Raro Video
All Region DVD
Web: http://www.raro-video.com
The Cold Blooded Beast, La Bestia uccide a
sangue freddo also known as Slaughter Hotel is an outrageous exploitation
slasher from 1971. The setting is a palatial castle where rich woman with
emotional and psychiatric problems go for rehabilitation and relaxation. The
clinic is up-market with an individual member of staff assigned to each
patient, lots of good wine, food and very personal attention. The patients are
offered massages, sports and all manner of luxury as well as therapy.
The patients currently in house range from
a nymphomaniac whose desire for her brother is thwarted and hence lusts after
any male she meets to a wife with homicidal rage. There is a young suicidal woman and various
others. The doctors and staff are notably strange including Dr.Clay played by
Klaus Kinski who seems to have a very special relationship with one of the
patients and a nurse who has a rather spirited lesbian affair with the girl in
her charge.
The Cold Blooded Beast is explicit in both
sex and violence. The nudity and sex borders on the XXX with very clear
close-ups of masturbation and lesbian scenes. We are treated to a wide range of
erotic content as the masked killer stalks the institution killing with various
weapons which happen to be on hand ranging from a scythe and axe to an Iron
Maiden ! This combination of sex and violence certainly makes the film an
interesting ride, though I am not especially sure it adds a lot to the
character development or plot.
There are some twists and turns and at
first you are unsure of the identity of the killer as a number of the husbands
are possible candidates. However, the film does not build much suspense and
while the climax is impressively bloody, as a whole it is not especially
successful.
As an exploitation film taking the slasher
genre to the next level with graphic nudity and sex, it does what it sets out
to do. While non European slashers tend to be coy about adult content, The Cold
Blooded Beast takes a truly “European” approach to the subject and is hence a
rather entertaining interpretation of the slasher genre, but it seems to do so
to the detriment of suspense, plot and character development. That is not to say it is not fun for what it
is, but don’t expect too much.
This review will appear in Volume 2:1
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
If you came to this page directly (and
missed our menu), click here
to go to the Synergy Magazine front page. (http://www.synergy-magazine.com)