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MACABRE
This gruesome and depraved yet subtle, atmospheric Italian horror fest was the directorial debut of Lamberto Bava, son of the legendary “Father of Italian horror” Mario Bava. A work of uncommon skill and imagination, MACABRE proves that talent ran deep in the Bava family.
The Package
Believe it or not, the “Based on a
True Story” disclaimer that opens MACABRE (a.k.a. MACABRO; 1980) is (for once)
real: the film really is based on the true story of a New Orleans woman
who reportedly preserved her deceased lover’s head for amorous purposes. The
story was brought to Lamberto Bava’s attention by Pupi Avati, one of the film’s
four credited screenwriters and an extremely accomplished filmmaker in his own
right (he’d already made the famous
HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS and would go on
to direct ZEDER: VOICES FROM BEYOND). It shouldn’t surprise, then, that the
finished film plays a lot like an Avati project, with its extremely drawn-out
narrative and ever-present sense of brooding mystery.
Before MACABRE Bava had worked as an assistant director on several of his
father’s projects and co-wrote and directed much of
SHOCK (1977), the senior Bava’s final film (some sources claim Lamberto helmed all of it). Lamberto Bava
would repeat his assistant director duties on seminal films like Ruggero
Deodato’s CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, as well as the Dario Argento pictures INFERNO (for
which Bava’s father contributed special effects) and TENEBRAE, and would go to
direct 1983’s A BLADE IN THE DARK, 1985’s
DEMONS and its 1987 sequel.
The Story
Jane is a sexually frustrated housewife living in New Orleans. She gives
reign to her pent-up lust with her lover, who lives in an old townhouse with his
blind brother. One day, when Jane is over at her lover’s house getting it on,
her psychotic daughter drowns her little brother in the bathtub. Jane ends up
rushing home in a car driven by her lover, who in trying to calm her down drives
off the road and decapitates himself.
The narrative then jumps ahead a year, as Jane, now a divorcee, is released
from a mental institution. She goes to live in the home of her dead lover,
where the latter’s blind brother still lives downstairs. He grows suspicious
immediately, as every night he hears Jane opening the refrigerator door and
ecstatically moaning in the room above his. It transpires that Jane is keeping
her lover’s maggot-ridden head locked in the freezer and taking it out each
night to have sex with. Things are complicated by the reappearance of Jane’s
demented young daughter, who investigates her mother’s nocturnal activities and
makes her discovery known though extremely devious means (involving a bowl of
specially cooked soup, a severed body part and a certain article of jewelry).
Likewise, there’s a nasty discovery in store for the blind man, as not all is as
it seems…
The Direction
In MACABRE Lamberto Bava eschews
gore and sleaze, the standard ingredients of most Italian horror movies, in
favor of a surprisingly restrained aura of muted terror and perverse eroticism
(this probably explains why the film, well done though it is, was a box office
flop). The subject matter is as morbid as can be imagined, but the film itself
is a classy affair made with real skill and cunning. It also benefits from a
fearless lead performance by the voluptuous and seductive Bernice Stegers
(previously seen in Fellini’s CITY OF WOMEN), who makes her character’s
unnatural desires seem disturbingly convincing.
Yet MACABRE has some annoyances, most of which can probably be blamed on
the lowbrow tendencies of the Italian horror industry. The tacky faux-romantic
score is horrendous, all but ruining the subtle atmosphere, as is the awful
English dubbing, a standard Italian movie practice here rendered more
aggravating by the laughably phony Southern accents. The ending is also
unsatisfying, packed as it is with a lot of gratuitous bloodletting in an
apparent effort to appease gorehounds (most such viewers would likely have
abandoned the film by that point), and a supernaturally tinged final shot that I
found plain silly.
Vital Statistics
MACABRE (a.k.a. MACABRO; FROZEN TERROR)
Medusa Distribuzione
Director: Lamberto Bava
Producers: Gianni Minervini, Antonio Avati
Screenplay: Lamberto Bava, Pupi Avati, Antonio Avati, Roberto Gandus
Cinematography: Franco Delli Colli
Editing: Piera Gabutti
Cast: Bernice Stegers, Roberto Posse, Stanko Molnar, Verónika Zinny, Ferdinando
Orlando, Fernando Pannullo, Elisa Kadiga Bove