Dreadfully Boring

Best movie ever!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A Brilliant Conflict

Originally expecting to receive a DVD solely containing writer/director Jess Franco's 1973 Obscene Mirror,I was happily caught by surprise,when I discovered that the DVD seller had kindly included a bonus title!,which led to me getting ready to uncover the Von Klaus curse.The plot:Firmly keeping his feet on the ground,police inspector Borowsky has always dismissed the folk tales from the villagers about the first ever Baron of the wealthy Von Klaus family, (after attacking a woman,the first ever Baron Von Klaus killed himself via walking into the swamp surrounding the Klaus castle.Ever since Klaus has walked into the swamp,tales have been going around the village for decades about their being a Klaus ghost that kidnaps women.)due to seeing the myths as nothing but superstitious nonsense,that the locals use to take comfort in,instead of confronting the human face of evil.Sadly for Borwsky,he soon finds his dismissal of the supernatural to get a serious test,when a series of murders begin taking place across the village,that are eerily similar to Von Klaus mysterious killings. Whilst Borowsky is catching up with this folk tale, Ludwig von Klaus sits by his mum's death bed.About to take her final breath, Elisa von Klaus decides to that this is the best time to reveal to Ludwig that the first ever Von Klaus is suspected of being a serial killer.As Ludwig tries to get a grip on these new details, Murder and Maidens newspaper reporter Karl Steiner is ordered by his editor to pay a visit to the town,thanks to the ghost of Baron Von Klaus having returned to kill again.View on the film:Filmed at a time when the German Krimi genre was beginning to gain popularity,co-writer/ (along with Pío Ballesteros, Juan Cobos and Gonzalo Sebastián de Erice)director attempts to cross the police investigating side of the Krimi with a brewing Gothic Horror atmosphere.Running at a far too long 95 minutes,the writers are sadly never able to make both sides of the movie fully balance,thanks to the Krimi side of things being delivered in a surprisingly dry manner which lacks any really sharp twists & turns,whilst the Gothic Horror vibes are only allowed to deliver a true sting during the last few minutes of the title. Filmed away from the dictator-led Spain in France,Jess Franco surprisingly keeps away from using his trademark zoom-ins,to instead reveal a sharp eye for creating an excellent Film Noir mood,with Franco covering the Von Klaus mansion in thick,dusty blacks which create a strong feeling of their being a horrific evil covering the place in shadow.Along with the Film Noir mood,Franco also catches the audience completely by surprise,by delivering an extremely ahead of its time,daring S&M sequence,which along with the slow,sensual manner that Franco shots the scene,shows that the Von Klaus myth has come back from the swamp.

When women are found knifed and gouged in the tiny hamlet of Holfen, everyone suspects the distantly related heir of Baron Von Klaus, a sadistic 17th century baron who cursed the village.There are some good themes here: the small village, the wealthy but evil baron, and the idea of a family curse. At one point the heir wonders if at some point he will become a killer like von Klaus was. The film does not play into the emotional or psychological very deeply, but it raises that age old question: can you escape your destiny? I would need to see this film again to give it my full attention and a more thoughtful review. I was not ready for subtitles and could not follow along the whole time. Shame on me.

There seems to be a world of difference between the dozen or so films that Spanish "bad boy" director Jess Franco made from 1960-'67 and the almost 180 (!) he has made since. Those early films--including such titles as "The Awful Dr. Orloff," "The Sadistic Baron von Klaus," "Dr. Orloff's Monster" and (especially) "The Diabolical Dr. Z"--feature truly gorgeous B&W photography, Gothic compositions, interesting and understandable story lines, high production values and a NONreliance on the ol' zoom lens. His latter works, a slapdash mixed bag at best, to my experience, are a whole different game. "Von Klaus," one of Franco's releases from 1962, shows him at a point where his creative powers were burning very strongly. In the film, a series of sex murders has begun to once again afflict the village of Holfen, as has been the case for the last 500 years. Centuries ago, Baron von Klaus had been discovered to be the maniac killer, and his spirit is said to sporadically inhabit the bodies of his descendants. So is the modern-day baron (played by Howard Vernon; Dr. Orloff himself) responsible, or possibly his nephew, a young pianist named Ludwig (Hugo Blanco, the titular star of 1964's "Dr. Orloff's Monster"), or is it perhaps someone else? That's what no-nonsense police inspector Borowsky (Georges Rollin) and a reporter from "Maidens and Murderers" magazine (Fernando Delgado) endeavor to find out, in Franco's very entertaining and impressive film. The picture boasts a handful of memorable and bravura sequences: Ludwig's fiancée's nighttime awakening to an ominously ticking clock; the midnight attack on bar owner Lida in her bedroom, and the subsequent chase, down cobblestoned streets, after the killer; the matter-of-fact revelation of the psycho's identity; and the startling rape and torture scene that comes near the film's end. This scene, replete with nudity, bondage, whipping and red-hot pokers, and accompanied by some bizarre musique concrete courtesy of Daniel White, must have been truly shocking back in '62, especially considering the fact that the film's previous murders are quite tame and bloodless by comparison. In all, a well-done if at times plodding horror outing, put way over the top by Franco's imaginative direction and exceptionally fine B&W cinematography. Francophiles who are only familiar with the director's later, cheezier efforts will certainly be stunned.

Decent early offering from Jess Franco. This is easily the smoothest, least flawed Franco film I've seen, yet it's also the least interesting. The production and photography are of a higher quality than his later works, yet the story feels less ambitious and more generic. Though somewhat disappointing, the overall aesthetic is certainly less frustrating than latter day Franco, and has some intriguing similarities to some later Italian horrors. I'd bet that Bloody Pit of Horror and Baron Blood were both more than a little inspired by this film, though each take their similar premise in radically different directions.Though the characters often refer to supernatural phenomena, Franco eschews much of that Gothic imagery for some suspense and murder sequences straight out of a giallo (viewers wanting to see something of that ilk should check out Bava's Baron Blood). The murder mystery is fairly engaging and managed to keep me off the scent with a fair share of red herrings, but I can't say it was up there with the best of them.The ending, though, was curiously reminiscent of the later A Virgin Among the Living Dead, both visually and thematically. It occurred to me as I watched that all of the three Franco films I've watched recently (this, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, and Female Vampire) share some strong thematic connections, strengthening the reading of Franco as an auteur. Most significant is the cursed family and tragic killer. I plan to watch more Franco films now to see if any more connections occur to me. I have seen The Bloody Judge but barely remember a thing about it. In the meantime, my final word on this film is that it's decent but lacks the artistic ambition of a later work like A Virgin Among the Living Dead that would warrant repeat viewing.