Massacre (1989) User Reviews

Andrea Bianchi directed this gore fest in the late 80's. Not a great movie, unfortunately.

[Bogey Man · 5/10 · 24 May 2002]

Massacre is pretty bad film, but it is not impossible to watch, but the viewer has to be Italo freak in order to sit through this. Let's make it straight: During credits and awful music, we see one pretty nasty (and dull) axe murder as a mysterious driver stops his car and kills a hooker standing by the side of the road with an axe. Then, the film begins, and NOTHING happens for next 45 minutes or so. It is sooo boring, but during the end, body count rises again and the "plot" seems to tighten. The film follows a film crew which is shooting a horror film, and soon the members start to disappear as the mystery madman with an axe or other blades kills people. Doesn't sound too original, but it does not matter when we're talking about this kind of cinema.

There are unfortunately not many worth mentioning merits in this film. The music or other elements are not special and the over all look of Massacre is very dull and often stupid. But there are still few atmospheric moments in the forest and in the dark, and so we get that old feel of watching a really great Italian horror film, but this only reminds me distantly of those classics. The film could have been worse, but I must say that it should have definitely been much better! But I'm happy there are those mentioned moments, and I think that this is pretty rare title and thus collectable.

I will also mention, that (almost) all the gore scenes in Massacre were used in Lucio Fulci's Un Gatto nel Cervello (aka Cat in a Brain aka Nightmare Concert), too. Many scenes from Fulci's own Quando Alice Ruppe lo Specchio (rare!) are in Nightmare Concert, too! I viewed first Nightmare Concert, and so there were no new murder scenes for me when I viewed Massacre, and it also made me feel a little frustrated. I didn't know that these scenes are in Fulci's film, even though I knew that Fulci used scenes from other films. But it doesn't matter, because Italo fans are used to be very forgiving and understanding! Fulci's mentioned Nightmare Concert is one hell of a gore fest, and the murders from Massacre fit in there well among others. So if you have already seen Un Gatto nel Cervello (akas: Nightmare Concert, Cat in a Brain) and haven't seen Massacre, then there are no new gory moments to see, but I hope that fans watch these films not only for gore or violence, because the thing I love most in Italian horror cinema is the atmosphere never matched by other countries' efforts. Massacre definitely isn't a great example of Italian mastery, but the viewing is a curiosity for fanatics and for those interested in the disturbed cinema of writer/director Andrea Bianchi, whose other merits include Malabimba and weird and wonderful (?) Zombie 3 aka Nights of Terror aka Burial Ground.

Massacre earns 5/10 but only if one is as forgiving as I am, because watched as a "serious" (horror)film, Massacre fails miserably.

Not Much of a Massacre

[CMRKeyboadist · 4/10 · 2 February 2006]

Massacre is a film directed by Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground) and produced by legendary Italian horror director Lucio Fulci. Now with this mix of great talent you would think this movie would have been a true gore fest. This could not be further from that. Massacre falls right on its face as being one of the most boring slasher films I have seen come out of Italian cinema. I was actually struggling to stay awake during the film and I have never had that problem with Italian horror films.

Massacre starts out with a hooker being slaughtered on the side of the road with an ax. This scene was used in Fulci's Nightmare Concert. This isn't a bad scene and it raises your expectations of the movie as being an ax wielding slaughter. Unfortuanitly, the next hour of the movie is SO boring. The movie goes on to a set of a horror film being filmed and there is a lot of character development during all these scenes but the characters in the movie are so dull and badly acted your interest starts to leak away. The last 30 minutes of the movie aren't so bad but still could have been much better. The gore in the movie was pathetic and since Fulci used most of the gore scenes in Nightmare Concert there was nothing new here. The end of the movie did leave a nice twist but there was still to much unanswered and the continuity falls right through the floor.

This wasn't a very good film but for a true Italian horror freak (like myself) this movie is a must have since it is very rare. 4/10 stars

A very average Italian slasher with a bit of blood and nudity.

[capkronos · 5/10 · 1 March 2009]

There are at least a hundred movies featuring a psycho killer invading a horror movie set and you can't really blame filmmakers for using this overworked plot line. It promises a fitting backdrop for a horror film, plus usually gives the killer props to use, and places to hide the bodies, and naturally all of the expected 'false scares' to fill time between the gore scenes. What's always struck me as odd is how instead of showing a horror movie set as a positive place where people are having fun, most filmmakers opt to show it in a negative light and fill their films full of characters who are nasty, bitchy, egotistical, backstabbing, oversexed jerks and Primadonnas. This one's no exception to that rule, though it does try to add some additional twists to the formula, ridiculous as they may be.

MASSACRE (which is "presented by" Lucio Fulci) opens with a guy in sunglasses attacking a prostitute with a hatchet and chopping off her hand before decapitating her (the goriest scene in the entire film), then immediately cuts to another woman waking up in a graveyard and stumbling into the middle of some black mass ceremony being conducted by hooded ghouls. The first murder turns out to be "real," while the second one turns out to be a scene in a movie being shot. That film's director, Frank (Maurice Poli), is fed up because he wants more realism and less fantasy, so he decides to rework the script and bring in professional psychic Irene Ullich (Anna Maria Placido) as an adviser. During a séance, Irene accidentally calls forth an evil spirit named Jack, who she claims is a dangerous spirit that likes to cut people to pieces. Thinking nothing of it, the cast and crew go back to making the film and one by one begin getting killed off in bloody ways. Leading lady Jennifer (Patrizia Falcone) conveniently happens to be dating Walter (Gino Concari) the lead detective investigating the murders.

There's a rumor on set that Jennifer is a lesbian because she's friends with the lesbian assistant director Mira (Lubka Lenzi). Sleazy producer Robert Arnold (Pier Maria Cecchini) tries to capitalize on this by threatening his heavy-drinking, unfaithful wife Liza (Silvia Conti), "You have 24 hours to get that lesbian in bed with us. Otherwise pack your bags and go to the $h1+house gutter." Also along for the fun are Gordon the scriptwriter, a couple of random hookers and makeup artist Jean (Robert Egon), who is also Liza's secret lover. Veteran horror star Paul Muller has nothing to really do as an obnoxious police commissioner in three brief scenes. The best character is Adrian, a flamboyant actor and female impersonator who treats us (in full costume) to some quick impersonations of Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli and Marlene Dietrich. Don't know what that has to do with the rest of this film, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Unfortunately, the murder scenes are mostly uninspired (the same weapon is used the majority of the time) or take place completely off-screen, though there's a decent enough body count and sufficient amounts of blood and T&A for one of these things. Some pacing problems here, too, as the majority of the cast gets killed off after the one hour mark in very rushed scenes. There's also unneeded plot complication as a second killer (who is completely unrelated to what's going on on the movie set) turns up to try to throw police off. And I think they wanted the revelation of the main killer to be a surprise, but it's pretty obviously telegraphed ahead of time during the séance scene.

What a bloody mess.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 30 May 2008]

Prior to this film, I had only seen two films by director Andrea Bianchi: the trashy zombie flick Le Notti del Terrore (1981), famous amongst horror fans for its unforgettable performance from man-child Peter Bark, and the enjoyably sleazy giallo Strip Nude For Your Killer. Neither film was a particularly spectacular piece of cinema, but both were entertaining in their own special way (and the fact that they featured plenty of gore and nudity didn't hurt). Massacre, however, is dull, dull, dull, despite quite a bit of splatter and the odd spot of gratuitous bare flesh.

The story, about a series of murders in a hotel where the cast and crew of a horror film are residing during their shoot, is confusing and oh-so boring: when the blood isn't flowing and the skin isn't on show, the film is a real struggle to sit through (it took me four attempts to finish), with endless scenes of unlikeable characters bickering among themselves and doing very little of note.

The only point of interest about the film is that its producer, Lucio Fulci, used several of its death scenes to pad out his mega-gory movie Cat In The Brain (AKA Nightmare Concert). And if you've already seen that film, then there is very little reason to bother with Massacre.

Andrea Bianchi's second giallo after the memorable Strip Nude for your Killer

[LuisitoJoaquinGonzalez · 5/10 · 13 August 2005]

It's somewhat ironic that Lucio Fulci supervised this belated entry to the giallo catalogue. Despite being two years his elder, Andrea Bianchi's work has always made him look like something of a protégé of the notorious craftsman. There are many Fulci trademarks to be found in the works of Bianchi. Most notably the extreme use of gratuitous gore and a taste for barely logical plot points. Over the years many have labeled Fulci as an inept filmmaker that hid his directorial shortcomings behind the talent of his special effects team. But titles like Don't Torture a Duckling and the excellent Zombi 2 have pretty much taken the gust out of that argument. If these critics truly believe that Fulci was an incompetent director, then gawd only knows what they'd make of Bianchi. His most famous movie – the notorious Burial Ground – is great fun if you love blood and guts. But if you judge it on it's merits as a motion picture, then it fails in just about every department. The acting was diabolical, the direction non-existent and I don't even think that it was filmed from a script. I hoped that Massacre would keep the gratuitous exploitation edge, but I was also looking for a little more credibility from Bianchi this time around.

Massacre kicks off with a gruesome murder that was re-used by Fulci along with other gore scenes in the bemusing Nightmare Concert. A guy wearing red gloves, shades and a beanie hat is seen cruising along a lengthy stretch of road. He pulls up beside a young woman in a skimpy dress who greets him with the classic line, "Hey cutie wanna make love mmmm!" Unfortunately, 'making love' isn't exactly what this guy had in mind, and he proceeds to chop off the woman's hand and then decapitate her with an axe. Next up we meet a film crew that are shooting a zombie flick in the area called Dirty Blood. There's a whole heap of tension on the set because it doesn't look like any of the employees seem to get along with one another. The lead actress Jennifer (Patrizia Falcone) is dating a Local Police Captain called Walter (Gino Concarni). We soon learn from him that this maniacal killer has already murdered four other victims, and the authorities don't have a clue to his identity. Things really get nasty after the producer calls in a medium to hold a séance and teach his cast and crew the ways of the supernatural. The circle is broken when an evil spirit invades the sitting and forces the Medium to end the seance. Only hours later an unseen maniac begins slaughtering his way through the cast list one by one. Will any of them survive this massacre…?

Surprisingly, Massacre is not as bad as I had initially expected. Silvano Tessicini did a credible job with the photography and the director even managed to build suspense in places. No really. As this is a Bianchi joint, the exploitation is spread thick and fast, and there's more female nudity than an Electric Blue omnibus. Look out for the scene where a victim flees the marauding killer with only a short skirt covering her modesty! The gory murders reveal a great flair for the macabre from the filmmaker and there's a body count to rival an Arnold Schwarzenegger machine gun frenzy. You probably won't solve the twist and turn mystery with ease, plus the boathouse massacre is a tremendous piece of mayhem, which deserves a second look. Massacre also boasts some wacky pre-politically correct dialogue, which will make even the most sinister viewer smile. It's also worth noting the amount of American stalk and slash clichés that have been incorporated with the more typical native giallo platitudes. At one point a fornicating couple are slaughtered whilst parked in the woods – an indisputable trademark of the USA teen slasher.

But still this is far too bizarrely structured to be anything other than good in a bad way. As was the case with Burial Ground, there's just too much inadvertent humor to allow this to join the giallo elite. The murders certainly could have benefited with a little more directorial flourish and the musical accompaniment was continuously aggravating to the point of frustration. Bianchi certainly has an eye for a beautiful actress, and he always tries to include everything from lesbian proposals to soft-core pornography. Only problem is that he seems to prioritize acting ability way below bra size. It's a flaw that's only too evident from the start.

The net result is a film that will satisfy forgiving fans that aren't expecting anything along the lines of Tenebrae or even Eyeball. To put it another way, if you could sit through Burial Ground without cringing at the screen then you'll probably enjoy this.

stay away from this garbage

[dopefishie · 1/10 · 28 June 2021]

Pros: Goblin-style film score.

The use of fog is nice in a few scenes.

One of the first instances of a slasher movie within a slasher movie.

Cons: Acting, writing, directing, pacing, and just about everything else.

This is a painful watch. Stay far away from this one.

Weak giallo, exhilarating gore.

[Coventry · 4/10 · 4 February 2007]

In case half of this film's footage looks strangely familiar, it means you watch way too much of this gory Italian cult-crap! For you see, the notorious demigod Lucio Fulci did not only produce this movie, he also took the liberty of re-using the most sadistic killing sequences in his own (and more easily traceable) "Cat in the Brain". The opening scene already, in which a prostitute is brutally decapitated with an axe, features in Fulci's later film and so do another handful of killings and sleaze moments. Andrea Bianchi's "Masssacre" fails miserably as a giallo, since the search for the sadistic killer among a movie-crew shooting a horror movie is all but compelling and suspenseful, but it's still good entertainment if you're into cheap 'n shlocky horror trash. The incoherent script introduces a whole bunch of repugnant characters who're all potential maniacs, but none of the red herrings Biachi comes up with are plausible and you can point out the killer almost immediately. Whatever remains to enjoy are the truly misogynous make-up effects and the hilariously awful acting performances of the ensemble cast. Whenever there isn't any bloodshed on screen, like between the first and second murder, "Massacre" is a slow and almost intolerable with its inane dialogs and thoroughly unexciting photography. Thankfully in the second half, there are women getting impaled on fences and males being stabbed repeatedly with rusty spikes. The music is crap and the use of filming locations is very unimaginative. My advise would be to skip this puppy and go straight for the aforementioned "Cat in the Brain". That one features ALL the great moments of "Massacre", and then some.

A goofy mess

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 15 January 2021]

Directed by Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground, Strip Nude for Your Killer) under the supervision of Lucio Fulci, this is all about the filming of the movie Dirty Blood, which has been infiltrated by an actual killer.

It starts off quick, with a trucker axe chopping a woman's hand off and blood spraying everywhere. And if you're saying, "That's in Cat in the Brain..." so are many of the effects from this movie.

To make Dirty Blood as realistic as possible, everyone involved is called in for a seance from Madame Ullrich, but when she tries to reach her spirit guide, she only encounters evil, which comes in the form of an earthquake that knocks everyone around*. Oh yeah - and Jennifer, the lead in the movie, has a cop boyfriend who has been hunting down the killer we saw in the beginning.

Exactly how much Fulci had to do with this movie is debatable. What isn't is that this was Bianchi's last horror film. From here on out, he'd concentrate on adult films, mostly using the name Andrew White, including the trans triangle film Mystifying Revelation and other movies starring Cicciolina and Rocco Siffredi. He even made Fleshy Doll, one of the very adult films I can think of inspired by Oscar Wilde.

The gore is fun**, but all in all, I'd much rather see the movie they were shooting in this than the movie they actually made. Look, someday a high-end blu ray label is going to do a box set of all these presented by Fulci films and try to convince you that they have something special about them. They really don't, but that doesn't mean that they aren't enjoyable for lovers of bottom of the barrel and Italian genre cinema, which come to think of it, is often the same thing.

*It also takes the form of non-stop Fulci zooms, spinning cameras and the medium appearing as if she has two gigantic golf balls in her mouth. It's a completely ludicrous and awesome scene that made me actually come around on this movie. The earthquake is so strong that it pops the cork off a bottle of champagne!

**Seriously, a girl gets murdered and left behind on a merry-go-round and the psychic woman gets impaled on a cemetery fence right through the crotch of her Macy's slacks Cannibal Holocaust style.

How awful!!

[FiendishDramaturgy · 1/10 · 7 January 2004]

Sorry Fulci fans, but I could not get through this one. The soundtrack was about as annoying as they come, the acting was puerile, the story has been done and done, and the direction was non-existent.

Massacre honestly looked like a children's film project. But I've seen some of those, and they actually look better than this did! It appears to have been so underfunded they couldn't afford ... ANYTHING! Not a DoP, not a director, no one who even remotely had a clue what acting was. It was a very poor cinematic experience; one of my worst.

This was about the worst suck-fest I've seen, next to Terror Toons which is second only to Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I've nothing else to say about it.

It rates a 0.1/10 from...

the Fiend :.

Andrea Bianchi's nasty giallo.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 13 October 2003]

"Massacre" revolves around a series of murders that are happening around the filming of a horror film called "Dirty Blood".The film opens with extremely gory murder and mutilation of a street prostitute by a hooded maniac."Massacre" is a fine Italian gore film.There is plenty of sleaze and lots of misogynistic violence to satisfy fans of Italian cult cinema.The killings are mean spirited and gory as hell.The soundtrack is annoying and the acting is bad,but overlook that and we have an enjoyable piece of Italian splatter.Lucio Fulci actually used the gore scenes from this movie in his own "Nightmare Concert"/"A Cat In the Brain"(1990).Give this one a look-you won't be disappointed.

Rather flawed but still enjoyable enough

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 5/10 · 16 November 2017]

Working out in the countryside, the production of a low-budget horror film begins suffering under new guidelines to the film as well as the rampage of a psychopath murdering prostitutes in the city and when the events intersect they manage

This was quite the sleazy if somewhat cheap giallo. One of the finer points here is that this one decides to really sell itself on its central premise rather early on. From the very first start, with the killer shown stalking and killing the prostitute on the side of the road and segueing nicely into the film shoot starts this one on a strong note, from the suspenseful stalking to the cheesy antics on- set with the zombies and fire-stunts on display. The way this leads into the change-over in the script for the filmed movie striving to be more of a realistic manner that puts a strain on the cast gives it a bit of life during the interim between the stalkings while also giving this some fun in the backstage dealings with the group. With the talk of who's going to get into bed with who and the rumblings over what the changes are going to mean, even bringing in a medium to conduct a seance that provides this with a stellar supernaturally-tinged sequence inside a hotel room that holds this one over. It gets slightly more enjoyable in the second half where the killer begins getting more active and involved in the proceedings knocking people off that results in some nice times here with the assault on the couple in the park as well as the fine multiple-person ambush in the boatyard which has some gruesome moments to it. The final reveal at the end isn't all that bad, and along with the fine gore give this one enough to hold it out over it's few flaws. The main issue with this one is the fact that nothing at all really happens for a large portion of time here with the film really tending to run through some utterly dull moments along the way. Though generally not that badly done when focusing on the antics within the staff and crew, there's nothing that can save the fact that the film goes from the opening murder to nearly an hour until the next strike occurs which really does highlight how nothing much really happens for this main part of the film. These scenes just drag on forever and don't really amount to much at all which generates the kind of bland feeling throughout here that takes this one to such excruciating lengths that really harms the film. As well, the film doesn't really offer up much of an explanation for the kind of ending this one has, which does make this one end on a somewhat confusing note as to how it all happened and what makes sense for it all. As well as the shoddy special effects work, these here are the films' few problems.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Full Nudity.