third run theaters were being replaced by red
lives in Rome with his wife Sonia and Bruno’s
light cinemas, and was screened virtually only
brother Tony resides in Istanbul. Upon reading
in Soriano nel Cimino, the village near its main
the will, Elisa, Bruno and Tony find out that they
filming location, with a total gross of only
have inherited the huge family villa located in the
200,000 lire. It soon found its way to home
hills, but on one condition: they must live together
video, on the General Video label, but it was sold
in the property and are not allowed to sell it. As
in Spain as well, where it came out on VHS as
soon as they move to their new home, a series of
La fuerza del demonio.
chilling events begin to overwhelm the family: the
two brothers have arguments, Elisa receives warn-
Notes
ing messages from her dead mother, Sonia is killed
1. Davide Comotti and Vittorio Salerno, Professione reg-
in a car accident, and Bruno sets his eyes on Elisa.
ista e scrittore (Salerno: Booksprint, 202), 8.
Ressia’s secretary Martha, a student of black
2. Ibid.
magic, suspects that Casati might be involved in
3. Ibid.
the events. She alerts Ressia, but the man is mys-
4. Ippoliti and Norcini, “Una favola chiamata cinema.
Intervista a Martine Brochard,” 37.
teriously killed. Eventually it turns out that the
5. Comotti and Salerno, Professione regista e scrittore,
sinister elderly caretaker is the key to the mys-
62.
tery…
Born in Messina in 938, Carlo Ausino left
La villa delle anime maledette—the
Sicily in 960 and moved to Turin with a pro-
Damned (House of the Damned, a.k.a.
jectionist license in his pocket and the dream of
Don’t Look in the Attic)
making movies in his head. “Take the story of
D: Carlo Ausino. S and SC: Carlo Ausino;
Cinema Paradiso, set it in Turin and here’s the
DOP: Carlo Ausino (Staco Film); M: Stelvio
story of my life. For me, cinema was everything.
Cipriani (Ed. CAM); E: Giuliano Mattioli;
Even nowadays, if I don’t watch at least two films
C: Giuseppe Lino; MU: Lucia La Porta; Hair:
a week, I’m not well,” he explained. “As a kid I
Giusy- Pietro Pennisi; SS: Vera Marchivi; W:
used to sell the milk bottles which I’d stolen
Claudia Amione; KG: Salvatore Schiavo: PM:
from my mother to get the money to go to the
Gregorio Cardone, Corrado Colecchia; ChEl:
movies. I collected the frames that projectionists
Lello Roppolo; SO: Claudio Chiossi; Mix: Ro-
threw in the trash, turned them into slides and
mano Checcacci. Cast: Beba Loncar [Desanka
projected them to my five sisters, my very first
Lončar] (Martha), Jean- Pierre Aumont (Ugo
audience. According to what I had found I in-
Ressia), Annarita Grapputo (Elisa Bruino/Elisa’s
vented the story, of which I was of course the
mother), Giorgio Ardisson (Casati), Paul The-
main character.”
isheid [Teitcheid] (Caretaker), Tony [Tonino]
In Turin Ausino saw his dream come true.
Campa (Tony Ferraro), Fausto Lombardi (Bruno
He was an uncredited assistant on the set of
Ferraro), Ileana Fraia (Sonia), Remo Vercellin,
Mario Monicelli’s masterpiece I compagni (963)
Benedetto Mocellin, Victor Bally, Mimmo Mor-
and eventually he became a director himself. In
leo, Attilio Cagnoni, Sandro Zambito, Mario De
969 he made his feature film debut, the black-
Gregorio, Michele Malla, Amelia Vercellino, En-
and-white World War II drama L’ora della pietà,
rico Slataper, Renzo Gobello, Enzo Zamunner.
shot in 6mm and starring Emanuel Cannarsa,
PROD: Michele Peyretti and Carlo Ausino for
who would be one of his recurring actors. As
Antonelliana Cinematografica (Turin); PM: Nun-
with his following works, Ausino was the direc-
zia Ausino. Country: Italy. Filmed on location in
tor of photography as well. During that period,
Turin and at Icet- De Paolis (Milan). Running time:
he also worked as a cameraman for RAI’s news-
84 minutes (m. 2243). Visa n. 77660 (4..982);
reels and reportedly brought a more dynamic
Rating: V.M.4. Release date: .4.982; Distribution:
style to his reports.
Cinevinci (regional). Domestic gross: n.a.
Ausino’s body of work is an example of re-
Turin, 1955. On a stormy night, in a hillside
gional cinema, conceived and produced far from
1982: La villa
09
Italy’s main production center, Rome: all his
Paul Theicheid, was cast in the key role of the
films were set and shot within the boundaries
villa’s elderly caretaker.
of the director’s adoptive city. After failing to
Shooting started on June 9, 980, under
complete Improvvisamente, un giorno, a love
the working title La stirpe dei dannati (The
story starring Vittorio De Sica and Marisa Soli-
Damned)4 and went on for four weeks, widely
nas and set “in the last days of humanity, before
publicized in the Turin- based newspaper La
an atomic conflagration … to underline the in-
Stampa. The film had its premiere screening in
dividuals’ solitude in a hostile society,”2 Ausino
Turin only over one year later, on September 30,
helmed the similarly- themed La città dell’ultima
98, under the title La villa delle anime dannate
paura, starring Cannarsa and Solinas, a sci- fi
(in the meantime, another Ausino movie had
drama about a speleologist who survives a nu-
come out, the ambitious film noir Tony l’altra
clear apocalypse that destroys human life in
faccia della Torino violenta, released in Turin in
Turin, inspired by the I Am Legend adapta-
tion The Omega Man (97, Boris Sagal). The
director claimed that the scenes in the de-
serted city (shot early in the morning
without permits, blocking traffic temporar-
ily) exuded a genuine sense of dread, but we
have to rely on his word: shot over the course
of two years, La città dell’ultima paura won
the second prize at the 97 Trieste Science
Fiction Film Festival but was not distributed
theatrically. The same fate occurred to the
elusive Prima che il sole tramonti (976), an-
other sci- fi themed work about an alien in-
vader, again starring Cannarsa and Solinas,
which was never even submitted to the
rating board. The director’s following work,
the crime flick Torino violenta (a.k.a. Double
Game, 977)—shot with a low budget of 60
million lire to cash in on the poliziottesco
fever of the period and finally find a regular
&nbs
p; distribution—was an unexpected hit in Italy
and was rumored to be head of Fiat Gianni
Agnelli’s favorite film.
Ausino’s first horror movie, La villa delle
anime maledette, was born almost by chance,
as he struck a deal with a French distributor,
Felix Film, which would allow him to use
some moderately famous actors for a limited
period, in the early Summer of 980. The di-
rector cranked out the script in a couple of
weeks3 and the project took form: he could
count on the French Jean- Pierre Aumont, the
Yugoslav beauty Beba Loncar, and former Eu-
rospy star Giorgio Ardisson. Despite being
billed fourth in the credits, the true lead
was ex- model Annarita Grapputo, who had
debuted in Carlo Lizzani’s Storie di vita e
malavita (a.k.a. The Teenage Prostitution
Racket, 97) and had been the female lead
in Torino violenta. For both Loncar and
Grapputo, it would be the last movie role.
Italian locandina for La villa delle anime maledette
Another recurrent presence in Ausino’s films,
(1982, Carlo Ausino).
0 1982: La villa May 98). However, proper distribution was
to be believed, with such exchanges as: “Why do
postponed until May 982.
you always have to turn up so silently?” “I kept
Ausino’s script draws from the standard
the light step of when I dedicated myself to hunt-
Gothic tropes: the mysterious curse passed from
ing.” The score, compiled from Cipriani’s back
generation to generation, the séance, the doomed
catalogue, reprises themes from Pier Carpi’s oc-
family, the psychic heroine, plus the morbid el-
cultist devil movie Un’ombra nell’ombra (979).
ement of incest, with the insane attraction of
Overall, the best thing about the film may well
Bruno (Fausto Lombardi) for his cousin Elisa
be Ausino’s photography, which retains an old-
(Grapputo), as the man becomes convinced that
style elegance and gives it a watchable look.
she must give him a son to defeat the curse that
Rather surprisingly, La villa delle anime
plagues their dynasty. The theme of the double
maledette got a V.M.4 rating “for the distressing
is employed not only by having Grapputo play
atmosphere that pervades the whole film and the
a dual role (Elisa and her mother), but it also
murders committed in a particularly gruesome
has a vital part in the rather incoherent final
way,” which makes one wonder whether the
twist, when it turns out that one key character
board members actually watched it, as graphic
has the capacity of mutating his appearance at
violence is virtually non- existent. Distribution in
will. The ending is virtually lifted from The Sen-
Italy was scarce, and reviews were predictably
tinel, as the heroine secludes herself in the villa,
scathing: the Corriere della Sera called the story
and thus, by remaining the last of her bloodline,
“extremely deranged, developing despite any
she puts an end to the curse.
logic,” and labeled script, direction and photog-
Despite the impressive cast and the setting
raphy as slapdash, giving moderate praise only to
in a villa just outside Turin, La villa delle anime
Grapputo’s performance, which in the reviewer’s
maledette leaves a lot to be desired overall. The
opinion made the result “a step forward from
prologue tries hard to set an ominous tone, with
Torino violenta, one of the most disgraceful prod-
two men fighting to the death during a thunder-
ucts in this spectator’s memory.”6
storm, driven by a mysterious homicidal frenzy,
After quickly disappearing into oblivion, the
while a woman (also played by Grapputo) des-
movie found a second life in the home video mar-
perately tries to separate them. One of the men
ket, both in Italy (released by the popular GVR
stabs the other, and the woman in turn stabs him.
label) and abroad, in its English language export
She then runs away in the villa’s garden, which
version House of the Damned (misspelled House
conveniently hosts a private cemetery, only to be
of the Danned in the titles). It surfaced overseas
dragged underground by a hand protruding from
on tape as Don’t Look in the Attic, and it even
the ground. The use of lighting draws back to
earned some perplexing good reviews in special-
classical Gothic, with plenty of silhouettes and
ized magazines and studies of the horror film. The
light/shadow games, but one cannot help noticing
illustrious Aurum Film Encyclopedia praised it as
the performers’ poor acting, the cheap special ef-
follows: “Ausino makes ample and effective use of
fects (with the demonic entity portrayed via a
dolly shots to create and sustain his parapsycho-
pulsating red flashing light and a chair being
logical spells, and at times manages to evoke the
dragged forward by an invisible force) and the
flamboyantly funereal romanticism of the Italian
recycled Stelvio Cipriani score.
master Mario Bava.”7 Again, one wonders whether
Still, the pre- credit sequence is easily the
the reviewer actually saw it, as there are less than
film’s most exciting moment. The story drags
a handful of dolly shots in the whole movie.
along interminably, with no tension or detectable
Overall, La villa delle anime maledette
suspense, and looks more like a warped family
stands as a testifier that re- proposing a by- now
drama than a horror movie. Moreover, the low
fallen archetype, the standard Gothic yarn, was
budget shows at every turn: for instance, the Paris
a lost cause. Even more so, it proves the impos-
scenes are introduced via a cheap b&w still of the
sibility of survival for that type of low- budget
Eiffel Tower. Aumont and Loncar are wasted in
genre cinema that could cut itself a small slice
thankless secondary roles, and the special effects
of market in the second and third- run circuit
are poor throughout: in a scene, while Grapputo
via regional distribution. In fact, Ausino’s fol-
is taking a shower in the hotel, a supernatural en-
lowing work was mostly destined to oblivion.
tity appears in the form of some dry ice entering
Senza scrupoli 2 (990) a sequel of sorts to
the bathroom … and leaves a message written on
Tonino Valerii’s Senza scrupoli (986), was his
the mirror’s surface. The dialogue must be heard
last film with a proper theatrical and home video
1983: La bimba
distribution, and the director himself asked for
effettonotteonline.com/enol/archivi/articoli/interviste/2002
it to be seized because of the ar
bitrary inclusion
0/20020in00.htm).
2. “Marisa farà perdere le testa a De Sica,” L’Unità, April
of hardcore sequences on the part of the pro-
27, 972.
ducers. Nebuneff, an occultist horror set in
3. a. per., “Horror sulla collina,” Stampa Sera, June 9,
Turin, London and Cairo, shot over a period of
980
years between 988 and 99,8 remained unre-
4. a. vald., “Ardisson ritorna al cinema e ruba confidenze
leased due to legal issues. Ausino’s last film to
a Brazzi,” Stampa Sera, June 9, 980.
5. [not signed], “Ecco la villa delle anime dannate,”
date is 2006’s Killer’s Playlist, a thriller starring
Stampa Sera, September 30, 98.
George Hilton, which was briefly screened in
6. L.A. [Leonardo Autera], “Quella villa maledetta,”
Turin and then disappeared from sight.
Corriere della Sera, June 9, 982.
7. Phil Hardy (ed.), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia. Hor-
N
ror (London: Aurum Press, 996), 390.
otes
8. Stefano Della Casa, “Torino set,” La Stampa, June 6,
1. Fulvio Montano, “Carlo Ausino e l’esperienza di
99.
Torino violenta,” www. effettonotteonline. com (http://www.
1983
La bimba di Satana (Satan’s Baby Doll,
whose body lies in the crypt, waiting to be em-
a.k.a. A Girl for Satan)
balmed. Despite the family doctor, Suarez, ruling
D: Alan W. Cools [Mario Bianchi]. S:
Maria’s death as a heart attack, her husband
Gabriele Crisanti; SC: Piero Regnoli; DOP: un-
Antonio had a hand in it. Maria was the lover
credited [Franco Villa and Angelo Iannutti]
of Antonio’s brother Ignazio, now bound to a
(Telecolor); M: Nino Catanese (Ed. Overplay);
wheelchair after a stroke, but she also seduced
E: Cesare Bianchini; PD: Salvatore Siciliano; AD:
Suarez, and was carrying on a lesbian affair with
Spartaco Antonucci; C: Franco Campanile;
Sol, the novice nun who takes care of Ignazio. The
AC: Maurizio Fiorentini; SO: Silvio Spingi; SS:
family butler, Isidro, evokes otherworldly forces,
Paola Villa; CO: Itala Giardina; MU: Rosario
and the Countess’ spirit possesses her teenage
Prestopino; AE: Gabriella Marsetti. Cast: Jacque-
daughter Miria, who becomes the instrument of
line Doupré (Miria), Mariangela Giordano (Sol),
her revenge. One by one, the members of the
Italian Gothic Horror Films (1980-1989) Page 33