La bestia uccide a sangue freddo

Plot synopsis:
On a dark evening, a person wearing a hood and dark cloak approaches a large rural villa which has been converted into an asylum. The person admires some antique weapons on a wall, selects an axe and heads upstairs. In one room, an apparently agitated Cheryl is tossing and turning in her bed. She presses the buzzer for the attendants, the lights come on and the person runs away.The next morning, Ruth is being driven to the clinic. Ruth's husband, who is driving, her tells her to think of her stay there as a vacation and that she can be back with the children. Ruth in an apparent suicide attempt, grabs the wheel and tries to run them off the road.At the clinic, as a few attendants an patients play croquet in the front yard, Helen, a nurse, talks to resident Mara and tells her that she seems to be improving, She says she is there to help Mara, like a friend.Ruth is dropped off as a man leads her into the building. She tries to whack him with a heavy stick but is stopped.Meanwhile, Dr. Francis Clay asks Dr. Austin about the possibility of Cheryl being cured. Outside, Anne tries to follow the gardener, who is walking away from the clinic, but she is called back by Austin, who talks to her of her "impulsive" and "excessive" sexual desires.Mr. Hume, Cheryl's husband, talks of a company needing Cheryl back and of her return in one week. Francis says that Cheryl's suicidal urges may relapse, but Hume thinks that his wife only needs some rest.Meanwhile, Anne talks to Peter; he has been told by the doctors that she is getting better. Anne says that no one can calm her "passions" like Peter, but Peter is evidently not as sexually interested in the way that Anne seems to remember.Later that evening, as the attendants and patents sit in a room to mingle and play cards and board games, Anne sneaks out the front door and runs to the greenhouse. The hooded and cloaked person is outside, and after nurse walks by (seeing and ignoring the person), she is beheaded with a scythe.Anne sees the gardener, takes off all her clothes, approaches him and seduces him into having sex with her. Meanwhile, Helen goes to Mara's room and tells her that she can join the others if she wants and says that she will check on her later. Dr. Austin is told that Anne is missing, and the attendants go to find her.Cheryl asks Francis if, when outside, she will be like she was before, and the doctor tells her that she has been cured. Cheryl asks to see Francis afterwards.After having sex with Anne, the gardener tells her that she must leave for he will suffer the consequences of their tryst. Anne does not want to leave, so the gardener smack her. Anne hits him back, calmly puts her clothes back on and leaves. She walks over and kisses the male attendants that find her until Austin calls her to stop.The killer goes back inside the clinic, gets a knife, and unlocks Ruth's door as she sleeps. The knife is places in her hand, as the killer takes off his hood and Ruth awakens. She goes for the killer with the knife, but gets knocked aside and her hands are taken and put around the killer's throat (with his face still unseen). The killer then chokes her and stabs Ruth in the chest.Dr. Austin looks around the hallway with a flashlight and finds Helen, who says that she heard a noise. A chauffeur enters the building and drinks all of the drinks leftover from the get-together. After looking around, the killer shows up and pushes the chauffeur into an iron-maiden-esque device, and his blood pours out.The killer walks around with a sword and angrily hits on the bed in Cheryl's empty room. Cheryl meets with Francis in the hallway and they leave together.Mara listens to a radio and takes a bath. Helen enters the room, strips to her underwear, and helps wash Mara for a while.Francis and Cheryl talk of their potential relationship, and he leaves to "do the rounds".The killer walks into Anne's room, shuts her window, and takes off his hood. Anne's eyes open, she sees the killer standing over her bed and asks him to lie down next to her. The killer chooses instead to axe her to a bloody death.In Mara's room, she dances a bit for Helen to a song on the radio. As Mara looks out of her window, the killer fires a crossbow at hits Marta in the neck with an arrow, killing her instantly. Helen screams and a crowd gathers outside her door. Austin and Francis see the dead female and Austin tells an attendant not to let anyone in the room. The two doctors and Cheryl look around the building when they find blood on the antique weapons and discover the body of the chauffeur. Francis points out that the other sword from the display is missing and Austin finally calls the police, stating to the police commissioner that the killer is still inside the clinic.The police arrive and remove the bodies of Anne, Ruth, Mara and the other nurse from the area, but they are angry that Dr. Austin moved some weapons and tried to keep the killings a secret (essentially "helping" the killer) thus making him an accessory after the fact. The police inspector suggests using Cheryl as bait, and Francis tries to get her to rethink the idea after she agrees to it.While all of the other clinic patents are moved into a single room for their own protection, Cheryl awaits in her room. The killer approaches with a rope to strangle where he removes his hood... finally revealing himself to be her husband Hume. The cops show up before he can finish strangling Cheryl and chase Hume around the building.Francis and Austin theorize that Cheryl's husband wanted to kill his wife for some time and he created the idea of a maniac spree killer to that no one would suspect him of Cheryl's murder. Hume knocks out two of the cops chasing him and upon running into a room to hide, discovers all of the women patents in it. Hume goes on a brutal killing spree, killing every single woman in the room before the police run into the room and finally shoot Hume dead.

Tags: pornographic, cruelty, murder, cult, horror, violence, romantic, sadist

Review:
This was particularly obvious in the Italian Giallo, a genre that emerged in those years from the traditional Italian horror film and the German Edgar Wallace thrillers.Here we have a typical example of the genre: a serial killer is on the loose , we see gruesome and gory (but stylish) killings that do not reveal the identity of the murderer, have some sex thrown in at good measure, and are finally rather disappointed when the murder mystery is solved.Asylum Erotica is set in a mental hospital for the very rich, on some isolated location in the countryside.
The patients are busy having a good time, including the inevitable hanky -panky (come in Rosalba Neri as the resident nymphomaniac), when suddenly corpses are starting to pile up.
Klaus Kinski obviously phoned in his performance (long-distance with a very bad connection) and Rosalba Neri (aka Sarah Bay) is pretty much wasted.On the other hand, if you're looking for softcore porn, this movie is a relative masterpiece.
The scenes ofwith the nymphomaniac patient( the gorgeous Rosalba Neri) seducing everyone who comes across, mostly asylum staff members("I'm just a gardener!") and nurse having sex with another patient are the main selling points of the film.
A long-haired Klaus Kinski plays the doctor in charge of an isolated lunatic asylum.Of course the patients are all beautiful women with various sexual problems.And of course they're being killed off in various gruesome and sadistic ways.Writer/director Fernando Di Leo specialized in violent,sleazy mafia movies like "The Italian Connection" or "Mister Scarface"."Slaughter Hotel" is his only giallo,but it contains tons of sleaze and misogynistic violence.Euro-horror goddess Rosalba Neri is amazingly sensual as the resident nymphomaniac.Her sex scene with the gardener is hotter than hell.The film was originally released in Europe as "The Cold Blooded Beast".All the actresses including Rosalba Neri, Margaret Lee,Monica Stroebel,Jane Garret and Gioia Desideri are very attractive and provide lots of female flesh.There is obligatory lesbian sequence between Stroebel and Garret and strikingly sleazy Neri's masturbation scene.The action drags sometimes,but the climax is a suitably frenzied and audacious.Give this sleaze classic a look.10 out of 10..
In order to make "Slaughter Hotel" at least somewhat resemble to a giallo, director Fernando DiLeo also introduces a mad-raving murderer, typically dressed in black and using the institution's old-fashioned armory decoration as slashing tools.
The identity of the killer is absurd, the "shocking murders of 8 nurses!!!" is really really lame, the blood looks like Tabasco sauce, even the sex scenes are ridiculous.
First off, any film that casts Klaus Kinski as doctor in charge of the insane has got to be worth a watch, Di Leo gathers a decent cast of Giallo regulars that also includes Rosalba (Fingers) Neri, Margaret Lee Jane Garret and Monica Strebel, all of whom are happy to get their kit off and let their lustful needs be catered for by whatever means available, for this institution is rather lax in security and it would seem ethics, as staff and patients get together for regular steamy liaisons.
There is little in the line of a cohesive plot and as a viewer you won't even care about the identity of the killer, whose motives are left rather unclear when finally revealed, but this is a fun sleazy film, I didn't think I'd like it after about 15 minutes but it soon grew on me.
Ultimately, Slaughter Hotel falls into the same category of giallo as Renato Polselli's Delirium, i.e. it's basically a bad movie that sort of gets away with it by way of its unrestrained Euro grind-house excess..
AKA Slaughter Hotel, Italian giallo set in a country villa which is a clinic for rich, beautiful women with mental issues.
As with so many Italian movies from this era it is beautifully shot & having just seen this on blu ray (as Cold Blooded Beast) it really looked good.
Italian giallo movie set in a fine looking country villa which is a clinic for rich (and beautiful) women with mental health issues.
In fact, a good deal of the running time is devoted to exploitative erotic content featuring nymphomaniac Rosalba Neri and a lesbian relationship between a nurse and a black patient!
With respect to technique, the editing is particularly sloppy: sometimes it seems like the editor has fallen asleep on the job, with several scenes going on for much longer than is required (beginning with the very first scene of the killer prowling the asylum grounds - though before the credits had even rolled, more than just my brain cells had suddenly snapped to attention with the appearance of a fully naked Margaret Lee {one of my favorite Euro-Cult starlets} tossing and turning in bed; regrettably, this is her only nude scene in the entire film!); occasionally, however, there are disorientating tilted shots and a series of pointless - and irritating - rapid cuts of two converging locations (for instance, the killer approaching a victim's room); besides, we get all kinds of people having flashes to earlier scenes, but the shots are so randomly chosen as to make no sense whatsoever!The score, usually a prominent feature in a giallo, occasionally delivers but it's too uneven (the killer's theme is dreadful, for instance) to really count as a success; indeed, the only worthwhile element to the whole film is the casting of three Jess Franco alumni in the lead roles: the aforementioned Lee (despite the fact that her role doesn't give her much scope) and Neri (who, at least, gets to shed her clothes quite often and takes a shower memorably), and Klaus Kinski as an enigmatic and wild-looking doctor who becomes romantically involved with Lee - even if his contribution is a listless take-the-money-and-run turn, seemingly there only to serve as a red herring!
Sent to a mental facility, a young woman finds that the asylum is the setting of a rampage against the residents and staff at the hands of a maniacal killer and tries to find a way of setting things straight once the bloodbath begins turning up more victims.This here turned out to be quite the impressive and enjoyably trashy giallo.
Director Fernando Di Leo makes good use of his colour scheme, and every time the plot starts to get a bit dry - Rosalba Neri (in the role of a nymphomaniac, no less) and her beautiful female co-stars are always on hand to get their kits off.
The Giallo elements creep in by way of a serial killer going round murdering various members of the cast; but it's obvious that this film is more geared towards fans of exploitation.I can't deny that, really, this is a poor film; but it does everything that you want from Italian seventies cinema so well that it's difficult to hate it.
Wet-dream Rosalba Neri heads up a decent cast, which includes Klaus Kinski in one of his less memorable roles...but it hardly matters, as it's the women that lead this movie.
--After almost a year of obtaining examples of this long lost [and apparently soon to be resurrected] sex thriller I finally sat down with an old drinking buddy last night, assaulted an 18 pack of Molson's, and about halfway through we turned to Fernando diLeo's nasty little film for a couple of laughs, and it delivered.I say "nasty" only to play into the movie's sordid reputation.
Fernando diLeo chose an amusingly satisfactory angle that actually sounds like the premise for a porno film: A masked, ruthless killer runs amok at a "rest home"/insane asylum catering to sexually insatiable wealthy nymphomaniacs, all of whom are naturally a standout elite corps of Eurohorror's sex queens: Margaret Lee, Rosalba Neri, Jane Garret, with the always willing Monica Strebel on hand as a ravishingly gorgeous asylum staff member who gives new meaning to the term "Wet Nurse".
Eurohorror heavyweight [and frequent Italian sleaze co-enabler extraordinaire] Klaus Kinski plays the kind Professor Keller who has a haircut that makes him look like a member of Yes and is onscreen for maybe 15 of the movies 90 minutes or so of activity, during which [on the Gorgon tape, at least] he gets to smoke two or three cigarettes, speak a few lines of psychobabble, and have Margeret Lee fall in love with him.
A kewpie doll to those who can guess whom the killer turns out to be.This is one interesting asylum: the "guests" are free to come & go as they please -- although since the villa it is located in is in the middle of nowhere they are effectively trapped in a guilded cage -- and the delightful patients seem to spend the vast majority of their time playing croquet [which must have some subtextural meaning about knocking balls through hoops that I am missing], lounging around having cocktails & chatting with each other about their common ailments, luxuriating in bubble baths while helpful attractive female nurses soap their breasts for them, seducing the "good-meaning but gosh darn it he's a man" gardener, trying to initiate group sex encounters with the orderlies, smoking and endless supply of cigarettes, and above all else, masturbating.There is more masturbation in SLAUGHTER HOTEL than most straight-up porno movies.
Her striptease & sex scene in the greenhouse is probably the film's high point for me, and there was a sense of disappointment to her murder, since none of the surviving ladies was as interesting, and her genuine attempt to coaxe her murderer into at least screwing her first was perhaps the movie's most effective moment.
I also liked how diLeo was able to combine the elements of a gothic thriller with a lurid modern day sex picture so effortlessly: the scenes of the killer lurking around in the dark, selecting weapons and then having to scamper about to remain unnoticed had a nice quality to them that actually sort of put us in the killer's shoes, though one does wonder why a health clinic if any variety would have what seens to be an inexaustible supply of cigarettes for characters to puff away on so copiously, but whatever: 1971 Italy, everybody smoked.It's interesting to add as a footnote that none of the "Fernando deLio Scholars" whom I have queried about this movie to claim to be particularly fond of it, and all of us have expressed a dismay to each other at understanding why the film has such a violently ferverant cult following.
A murderous mystery maniac wearing a hood and cape brutally butchers staff and patients alike at a posh all female asylum run by Dr. Keller (the one and only Klaus Kinski sporting modish long hair).
Despite having heard of him for a number of years,I have somehow never got round to seeing a film by Fernando Di Leo.Taking a look at a DVD sellers page,I was pleased to spot an uncut edition of an early Slasher/Giallo hybrid that Di Leo had made,which led to me getting ready to check into the slaughter hotel.The plot:Credited with being the best doctor to treat mental illness, Dr. Francis Clay finds his mental hospital to get filled with women who are sent there by their husbands over stress-related issues.As Clay tries to treat the women in the best way possible,a masked stranger begins walking round the hospital killing patients & staff.View on the film:Whilst the rather graphic sex scenes with the gorgeous actresses create an alluring mood,co-writer/(along with Nino Latino) director Fernando Di Leo sadly destroys any offer of potential excitement by tugging every element of the movie to breaking point,with a terrible, feedback heavy psychedelic score from Silvano Spadaccino drying up any sense of mysterious tension,or steamy sexuality.Aiming for an episodic structure by focusing on a different patient every 10 minutes or so,the writers fail to give the characters the slightest distinctive feature,and also push the murder mystery plot right to the sidelines,which along with a very bored performance from Klaus Kinski,makes this hotel a terrible booking..
Utilising a variety of medieval weapons, that conveniently and rather unbelievably decorate the huge institution, the maniac proceeds to slice, chop and stab his way through the patients and staff.Hampered by a simple story and rather unimaginative deaths, The Cold-Blooded Beast isn't a particularly great giallo; but with a good cast (including Klaus Kinski) and a bevy of gorgeous hotties willing to shed their clothes at the drop of a hat, the film is still worth a watch if you enjoy sleazy Euro-horror.Director Fernando Di Leo wisely packs his otherwise unremarkable film with so much full nudity and soft-core sex that one can easily forgive the pedestrian plot and lacklustre kill scenes.
The women (who aren't exactly the shy and retiring type) all get nekkid at one point or another, and some of them are even kind enough to indulge in a spot of lesbianism, and, occasionally, graphic masturbation (at least in the uncut European version that I saw).Margeret Lee is drop-dead gorgeous as Cheryl, ultimate target of the killer, whilst scorching hot Rosalba Neri (French Sex murders, Amuck) stars as nymphomaniac Anne (who steals the show with a spot of explicit self-gratification).
Also unmissable are Jane Garret and Monica Strebel as a pair of rug-munchers who, in the film's funniest and most memorable scene, indulge in a spot of tribal dancing before getting down to business.Klaus Kinski isn't required to do an awful lot; he doesn't spend much time on screen and, thankfully, he keeps his clothes on.Although the violence in the film is fairly frequent and quite nasty in tone (an axe attack, a stabbing, a crossbow bolt through the neck, a body trapped in an iron maiden), the actual gore level is fairly low (we see quite a bit of blood, but not much else).
Towards the end of the film, things get a bit stronger and eventually when we are treated to a fabulous moment where the killer goes crazy with a mace and does away with a whole group of nurses in seconds.Shortly after this, he is shot to death by trigger happy police officers in a squib-tastic finalé.The Cold Blooded Beast gets a fairly decent 7/10 from me, for it's gratuitously sleazy vibe and for not worrying too much about letting a decent story get in the way of all of the sex and violence..
While the incredibly sleazy Giallo "La Bestia Uccide A Sangue Freddo" (1971) is certainly not most ingenious work in Di Leo's career, it is still a highly enjoyable film that my fellow fans of Sleaze-Horror should not miss.
Admittedly, "La Bestia Uccide A Sangue Freddo" has one of the most nonsensical and silliest plot lines ever in a Giallo (then again, the Giallo-genre is usually known for intelligent and convoluted plots), but it makes up for this with tons of stylish sleaze and gratuitous nudity from a gorgeous female cast, gory murders, Giallo-typical elegance, and the great Klaus Kinski in the role of a psychiatrist.
In spite of the plot being incredibly illogical and silly, this is an outrageously entertaining film, which does not get tiresome for a second.Kinski plays Dr. Francis Clay, a psychiatrist who leads a noble psychiatric facility set in a remote countryside château; all the patients happen to be hot women, including a gorgeous brunette nymphomaniac (Rosalba Neri), an equally gorgeous black chick (Jane Garrett) who suffers from amnesia, her gorgeous red-headed lesbian nurse (Monica Strebel), and others.
Klaus Kinski doubtlessly was one of the greatest and most charismatic actors who ever lived, and while this is probably one of the movies that he meant when he publicly (and frequently) despised his own films as being "s***", it is great to see this favorite actor of mine (who himself wasn't exactly known as the sanest person in the world) as a psychiatrist.
The score is good, but not too memorable by the high Giallo-standards.Overall, "La Bestia Uccide A Sangue Freddo" is doubtlessly one of the most nonsensical Gialli ever made, but The beautiful female cast, the constant sleaze, gore and elegance are easily enough to forgive the lack of logic and real suspense.
Sounds like the makings of a giallo to me...Asylum Erotica, as this film was embarrassingly titled when I bought it, hasn't really got much of a plot, but it's a fairly interesting giallo packed full of Euro-Babes and atmosphere, and daftness.
And the budding relationship between patient and nurse (another stunner), which is sadly cut short by a crossbow just before it was going to get interesting.It's not a pervy as the title suggests, just more of a mid-range giallo that keep you entertained through seventies sexual values (Rosalba Neri!), mild violence, and a pretty good, although stupid ending.Can be picked up for a quid in the UK - not sure if it was cut, but the pan and scan cropped the picture a bit..
Also known as 'Cold Blooded Beast' and 'Slaughter Hotel', 'Asylum Erotica' is a fairly enjoyable thriller/horror/whodunit involving a murderer lurking around the grounds of a stately mental hospital.
The violence, to be honest, is off-screen and edited in a fashion not to detail the kind of savagery that seems implied (to be honest, when Di Leo shows the results of the killer's savagery, they are less gruesome than it might appear, such as Rosalbi's fate).This film also features (much to my pleasure) a blossoming lesbian romance between a nurse (the gorgeous, petite red-head Monica Strebel)and her favorite patient, Mara, including a massage and bathtub rub-down, climaxing in a dance and brief, but titillating, love-making session.
Well, yes, this is a pretty bad Euro-sleaze picture that has liberal doses of blood and murder but far more nudity and sex.
The film has a pretty impressive cast from that era of "genre" stars like Klaus Kinski.
There is a hot, steamy shower scene with Neri, but hands down the most erotic aspects of the film deal with a bizarre relationship with Nurse Helen and patient Mara.
I have to confess, I bought this movie only for two reasons: Rosalba Neri and Klaus Kinski.