Ricardo Freda, a well regarded director in the history of Italian cinema (along with contemporaries like Mario Bava who accepted assignments Freda left from), was responsible for this strange bit of hokum, with supernatural leanings, containing black mass devil worship, including a silly conclusion which lays out the demonic menace and what was plaguing lead actress Camille Keaton (who wasn't much of an actress but Freda seemed more concerned with her beauty and how to frame shots of her using candlelight, wind-rustling curtains, etc) via Hitchcock's Psycho (Paul Muller comes in, like Simon Oakland did in Psycho, explaining Norman's plight, talking about Lady Alexander and her relation to what is happening to Keaton throughout the film after the incident during the "tragic ceremony")in ridiculous detail (the one doing so hasn't been seen at all throughout the film and shouldn't have any knowledge whatsoever about any of what was occurring to Keaton), but if you like films that are "out there", maintaining an oddball mood, then perhaps "Tragic Ceremony" is your kind of entertainment. I have to admit that I thought it had some serious pacing issues, lulls at the beginning and shortly after the "big scene" (where the bizarre slaughter of the black mass cult assembled in the lair of Lord Alexander and Lady Alexander's castle, all killing each other (!) after a human sacrifice is interrupted takes place), but "Tragic Ceremony" allows Carlo Rambaldi to showcase his gruesome special effects which includes a sword splitting a face in half, a gunshot to the forehead, a decapitation, and a dagger stabbing (also we see a face with a missing lower jaw)to the stomach. The main cast couldn't act if their life depended on it, with Keaton (Day of the Woman) cold on screen, not any better than those around her. Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball), as Lady Alexander, and Luigi Pistilli (Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key), as Lord Alexander, have minor supporting parts, but because of the limited screen time, they fail to add enough oomph to raise the quality of this rather hopeless exercise in futility. Some impressive visual moments with Keaton in the castle, along with Rambaldi's work, are about all this film has going for it. Once the film leaves the Alexander castle, I felt the film never quite recovers—it seems as if the film was built for the portion within the castle while everything else seems less inspired, although a subplot involving trust fund baby Bill (Tony Isbert) and his adulterous mom is given some time. Not sure what to make of Bill's fate, with the green make-up. There's also a weird additional character, a gas station attendant who might be more than he appears, who affects the lives of the twenty-somethings, responsible for leading them to the Alexanders to begin with. Máximo Valverde is Keaton's lover and Giovanni Petti is the tagalong guitar playing crooner of the foursome. Interesting footnote is the use of the Sharon Tate murders, mentioning the Manson cult, in dialogue of a news broadcast describing similarities to the black mass massacre at the Alexanders' castle.
Review of Tragic Ceremony
