Chase_Witherspoon While it lets you off the hook too easily, there's still some moments of genuine suspense that should keep you engaged for the duration of this Spanish-Italian co-production. A group of motorists become lost in a fog and seek shelter in an isolated mansion nearby a cemetery. The gracious host (Galli) explains that the mansion belongs to her family and is allegedly cursed by the deaths of her aunt and a chauffeur following a tragic accident many years before. Unable to make it to Milan, the group accepts the kind invitation to stay the night, but will they survive to see morning? Yes and no.Galli is a stunning woman and her appeal is palpable, but she has little to do except be a courteous host, while Gade in the central role, does a reasonable job with her emotionally traumatised character, haunted by events involving her father years before (even if the emphasis on these events and her character seem to be trivial in retrospect). Franco Fantasia might be a recognisable face to some, and he adds some colour as a tail-chasing cuckold, barely surviving his mid-life crisis clutching at a hip flask and clumsily attempting to bed the fellow female guests. Finally, Leonardi as the young hitch-hiker is also very easy on the eyes, and unlike Galli, has more meat to her character, playing a plucky and sexy heroine.The make-up effects aren't bad, there's some spooky atmosphere at times and disconcerting encounters with apparently un-dead fiends, but the climax really - in my opinion - doesn't do the narrative, or film, justice. While it's unexpected, it's equally unsatisfying and diminishes the overall experience. Not terrible, but disappointing.

evanston_dad This minor and bargain-bin budget entry in the "travelers gathered in creepy mansion" genre is surprisingly good and effective.A bunch of characters wind up spending the night in a Gothic home near a cemetery, where legends about the undead abound. The film isn't very adept at introducing us to these people in a way that makes it clear who they are and how they're related to one another, but the only thing that's important anyway is that one of them is the wealthy wife of a dissatisfied husband with serious daddy issues and a history of nervous breakdowns. She's convinced that she saw a giant man dressed as a butler joined by an old woman lurking in the cemetery, a story that the hostess is only too happy to corroborate with her own tales about the dark and eerie history that surrounds the place. People start dying, a couple of the more curious house guests suspect that something's afoot and go investigating, and there you have your movie.By the time the film is over, it's more mystery than horror movie, but it's fairly cleverly plotted for the kind of movie it is, and it does manage to effect a couple of genuinely creepy moments. Keep in mind that this is super low budget obscure cinema we're talking about here, so everything is relative, but within that narrow definition, this film isn't half bad.Listed at IMDb as "Maniac Mansion," but the version I saw was titled "Murder Mansion."Grade: B

vegeta3986 This is the first movie on a set of 50 that i bought, and let's just say, we're not off to a good start. "The Murder Mansion" (as i bought it as) is many things. Confusing, boring, but by no means is it a horror film. It reminded me more of a heist movie than it did of a horror movie. and that's not a good thing.One of the biggest problems this movie had was that for the first hour nothing really happened. people talked (obviously dubbed by a lot of British people btw) a lot of flashbacks to when one of the main girls was in college despite the fact that she looked the same age in the flashback just with a shirley temple haircut, and a lot of sex (offscreen of course because that would make the movie interesting) When the characters are introduced i confuse them a LOT. i don't know who's who for the whole thing. they're very interchangeable and i don't know what's going on. one of the guys just vanishes for some reason, some girl's ex lover comes back for some reason all under the cover of a murderous scooby doo theme. i don't know WHY these people were killing people, all i know was it was very confusing. This movie is something that all horror movies shouldn't be. tremendously boring. the murder scenes come completely out of nowhere and one dude just dies from seeing a woman in a bad old lady mask. then again, maybe i'd have a heart attack too if i had to be in this stinker of a movie.There were also some interesting Day to Night shots when the film was obviously shot in the day but filtered for the night. and there was at least one scene when it was obviously daytime in the cemetery but they tried to pass it off as night. and it looked STUPID. If you're looking for a fun time at a horror movie, this isn't one. if you DO want to see this movie for the little but of fun it has, skip to 50 minutes in. here's all you need to know. people go to haunted house because of fog. people talk. there. now you're up to speed.one last thing. one of the weird things i noticed about this movie is that the main girl (at least i think she was) turns down this guy who wants to sleep with her after she gives him a ride saying "what kind of girl do you think i am?" so she decides to ride with another guy. yet later that night, she sleeps with the second guy who gives her a ride. so...she doesn't sleep with strangers who outright say "let's have sex" she only has it with strangers who DON'T say they want it. cause that makes sense. i don't know, maybe she has a thing for mustaches. whatever. that bugged me and it was stupid.The pacing of this movie is very poorly done. it's too boring for too long. there's a lot of info you DON'T need to know, and i assumed they were trying to go with some personal demon fightings with this one girl, but in the end it looked stupid.so you know what? unless you have it on the chilling classics 50 pack, don't bother watching it, it's not worth it. but if you really want to, the last 20 minutes aren't horrible, it's just confusing as all hell. So in conclusion, the murderous mansion gets 2 random dead people, out of 10.

inspectors71 After reading some of the comments about 1972's The Murder Mansion, I came to the conclusion that there must be a version of this Spanish/Italian production that has good acting, an interesting script and plot, impressive camera-work and color, and a general feeling of competency.I got the other one, the 90-odd-minute, grade Z-minus, horrendously dubbed, amateur-hour horror, along with the other cheap stuff I picked up at the dollar store.Oh, well. The flip side of the disk had How Awful About Allan, which made up for this cinematic foolishness.And I got an eight-pack of triple-A's for a buck, too!