| Bloody murders. |
Naked MassacreDie Hinrichtung, which actually means "The Execution", the film is also known as Born for Hell. Released in 1976 in Canada & Italy, Naked Massacre would later premier in 1977 in West Germany and last but not least, in 1984 in the USA. Loosely based in the Richard Speck murders, today's entry follows the story of the mysterious Cain "Jimmy" Adamson (Mathieu Carrere) , a lonesome, apparently retired, Vietnam American soldier who's stranded in Belfast and looking for a way to make enough money to return to his home country. At the same time, political turmoil is causing the city to be under siege and a group of young dedicated nurses is working extra hours to help victims.
Naked Massacre is clearly a sleazy film blending nurseploitation, sexploitation, torture & murder genres all together in one hour and a half movie. Directed by Denis Heroux, and written by F.G. Ranger and the director himself, the film falls flat because the plot is too weak.
| The stranger comes to town. |
| Innocent unaware nurses. |
Even though the Richard Speck student-nurse murders took place in America, most of the movies inspired by the incident strangely enough were foreign. These include the disturbing Japanese film "Violated Angels", the relatively shocking ending to the ho-hum Italian giallo/sex romp "Slaughter Hotel", and perhaps to some extent even the Canadian proto-slasher flick "Black Christmas". This movie, however, is probably the closest in circumstances to the actual incident. Not that it doesn't make some unusual choices, especially for what is basically an exploitation film. It's set in Belfast, North Ireland, for instance, during the height of "the troubles" when bombs were exploding and Catholics, Protestants, IRA terrorists and British troops were fighting in the streets. Also, the murderer is an American Vietnam vet where the real Speck was merely a merchant marine. The movie doesn't do much with this though as the Speck character seems far more motivated by his wife's infidelities than any trauma he suffered in Vietnam, and any on-location realism that is achieved is ruined by the bad dubbing (the Irish and English nurses and American killer all speak in the same stilted continental accents of the usual gang of Euro-idiots that dubbed these things).
The movie was distributed mostly under the more lurid title "Naked Massacre", and after a strangely large amount of character development of both the nurses and the killer, it lives up to that title when they finally meet and he ties them up and starts bumping them off one by one. The real-life Speck only raped one of the nurses (although far more graphically than what is shown here), but the guy here sexually abuses nearly all of them (one of whom, perhaps in a nod to Sharon Tate, is even pregnant). The most lurid scene is when he forces two closeted lesbians to have sex with each other. Although, it's hard to do such a scene sensitively, this scene is handled even less sensitively than the similar scene in the much more infamous "Last House on the Left".
The movie was distributed mostly under the more lurid title "Naked Massacre", and after a strangely large amount of character development of both the nurses and the killer, it lives up to that title when they finally meet and he ties them up and starts bumping them off one by one. The real-life Speck only raped one of the nurses (although far more graphically than what is shown here), but the guy here sexually abuses nearly all of them (one of whom, perhaps in a nod to Sharon Tate, is even pregnant). The most lurid scene is when he forces two closeted lesbians to have sex with each other. Although, it's hard to do such a scene sensitively, this scene is handled even less sensitively than the similar scene in the much more infamous "Last House on the Left".
| Alternate poster. |
| The VHS re-release fully available today! |
The director, Denis Heroux, interesting enough, is French Canadian and got his start in superior "maple syrup porn" films like "Valerie" and "L'Initiation" but had his career ended when he was made the scapegoat for the failure of hack British producer Milton Subotsky's idiotic horror movie "The Uncanny". This film, made in the middle of his short career, shows an interesting but obviously declining talent. The cast includes Carol Laure and pretty Italian starlet Ely Galeani and obviously our current obsession Leonora Fani.
Unlike Nene, Leonora Fani's role is more of a supporting character rather than the lead. Jenny (Fani) is one of the youngest nurses and her story is that, her best friend is in love with her and later while the psycho is in their house, she's the third to die in his murdering hands.
| Let me dry your pussy with my fingers Jenny. |
| We're best friends, don't be confused. |
While, Cain's motives to enter the nurse boarding house are merely "to obtain enough money as to return to the USA" he's a fucking psycho, so instead of getting the money and leaving the girls alone, he sets on a twisted revenge against women just because. His background story is that he quit war and has his wife & daughter waiting for him at home. However, as the story develops, I honestly don't think he was telling the truth. Also, he doesn't seem to get it up unless, there's a big dose of violence beforehand. What clearly kills this movie, is the fact that our psycho murderer only has a knife as a weapon, while the 8 nurses could have easily taken him out with household artifacts for sure. In addition, once he enters their house, he isn't instantly violent, and doesn't seem to be really interested in anything but their money.
The torture, rape & murder scenes aren't shockingly graphic, and do not last long enough to disturb casual viewers of the genre. Nevertheless, the fact that these scenes cannot be shot with positive vibes, as little as they last, you totally get he's a murdering animal who couldn't care less about the women he's about to kill.
| Say, how about a threesome? |
| 69 her or die! |
Cain seems to be depicted as a soldier gone nuts who was forced to quit his job for the sake of the mission. This isn't the first nor the last film to show this as a result of war trauma. First Blood, AKA Rambo is perhaps the most popular example of this. Take it or leave it! to some this diminishes the heroic image of the heroes of war, while to others it is a crude realistic look at what mass media won't tell you about being a hero.Anyways, Naked Massacre isn't about this, and the fact he's a soldier it's merely coincidental. Moreover, he could be fantasizing he's a soldier as there isn't enough on screen information pertaining his origin. Now, this film clearly doesn't care about expanding character development because the nurses, all eight of them, lack a background story too, they're just there, working at the local hospital, celebrating a birthday and a couple of them are apparently in love with each other.
Psycho Video, is VHS distribution company based on Maine, USA. Yes! you read that right, in 2016 there is an American VHS distribution company that sells online! They specialize in bringing obscure cult films back to life in the proper format you watched them for the first time in the 80's: VHS cassette tapes!! their idea is so radical, that currently all of their products are sold out. Now, they didn't pay us write this paragraph, I'm only telling you this because their first official release, was the Naked Massacre VHS restored tape in 2013.
| Table for three please. |
| Leonora Fani, bushy bombshell. |
| Ely Galleani, another Italian starlet. |
Overall, Naked Massacre doesn't live up to the myth other psycho killer films have. Certainly made to cash in from the success of other similar flicks, the film delivers BUT fucking dies at the very end. The final scene is like "what the fuck? did they run out of money already?" Usually, in a killer movie, we want to see the killer fucking shot to death, or die in some brutally satisfying way (Don't torture a Duckling is a very nice example for this) Still, there are far worse out there. Maybe advisable for Leonora Fani completists like myself and for those curious enough to waste an hour and a half of their lifetimes. As for our latest crusade, there are other films where Fani has the lead or at least more on screen time, so stay tuned because there's a lot more coming!
Here's the movie trailer:
