Wizard-8 After watching this movie, I kind of find it hard to believe that two American distributors apparently thought well enough of it to release it twice to American audiences. Before I get any further, I feel I should say that this really isn't a BAD movie, just a kind of disappointing one. There is some genuine merit to be found in the movie. Though low budget, it spends its limited funds wisely. It is also often lit and photographed in ways that add some genuine atmosphere. Unfortunately, the movie is saddled with an inadequate screenplay. True, it adds some twists near the end, but before then the movie is very slow-moving and downright boring at times. For example, the body count in the first hour of the movie is a mere ONE person. If the story had been more fast moving and more eventful, we might have had something here. But as it is, while it isn't really a bad movie, it is disappointing.

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.

bkoganbing The Murder Mansion is your basic Eurohorror film, a Spanish production in this case. Some seemingly random, then it turns out not so random group of guests wash up on a stormy night at a Gothic Mansion where a woman and her chauffeur were killed in a car crash years ago. But they seem to be a pair of lively ghosts going around causing all kinds of mayhem. Especially the chauffeur who in years gone by would have been played by Tor Johnson or in the previous generation Rondo Hatton.No need wasting your time with the names of the players none of whom will be familiar to American audiences. I'd pass this one right by folks, right by.

Zeegrade The giallo genre is synonymous with gloved madmen, creepy music, gruesome murders, and female nudity. Murder Mansion lacks all of these traits and comes off as movie of the week fare. Think Giallo-lite. It's a shame too because this movie features some beautiful women, Lisa Leonardi as backpacker Laura, Analia Gade as mentally unstable Elsa, and Ida Galli, billed here as Evelyn Stewart as the housekeeper/vampire/conspirator Martha Clinton. The comparisons to Scooby-Doo are numerous on this page and none of them are unwarranted. The plot begins as five travelers are forced to stay the night in a mansion that was supposedly owned by a witch complete with undead followers. We eventually learn that all is not as it appears and the real motives are finally addressed with lackluster results. Let me state for the record that I personally don't believe that Murder Mansion is a poor movie. I'm more disappointed in what it lacks than the content itself which at times is well acted. The murders are beyond tame ranging from a lame heart-attack to an anonymous hanging woman that bears no meaning to the plot. Some scenes hint at showing the lovely figures of the aforementioned ladies yet only provide nude backs and nothing more. Come on! I'm not a Mormon for God's sake! It does supply hot vehicle juxtapositioning action as the movie begins with a four-and-a-half plus minute montage of lane changing madness! Zoinks! You can do better than this scare free flick.