Schreie in der Nacht

The Unnaturals takes place in England circa the roaring '20s (or the late-'60s, judging by the women's hairstyles): after their car gets stuck in mud during a thunderstorm, a group of people take shelter at a nearby house, home to Uriat (Peter Lorre-alike Luciano Pigozzi) and his mother (Marianne Leibl), who is in a trance as a result of a seance being interrupted by the visitors. In order to try and bring the woman back from the 'other dimension', the guests agree to complete the seance, during which their darkest secrets are revealed.

Despite plenty of treachery, murder and a little gratuitous lesbianism (very tame by today's standards), Antonio Margheriti's The Unnaturals is quite a tedious affair, hampered by leaden pacing, a confusing narrative structure (there are quite a number of flashbacks), too much talk, and a predictable ending: my guess that the characters were all ghosts wasn't too wide of the mark. Some say that this film is one of Margheriti's best, but I much preferred Castle of Blood and Cannibal Apocalypse (hell, Killer Fish is preferable to this one).

A group of English folks (well, German, actually) are trying to get to their home amidst the mother of all thunderstorms that is washing out all the roads. With their car stuck in the mud, they have to walk to a nearby house inhabited by "Uriat" (Luciano Pigozza aka Alan Collins) and his mother. Now this woman (Marianne Leibl) is quite adept at séances and soon the group are sitting around the table where truths will out. These truths, played out via a series of flashbacks, are unsavoury and depict some of the group as malevolent, murdering, monsters. The more we learn, the more dangerous it gets for all concerned. Will they all leave that place alive? Aside from the audio of a biblical storm the sort not seen since Noah, the rest of this is all rather cheaply cobbled together with far too much (badly dubbed) dialogue that, in the end, presents us with a sort of brutal episode of "Upstairs Downstairs". Quite why there is an English setting is anyone's guess - it seems to create additional impediments to the already rather predictably weak characterisations. Eighty minutes felt a great deal longer as it lumbered along to a conclusion about which I simply didn't care. I wouldn't bother, I'm afraid.

I would love to see a cleaned up copy of The Unnaturals, as I can tell even from the dingy copy I saw that the lush setting of Victorian decadence in the Gilded 1920s time period would be lovely in sharp, clear color.

However, the flashbacks are orchestrated in a less than perfect manner, making them a bit confusing rather than simply creating backstory and tension. Long before Quentin Tarantino was dragging his audience back and forth through a series of crimes, Antonio Margheriti made a creative choice to staple together an upsetting collage of non-linear infidelity and murder. Going character by character instead of back to the beginning was probably not his brightest idea.

"The Unnaturals" isn't nearly on par with director Antonio - oh sorry, he prefers Anthony M. Dawson - Margheriti's best efforts in the genre, notably "Danza Macabra" and "The Long Hair of Death", but it's nonetheless a worthwhile and enjoyable gothic soap opera. The film benefices most from the unsettling atmosphere, genuine décors and the bright use of mandatory gothic aspects, like raging thunderstorms and enigmatic beauties. A bunch of greedy and self-centered people, each of them hiding dark secrets and/or scheming sinister plans, end up in a ramshackle old shed in the woods when their car gets stuck in the mud. Inside the cabin, a spooky old hag is stuck in a sort of bizarre trance, but her equally spooky son (Bava-regular Luciano Pigozzi) invites the guests to partake in an all-revealing séance. The pacing is often slow, and the flashbacks contain too many tedious and irrelevant parts, but the last 10-15 minutes make up for a lot. The seemingly everlasting thunderstorm causes havoc, which ensures a spectacular and unforeseeable climax.

PS: I'm not in the habit of criticizing DVD-releases, but in case you consider purchasing this film via the French label "Les Chefs-d'oeuvre du Gothique", I strongly recommend you NOT TO. Despite being quite expensive, the picture and sound quality are poor, the disc constantly falters and the audio switches back and forth between Italian and German.

To be fair there were some fine moments in this, particularly towards the end, when we actually get to see the action that has been thus far only talked about. Also despite prim early scenes we suddenly get solid girl on girl scenes, one verging on the non consensual, which is unusual. Also as the film climaxes we do get some great shots of eyes, giallo style, wide and fearful but by then it has been a long time coming. Again I have to confess the early scene in the woods in the storm is very well done but once we get to the house (yes, old dark house style) things do begin to drag. There are flashbacks to another big house but it does nothing to relieve the tedium of this extremely wordy piece. Card games, a prolonged seance sequence - are you getting excited, no, not me either. Real shame because everybody performs well, there is good photography and there are enough great moments to make one wish there had been just a few more. The low score is in part to remind me that I would not want to see this again and not that this is completely without merit.