally in hot pursuit. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi

In this Italian adventure, the deadly drug manufacturing and export operation of a prominent South- American drug czar is discovered by an investigative TV news correspondent and her cameraman who went to the jungle to look into evidence that a notorious, corrupt colonel is still alive. While in the jungles, they encounter hostile natives and other typical dangers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This horror-thriller from director Lamberto Bava stars Andrea Occhipinti as Bruno, a composer who becomes involved in a frightening series of murders while staying at an isolated villa. The story turns on a scene in the horror film Bruno is scoring: a young child, taunted by cruel bullies, descends into a dark cellar after a bouncing tennis ball. The kids hear a scream and the ball bounces up to them, leaving bloody tracks on the wall. Pretty Sandra, Bruno's director, explains that her inspiration was the childhood of Linda, the villa's previous tenant, but there is something far more sinister going on. Anyone who has seen Psycho probably has a good idea what that "something" is, but the plot is really incidental. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Although ostensibly set in the future after a nuclear holocaust has destroyed the ozone layer, and much of everything else, this feeble sci-fi road film has gangs on motorbikes or driving 1,000-year-old cars from the 1970s in perfect running order, at war for water, a rare commodity. On the one hand, there is Alien (Robert Jannucci) and his female friend Trash (Alicia Moro), and the bionic child Tommy (Luca Ventantini) who are pitted against the evil bikers headed by Crazy Bull (apparently not meant to be a reference to the film). The brave trio join up with Papillon for awhile, an ex-astronaut with expertise in fixing old cars and broken bionic parts. Once set in good working order, the trio now has to take on Crazy Bull and the bad guys, one of which is actually a really nasty female. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this spaghetti Western, a young Navajo by the name of Thunder (Mark Gregory) takes the lead in trying to stop a sacred burial ground from being plowed under so an observatory can be built. This act not goes against tribal beliefs, but violates a treaty signed by his grandfather. After a visit to the construction site concludes in a fight, Thunder tries to protest at the Sheriff's office and at the bank financing the project, but nothing works. He is beaten and thrown out of the county, and finds no recourse except to fight back in the only way his enemies would understand -- with force. With stunning Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon as backdrops, the visual grandeur of this drama is impressive. Thunder returned in two sequels, one in the works the same year this film was released. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Christopher Connelly (Trauma) plays an archaeologist who desecrates the tomb of a 5,000-year-old god of cruelty and evil, and is temporarily blinded by lasers from a blue stone in the wall. Meanwhile, a sightless old woman gives his daughter, Susie (Brigitta Boccoli), an identical stone -- the Evil Eye -- in a town square. Back in New York, Susie's eyes start glowing blue as she plays with her brother, Tommy (Giovanni Frezza), and her babysitter, Jamie Lee (Cinzia De Ponti). Everything goes haywire after that. The apartment security guard plunges to his death in an elevator shaft, a cobra shows up in the living room and gets lodged in Susie's esophagus, and her mother's friend, Luke (Carlo De Mejo), turns to sand. It seems that the evil god is using Susie as a vessel to open a rift in the space-time continuum. Before too long, Susie and Tommy are jetting back and forth through the rift to Egypt, Jamie Lee has disappeared, and Susie's mother seeks out a man named Adrian Marcato (see Rosemary's Baby) to exorcise the demon. That night, the stuffed birds which he keeps in his store come to life and attack him, rending his flesh as he dies screaming. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This gruesome Louisiana-set horror film opens with a 1927 prologue featuring a Satanic artist being crucified and melted alive with quicklime in the basement of an old hotel. Half a century later, pretty Liza (Catriona MacColl) inherits the hotel, not suspecting that it is one of seven gateways to Hell. A workman breaks his neck, another has his eyeball gouged out by a zombie, a woman's head is melted by a vat of acid, and an architect has his face eaten by hungry tarantulas who chew out his tongue. Dozens of cannibalistic zombies attack Liza and her disbelieving lover (David Warbeck), who joins her in Hell in the film's downbeat conclusion. The gory special effects by Gianetto de Rossi and Germano Natali are nauseatingly effective, although the script (by Dardano Sacchetti, Giorgio Mariuzzo and director Lucio Fulci) tends to wander and the pacing is a trifle slow. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Half zombie epic, half cannibal gorefest, this unusual blend of two popular Italo-horror subgenres results in a high-octane thriller that delivers the gory goods. The story involves a group of former Vietnam POW's who contract a bizarre disease in captivity which compels them to eat human flesh. Needless to say, this makes assimilation into post-war American life rather difficult as the gestating disease takes hold on the returning veterans, whose cannibal instincts eventually fight their way to the surface. One such victim is commando Norman Hopper (John Saxon), who is bitten by one of the POW's during a rescue mission and carries the gestating contagion back home. When the soldier who bit him (John Morghen) is released from a veterans' psychiatric hospital after apparently being cured, he makes brief phone contact with Saxon before succumbing to an immediate relapse, leading to a gory rampage and subsequent shootout with police. When Saxon begins feeling the urge to munch -- first developing an appetite for the teenage cupcake next door -- he springs his fellow cannibals from the hospital, leading to another bloody confrontation with the police -- this time in the city sewers. Director Antonio Margheriti (alleged ghost-director of Andy Warhol's Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein) manages to fuse crime-thriller conventions with gory cannibals-in-the-streets horror without losing viewers' interest, although the drastically-edited video version (under the title Invasion of the Flesh Hunters) suffers badly from the absence of Gianetto De Rossi's chunk-blowing makeup effects. The dialogue, while better than the average Italian post-dubbing job, is so overloaded with profanity that it becomes unintentionally hilarious. Released under a dozen titles, the best-known being Cannibal Apocalypse. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

This gruesome horror film from cult director Lucio Fulci posits a priest's suicide opening the gateway to Hell, freeing bloodthirsty zombies to roam the town of Dunwich. The main attractions are startlingly explicit special effects by Franco Rufino, including two of the horror genre's most memorable deaths. One involves perennial victim Giovanni Lombardo Radice (also known as John Morghen) having his head run through with a power-drill, and the second is the notorious scene of a woman vomiting up all of her internal organs in a nauseating torrent of blood and guts. Fulci does manage one nice moment of splatter-free horror, as hero Christopher George struggles to free a woman who has been buried alive. As his pick-axe enters the coffin repeatedly, it comes ever closer to her face, causing the audience to wince with each strike. Aside from these scenes, though, Fulci's direction is somewhat plodding, as he substitutes slow pacing and clouds of fog for real suspense. Horror fans will still want to seek this film out, however, if only for the effects work and a familiar cast including Catriona MacColl, Janet Agren, Carlo de Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, and Daniela Doria. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi