Leandro Lucchetti - Bloody Psycho

Leandro Lucchetti tribute week...part 3!  Bloody Psycho is one of my favorite little Eurosplat titles-and I actually reviewed it again this past October. So, I'm cheating a bit-but here is that post again, slotted in to the Lucchetti love zone! 


CINE DUCK STRIKES AGAIN!
Now if that is not one of more absurd sounding headlines I've blurted out while writing this blog over the years I'm not sure what is. Never the less I speak the truth here. Cine Duck is a production company and you can find this esteemed name on several "Lucio Fulci Presents" films from the late 80s. The common theme among most of those films are the producer pairing of Antonio Lucidi and Luigi Nannerini. They may not have always whipped out the Duck name, but they paired up for every Fulci film from Touch of Death up until Voices From Beyond.

The Lucio Fulci Presents series are some of the films that were chopped in to CAT IN THE BRAIN as well as the other Nannerini/Lucidi films such as Ghosts of Sodom and Touch of Death in case you are curious it would seem this series included the following films... Massacre, The Murder Secret (I love this film!), Escape From Death (one I have as Bloody Moon), Hansel and Gretel (which is similar to Sweet House of Horrors in a lot of ways) and our subject for today...BLOODY PSYCHO!

Now, I'll be honest, this can't be a completely thorough review because I have yet to find this film in English or responsibly subtitled anywhere. But that hasn't stopped me from watching it at least 3 times over the years. So I can fill you in on what exactly keeps bringing me back to this cheap little movie at the very least. Way back when Cat In The Brain was first released I was utterly obsessed with finding all the source films because they had to be the most amazing gore films ever made...right? Well, maybe not but it made for some interesting correspondence with Craig Ledbetter in particular and I did find them all. The chase was more exciting than the capture as usual, but Bloody Psycho has always intrigued me. Aside from brief appearances by Paul Muller and Vasili Karis there is a very unfamiliar cast which just enhances the curiosity value I find.

Here is what I know. A doctor of some kind of metaphysical energy moving science is brought in to a spooky castle to service and wave hands over a weird wheelchair bound woman and her even weirder maid. The maid may have a doppelganger, as may our hero. Trust me, by the double twist ending you'll be as confused as I am. So, we know our man is serious because he does some kind of crazy tai chi routine, but out of nowhere he sees a hand wielding a knife swinging his name via a vision. The alternate title (listed as U.S. on IMDB?) is THE SNAKE HOUSE and you can see why in this still.

So, the energy shifting biz isn't all it is cracked up to be I guess. Especially in oddball castles. But if you think the set up is really basic and simple you would be right. Then it gets weird....really weird. The client may be a zombie? I don't know...but I have to say the make-ups are cool as hell friends. Worth the price of admission I hate to think it may be this element alone that has me owning multiple copies of this movie.


I mean look at that. The legs alone appear to be biological hockey pads gone through a meat grinder. Just gross, and I mean that with the utmost respect.


The above is really quick, but we are to believe that wheelchair zombina drowns this person. How this is even possible is a mystery, but who cares? Look at that zombie. Yes, I'm just drooling over the creature, but I've gone to great lengths to enjoy a good monster-I've got Howard The Duck on DVD. Also, the below GWARRRRGH really works.



GAH! At this point in the film I'm totally lost by the way. Our hero falls for the woman above, before she reveals her little skin condition. This seems to drive him away though, or so we think...because here it comes! THE ZOMBIE!!

I'm going to reveal the big twist, but after our hero "wakes up" or steps sideways in reality or something that may involve all that tai chi he makes his happy escape with the blond whose case of putrid pulchritude seems to have cleared up. But remember that vision? From the tai chi session? Well, all is made clear for NO reason at the end. When this happens is something I have no clue, but maybe this is a remake of Blade Runner and the main characters have been replicants? No idea...


Now, I've been joking around a lot, but Bloody Psycho brings me back whenever I feel like watching something really obscure. Maybe it is the score, yet another synthetic concoction that always makes my toes tap-this time by Lanfranco Perini. Certainly not a household name, Perini is a familiar composer to those that trawl the lower end of the European Action Cinema of the 80s covered in Tough To Kill. Those CyWarrior beats will live in infamy!
Director Leandro Lucchetti is an interesting figure as well. Not only did he direct this, but also the very good and mucho sleazo Women In Prison film Caged Women, the lame Apocalypse Mercenaries (reviewed in Tough To Kill), Getting Even (with Richard Roundtree) and is also listed as one of the authors on the Klaus Kinski film Nosferatu in Venice. Not exactly prolific, but certainly left his mark on bottom feeders of the Euro scene....like me.